While watching James Harden demoralize Ricky Rubio and the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday, the only thing more incredible than his performance was the realization that a player averaging 27.3 points, 6.8 assists, 5.8 rebounds and two steals for a Houston Rockets team on a 55-win pace isn't a clear-cut MVP favorite.
That's because Stephen Curry is averaging nearly 24 points, eight assists, five rebounds and two steals on a 48-40-90 shooting split for the league-leading Golden State Warriors â a 43-10 juggernaut that performs more than 17 points per 100 possessions better with Curry on the court.
There's a four-time Most Valuable Player named LeBron James carrying a Cleveland Cavaliers team that is 2-8 without him to a 58-win pace when he's in the lineup.
There's a unibrowed 21-year-old enjoying one of the best statistical seasons in pro basketball history, keeping an overmatched New Orleans Pelicans team in the playoff race despite playing in one of the toughest conferences ever.
Oh, and Russell Westbrook is averaging 26 points, eight assists, six rebounds and two steals while leading an Oklahoma City Thunder team that's been without the reigning MVP for more than half the season.
Curry and Harden are the favorites, no doubt, but with a little more than a quarter of the season remaining, there are five legitimate MVP candidates. That should give NBA fans the best race they've seen in at least a decade.
MVP races, by nature, are hardly ever races at all. There's usually a clear-cut winner established by this point of the season, and at best, fans get a two-man race to fawn over and debate.
Look at recent MVP voting for proof. The last six winners (LeBron, Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant) combined to accumulate over 90 percent of first-place votes between 2009 and 2014. In fact, over the last eight years, the closest 'race' still saw Dirk Nowtizki take home 83 of 129 first-place votes in 2007, with only three players receiving a first-place vote.
Steve Nash edged Shaquille O'Neal by only 34 total voting points in 2005, collecting 65 first-place votes to Shaq's 58 in the closest two-man race in recent memory, but even then, the other three players to receive first-place votes shared a measly four.
To find an MVP race that even approaches the competitive nature of this year's, one probably has to travel back to the 1989-90 season.
Magic Johnson finished only 22 voting points ahead of Charles Barkley to claim his third and final award. In addition, Johnson, Barkley and Michael Jordan finished with 27, 38 and 21 first-place votes, respectively, while seven different players received first-place votes, including Karl Malone, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon.
Whether the final tally is that tight when media members vote this spring remains to be seen, but a quarter-century after those Hall of Famers produced an MVP race for the ages, Harden, Curry, Davis, James and Westbrook have given a new generation of fans their own star-studded season to behold.
