Golden State’s Steph Curry said he think’s Houston’s James Harden will win the NBA Most Valuable Player Award over Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook.
TORONTO — Stephen Curry has won the past two MVP awards. Russell Westbrook doesn’t care much for his opinion on the current race.
On Thursday, Westbrook shrugged off the Warriors guard’s suggestion that the Rockets’ James Harden probably will win the award. Curry said on “The Dan Patrick Show” on Monday that if he had to choose an MVP this week he’d likely choose Harden.
“I don’t care,” Westbrook said at the Thunder’s shootaround. “It doesn’t matter what he says. Who is he?”
Patrick pressed him on the MVP, giving Curry the caveat that he couldn’t pick a Warriors player.
Curry said he’d answer at the end of the season, but relented when asked who he, as a basketball fan, would pick at this point. He said he’d “probably” pick Harden and predicted the vote will go that way at season’s end.
“It’s probably not much as value, it’s just you have to award the better team, record-wise, as it’s kind of gone in the history of the MVP award,” Curry told Patrick. “So I think James will probably edge him out just off of that.”
The Rockets entered Thursday with a 47-21 record. The Thunder was 38-29 entering Thursday’s game against the Raptors at Air Canada Centre.
Both Westbrook and Harden are having historic seasons. Harden, a former Thunder player, is averaging 28.9 points and a league-leading 11.3 assists. Westbrook leads the NBA in scoring at 31.8 points per game and is averaging 10.6 rebounds and 10.3 assists. He’s trying to become the first NBA player since Oscar
Robertson in 1961-62 to average a triple-double.
Donovan ‘totally happy’ in OKC
When Billy Donovan was the coach at Florida, his name would pop up anytime a college basketball blue blood was shopping for a coach.
He’s almost two seasons into his NBA career, and sometimes it still happens. Indiana fired coach Tom
Crean on Thursday after nine seasons at the school. Since long before that happened, there’s been speculation that the Hoosiers might one day pursue Donovan, who won the 2006 and 2007 NCAA championships at Florida.
But Donovan said before the Thunder’s game against the Raptors Thursday night that he’s enjoying life with Oklahoma City.
“I am totally happy here,” Donovan said. “I love it here. I love the guys I work with every day. I love our staff, the organization. As far as I’m concerned, my commitment is totally here and doing the best job I can while I’m here.”
Donovan has known Crean since the two started their college coaching careers as graduate assistants, Donovan at Kentucky and Crean at Michigan State. He was disappointed Thursday afternoon to hear the news of Crean’s dismissal. He said pregame that “when you’re in the coaching profession, you always feel bad when that happens to somebody.”
Hype men
Don’t expect the Thunder to mail promotional bobbleheads, but Thursday offered a glimpse into the team’s strategy for promoting its point guard for MVP.
Think viral. Stache Brothers Steven Adams and Enes
Kanter appeared in a teamproduced video in which — in a fireside chat sporting matching blue blazers — they discuss their fondness for Westbrook. In the video, Adams asks Kanter, “What’s the only thing we love more than our mustaches?” After Kanter offers options including puppies and “The Notebook,” Adams counters that the answer is “Our leader, our hero, our fashion icon, our King of the Prairie, Russell Westbrook.”
The video concludes with a string of Westbrook highlights over a chant of “M-V-P” and Adams announcing, “We are the Stache Bros, and we approve this message.”