It won’t be long now until James Harden completes the journey, until he strides to a podium in Houston and receives his hard-earned Most Valuable Player award. Harden is a wonderful player. He has produced yet another fabulous season. It seems inevitable by now he will exit with his first MVP trophy.



But it won’t be unanimous.



I’m voting for LeBron James.



As someone who has held an MVP vote more years than not in the past decade, one of my great professional fears is 20 years from now, we look back on James’ magnificent career and wonder how it’s possible the greatest player of his generation — arguably the greatest of all time — could retire with only four MVP trophies.



That in itself isn’t reason enough to vote for him. The MVP isn’t meant as a career achievement award. But it does demand us to take a deep look at James every spring and make sure we can justify not voting for him.



James...