The NBA MVP race this year is so close that there is not yet a clear winner.

Earlier this year the race did include Paul George from the Oklahoma City Thunder and Stephen Curry from the Golden State Warriors, however, despite their wonderful seasons so far the race is clearly between James Harden from the Houston Rockets and Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks.

Currently Giannis is at the number one spot on the KIA MVP ladder and James Harden is close behind him in second. There are some reasons for why both of these candidates are in the spot they are in right now and the others below them do not matter.

He can take 2 steps from the half court line and be at the basket, he will dunk on your favorite player, sag off of him all you want, you can’t stop him from getting to the bucket. The Greek Freak is unstoppable! Giannis has led the Milwaukee Bucks to the best record in the NBA of 60-22, tying the 3rd best record in Bucks history. After having a 44-38 record last year, Giannis led the Bucks to a stellar year averaging 27.7ppg 12.5rpg 5.9asp on an incredible 57.8 field goal percentage. He was the league’s leading scorer for points in the paint on the season and his 2 point field goal percentage was an outstanding 76.1%. Giannis Antetokounmpo has had a monster season and has now been honored with the nickname as the new “Superman” by the original “Superman” himself, Shaquille O’Neal, for being so dominant and unstoppable. This is a pretty big deal, especially since it came from the  From a lanky and scrawny 6’9” 196 pound rookie to a 6’11” 242 pound unstoppable beast all the way from Athens, Greece Giannis lives up to the name “The Greek Freak” and has proved he is worthy of being MVP this year.

On the other side of the MVP race there is the bearded man, James Harden. Did he travel or not? Who cares he just hit 4 step back three’s in a row and all in your grill. Arguably one of the best isolation player to ever to step on the court who solely will be the entire offense for the team and win. The real reason why James Harden is not first in the KIA race to the MVP ladder is because he has led the Houston Rockets to only 4th place in the Western Conference and the 6th best record in the NBA compared to Giannis’ leading his Milwaukee Bucks to the best record in the league. The Rockets faced injury this year including their co-star Chris Paul who missed 24 regular season games, however, Harden led the team to 4th in the Western Conference by putting up 36.1ppg 6.6rpg and 7.5apg on 44.2% shooting. 36.1ppg is the highest scoring average since Kobe Bryant in ‘05 who averaged 35.4ppg. His monumental accomplishments don’t stop there! Harden scored more than 50 points 9 times this year and it is the most since Kobe Bryant’s ‘06 season where he had 10 games where he scored 50 or more. Harden also had a 32 game streak of scoring more than 30 points per game that hasn’t been done since Wilt Chamberlain in ‘61 who had a streak of 65 games. To top one of the greatest scoring seasons by and NBA player, Harden was the first player in league history to score at least 30 points against every team in a single season. Despite all of Harden’s never before seen accomplishments he still finished 2nd on the KIA race to the MVP ladder, but it was definitely more than enough for him to be named this year’s potential MVP for his second consecutive year.