In an Instagram Live session with basketball skills coach and consultant Pep Stanciel, Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum said Wednesday that he thinks the wrong player won the NBA’s MVP award last season.
Rather than Milwaukee forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, Tatum says the award should have gone to Houston Rockets guard James Harden.
Here’s how the exchange went between Stanciel and Tatum, who also said he believes Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James should win the 2019-20 season’s MVP award over Antetokounmpo.
Tatum: James Harden should have won MVP last year.
Stanciel: They’ve been robbing him for five straight years now!
Tatum: I’m not going to say five, but he definitely should have won back-to-back MVPs.
Jayson Tatum on James Harden: “James Harden should have won MVP last year…He definitely should have won back-to-back MVPs.” #Rockets pic.twitter.com/OuTVFFYT9G
— Alykhan Bijani (@Rockets_Insider) April 8, 2020
In the video, Tatum also picked Harden as the NBA’s best shooting guard. Since the calendar flipped to 2018, Harden’s Rockets have won all five head-to-head meetings against Tatum’s Celtics.
Harden, the league’s 2017-18 MVP, averaged a career-high 36.1 points per game last season to go with 7.5 assists and 6.6 rebounds. That total included the second-longest streak of consecutive 30-point games (32) in NBA history, which helped Houston go 42-15 over its final 57 games.
Meawhile, Antetokounmpo averaged 27.7 points, 12.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.5 blocks. The “Greek Freak” led the Bucks (60-22) to the league’s best record, and he made the NBA All-Defensive First Team. Both Antetokounmpo and Harden were named to the All-NBA First Team.
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