James Harden and Russell Westbrook both had incredible, historically significant seasons last year. Of course, only one of them could win MVP, and it went to Westbrook, who became the first player since the 1961-62 season to average a triple-double. Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets, was presumably unhappy that his superstar placed second in the voting. He spoke to Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated about the voting process:
In a phone interview Saturday, Rockets GM Daryl Morey raised questions about the MVP voting process, which involves a panel of 100 media members casting their votes at the end of the regular season.
“I don’t know if this is a good process,” Morey told The Crossover. “The ones that are decided by players or executives or media, they all have their strengths and weaknesses. I honestly don’t think there’s a good process. You could argue for eliminating the awards altogether. I don’t really see a good way to do it that doesn’t have major issues. I like clean answers. If there’s not going to be a set criteria and there’s going to be issues with how it’s structured, for me it might be better to not have it.”
2017 was the second time that Harden placed second in MVP voting. He also finished runner-up to Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry in 2015, for very different (some might say hypocritical) reasons. Morey’s vexation largely stems from the contrasting logic behind Harden’s losses just two years apart. Golliver explains:
In 2015, some analysts argued for Curry over Harden because Golden State had a superior record. In 2017, Harden’s Rockets won 55 games, easily surpassing the Thunder’s 47 wins. Back in April, prior to the official MVP vote, Morey wrote on Twitter that basketball “is losing its focus on winning” before appearing to take a subliminal shot at Westbrook’s rebounding numbers.
“We thought James was the MVP but there were a bunch of very good, deserving candidates,” Morey continued, before making an apparent reference to Westbrook’s triple-double achievement. “I didn’t like how a different MVP criteria was used this year, compared to the last 55 years, to fit more of a marketing slogan. People thought a different criteria for selecting the MVP this year was the way to go.”
Morey thinks that, if these new criteria continue to be used, the Rockets’ addition of Chris Paul won’t help either Paul or Harden win the award:
“Given that the criteria seems to be shifting away from winning, I would guess that [adding Paul] probably doesn’t help anyone’s chances on our team,” Morey acknowledged. “That said, I don’t think anybody really cares [going forward]. James definitely cared and I think we all cared [about the 2017 MVP]. But we’ve moved on since the award isn’t focused on winning any more. Let’s just win and not worry about it.”
