As the NBA season enters March, the MVP race is heating up, and the two frontrunners so far are Stephen Curry and James Harden. So far, their teams have taken vastly different approaches to doing PR for the battle. Rockets GM Daryl Morey has been very vocal about Harden’s credentials, while the Warriors haven’t been so focused on lobbying for Curry to win. Golden State coach Steve Kerr took a shot at the Rockets’ campaign on Thursday:
This back-and-forth is an extension of the one that took place last weekend at the Sloan Conference between Morey and Warriors GM Bob Myers. Morey pointed out that the Rockets would be “nowhere” without Harden, and Myers countered that Golden State had beaten Houston four times and had a better record.
Kerr on not pushing MVP: “If Daryl Morey wants to run his own 1 man campaign for James Harden he can do that. We’re focused on other stuff.”
— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) March 5, 2015
This back-and-forth is an extension of the one that took place last weekend at the Sloan Conference between Morey and Warriors GM Bob Myers. Morey pointed out that the Rockets would be “nowhere” without Harden, and Myers countered that Golden State had beaten Houston four times and had a better record.
Truthfully, Curry and Harden both have strong MVP cases, but they aren’t the only ones in the conversation. Russell Westbrook has been playing out of his mind in February, keeping the Thunder in the playoff hunt with Kevin Durant hurt and averaging a near triple-double for the month. And LeBron James has looked like his usual self since a two-week layoff earlier in the season.
The winner of the award won’t be decided by one person’s lobbying, but it’s been interesting to watch the differences in their approaches.