NBA: James Harden Blames 'Media Narrative' For Losing 2019 MVP Race

James Harden won the 2018 Kia MVP award after averaging 30.4 points and 8.8 assists and was among the favorites to win his second consecutive award in 2019 but missed out to Giannis Antetokounmpo. He has finally opened up about his loss and believes it was the “narrative” created by the media that saw him lose out on the regular season MVP award.

The Houston Rockets point guard was impressed with his 2018-19 campaign and described it as “one for the books” but believes the narrative the media created from the start of the season was mainly the reason he was not voted the best regular season player. The Rockets lost to the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference playoff semifinals.

"Once the media, they create a narrative about somebody from the beginning of the year, I think they just take that narrative and just run with it the entire year," Harden said during the in-studio interview on 97.9 The Box. "I don’t want to get into details. All I can do is control what I can do, and I went out there and did what I was supposed to do at a high level. There’s only a few other seasons that anybody has ever done that before.”

On the points front Harden had a much better season than 2017-18 with an average of 36.1 points and 7.5 assists. He even went on a stretch of 32 games where he scored no less than 30 points in every game while averaging almost 40 points per game.

Harden’s 32 game streak of 30 points or over now only stands second on the list behind the legendary Wilt Chamberlain. Despite his record-breaking season, the Rockets guard had to settle for second place behind Giannis Antetokounmpo, who led the Milwaukee Bucks to top spot in the Eastern Conference with the team having the best record in the NBA this past season.

“People were tuned in to how many points I was going to score the next game,” Harden continued. “It was a thing. But I can’t control that. The only thing I can control is coming back next year and being better than I was, and winning a ‘ship'.”

The Rockets have been undone in the playoffs in the last three season by eventual finalists Warriors but they are again among the contenders from the West this season after adding another former MVP in Russell Westbrook from Oklahoma City Thunder.