Kyrie Irving believes LeBron James should have been the NBA's MVP in 2017-18, although he acknowledges James Harden was a popular choice.
Houston Rockets' Harden was handed the award on Monday after helping his team to the best regular season record in the league, while basketball great James, of the Cleveland Cavaliers, finished second in the voting.
Although Irving - once of the Cavs, now at the Boston Celtics - understands why Harden won, he would have gone for James after considering the statistics.
James, a four-time MVP, played 10 more regular season games, scored 60 more points, logged 320 more rebounds, made 117 more assists and shot almost 10 per cent more accurately than Harden last season.
"MVP is hard to gauge nowadays, because now you have the people's MVP and you have the NBA's MVP," Irving told radio station Hot 97.
"I think the people's MVP was definitely James [Harden], but the NBA MVP is definitely LeBron. If we're talking strictly based off stats, he checks every mark.
"He's incredible, he's incredible."
