Even though the entire basketball world knew James Harden was likely to win MVP at the 2018 NBA Awards on Monday, the Houston Rockets star didn't prepare a speech when he did. Instead, he gave a short, off-the-cuff statement, bringing his mother on stage and telling the audience that he didn't want to get too emotional. Asked why he did things this way, Harden referred to this time last year.

"I didn't see the difference between this year and last year," he said, per the Washington Post's Tim Bontemps. "I thought I should've won last year, as well."

Harden has a point. His former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate Russell Westbrook won the award for the 2016-17 season, a somewhat controversial result that doesn't look all that great in retrospect. At the time, Harden -- and Houston general manager Daryl Morey -- argued that he should have had the edge over Westbrook because of team success. Westbrook's Thunder won 47 games with a negative point differential and a below-average offense, while Harden's Rockets won 55 games with the league's third-best net rating and one of the most efficient offenses in NBA history.

We don't have to re-litigate the 2017 MVP race in great detail. Essentially, Westbrook won the award because of his extraordinary individual accomplishments: He averaged a triple-double for the first time since Oscar Robertson and had a number of memorable clutch performances. Harden made his teammates better in a way that Westbrook didn't, though, and he put up incredible numbers in his own right. I thought Harden should have won the award and San Antonio Spurs star Kawhi Leonard should have come in second, but hey, those triple-doubles made for a compelling story. 

Harden said that he has felt like he has been "knocking on the door" for this honor for the past four years, via the Salt Lake Tribune's Kyle Goon, and this is true. He finished second to Stephen Curry in 2015 and second to Westbrook in 2017. Regardless of whether or not you believe this hardware is overdue, he is now officially in rarefied air.