As the 2019-20 NBA regular season concludes Friday, Houston Rockets superstar James Harden is making history as just the third player in NBA history to lead the league in points and steals in the same season.
At more than 2,300 points scored, Harden will finish over 300 points ahead of the second-place finisher (Portland’s Damian Lillard, 1,978).
Meanwhile, at 124 steals (stat leaders), the only player within 10 of Harden was Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons (119) — who is most likely out for the rest of the season due to a knee injury.
With those accomplishments, Harden joins a pair of Hall of Famers in Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson as the only players to have ever led the league in points and steals in the same regular season. Iverson did it most recently in the 2004-05 season, while Jordan did it three times.
James Harden currently leads the league in total points and steals. If he finishes the season on top in both categories, he will become just the third player in NBA history to do so, joining Michael Jordan (3x) and Allen Iverson (2004-05).
— Justin Kubatko (@jkubatko) August 12, 2020
Now 30 years old, Harden is wrapping up another brilliant season in which he’s averaging 34.4 points, 7.5 assists, 6.6 rebounds, and 1.9 steals per game. He has led the NBA in scoring for three straight seasons, and he’s just the third player in league history to average at least 34 points in two different seasons, joining Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain.
Harden’s latest accomplishment as the leader in total points and steals also speaks to his remarkable durability. “The Beard” has played in 68 of Houston’s 72 games this season, and he’s never missed more than 10 games in any season of his 11-year career. Perhaps most impressively, Harden has remained durable even while taking on a more active role defensively in recent years, as shown in part by the steals number.
Harden has made the Western Conference All-Star team in all eight of his seasons with the Rockets, and he’s finished in the top three of the league’s MVP voting on five separate occasions during those eight years (2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020). He won the award in 2018.
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