James Harden was one of the NBA's most singular scoring forces during his run with the Houston Rockets from 2012 to '21, ultimately winning the NBA MVP award in 2018 after finishing as runner-up in '15 and '17.
That year, he beat out then-Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James, who after winning four league MVPs from 2009 through '13, has struggled to break through, with six top-four finishes (and four instances in which he received first-place votes).
Harden received 86 first-place votes and 965 points, well above James's 15 first-place votes and 738 points. One of those Harden voters, ESPN's Brian Windhorst, now regrets putting Harden above James that year. He brought up those regrets in a First Take segment about how impressive James's current age-40 campaign has been.
"I have a few regrets, O.K.? One of my regrets is in 2017–18, which was the last year LeBron played in Cleveland, that I didn’t vote for LeBron for MVP,” Windhorst said. “I just gave Harden all those flowers. Harden won the MVP that year and I voted for him for MVP and I do regret that vote. Because the longer I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realized how great LeBron was in this season.
"He was 33 years old. Kyrie [Irving] had been traded. And they were the four-seed. He played every game that year, 82 games, he led the league in minutes. His stats were very good, he's had better statistical seasons but his stats were very good. ... That season, I have an incredible amount of respect for, and I'm not even arguing it's the best ever—it's underrated."
ESPN's Brian Windhorst says that he regrets voting for James Harden over LeBron James for MVP in 2018.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 6, 2025
"The longer I've thought about it, the more I've realized how great LeBron was in this season." pic.twitter.com/5Rs9QuFPH7
Harden was the NBA scoring champion for the first of three consecutive years in 2018, averaging 30.4 points, 8.8 assists and 5.4 rebounds, shooting .449/.367/.858 on the year. James averaged 27.5 points, 9.1 assists and 8.6 rebounds that season. Harden's Rockets finished a Western Conference-best 65–17, while the Cavaliers went 50–32 and finished in fourth-place (though they'd ultimately reach their fourth-straight NBA Finals).
Windhorst went on to mention some of James's playoff heroics that year, and while they would certainly add to his argument, the award is entirely predicated on the regular season.
Even so, it remains pretty stunning that he hasn't won an MVP award in over a decade. That probably won't change in 2025, but he will likely end up on a lot of ballots. At 40, that is truly remarkable.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ESPN's Brian Windhorst Admits He Regrets Vote in 2018 James Harden-LeBron James MVP Race.
