No, James Harden was not robbed of the 2014-15 NBA MVP Award by a forgetful voter. The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Chris Haynes didn't cost the Rockets guard anything but a few meaningless points.
Warriors guard Stephen Curry ran away with the MVP voting, and Harden needed a whole lot more than one extra vote to compete.
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Still, Haynes' ballot somehow did not end up reflecting his true intention, to put Harden third, as he published on Cleveland.com shortly after submitting the official vote.
According to the results, I left James Harden entirely out of MVP Top 5. That was not my intentions.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) May 4, 2015Haynes' ballot instead reads:
- Stephen Curry, Warriors
- LeBron James, Cavaliers
- Anthony Davis, Pelicans
- Russell Westbrook, Thunder
- Chris Paul, Clippers
That's a perfectly reasonable ballot, but Harden probably earned his spot. Six players had remarkable seasons, as the final MVP voting showed.
This is not even the first time all awards season that such a slipup has been made. Jabari Young of Comcast SportsNet Northwest admitted that he completely forgot Warriors power forward Draymond Green on his Defensive Player of the Year Award ballot.
The difference here is that Haynes really thought he voted Harden third.
So no, he's not the enemy, Rockets fans. Somewhere in the process of ballot submission and counting, he punched the wrong chad.
