Via ESPN by Kirk Goldsberry -
It's time to admit that James Harden is the NBA's best scorer since Michael Jordan.
On Saturday night, Harden dropped 60 points on the Atlanta Hawks in less than three quarters of play. It was another virtuoso performance by the world's greatest offensive basketball player. Through 19 games, Harden is averaging an incredible 38.9 points per game and, barring injury, he's on pace to win his third consecutive scoring title, something only MJ and Kevin Durant have done in the 3-point era.
But the most stunning thing about Harden isn't his numbers -- it's his style. He's a rarity in pro basketball, regularly inventing new fundamentals. We haven't seen scoring numbers this big since a 23-year-old Jordan put up 37.1 PPG. Before that, the only comparison was Wilt Chamberlain's prime in the early 1960s. And Harden thrives much like Chamberlain did -- in the kinds of isolated one-on-one matchups that were supposed to be dead by now.
Hero ball is back and we owe it all Harden, whose offensive techniques are reforming the conventional wisdom of the modern NBA in real time. Very few people thought Harden would get even better and more productive following an incomprehensible scoring season in 2018-19. Ever after pairing up with Russell Westbrook, here is how Harden is doing things nobody else has ever done in ways that no one has ever even tried...
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