Only two players, Wilt Chamberlain and James Harden, average more points than minutes.

Only two players, Wilt Chamberlain and James Harden, average more points than minutes.

It would be almost illegal to discuss the NBA’s top scorers without including James Harden, the outstanding player for the Houston Rockets.

The Beard is poised to win the scoring title for the third time in a row and is maybe one of the league’s top players ever. Harden’s 37.7 points per game this season are more than his 37.1 minutes per game. It’s a very difficult task that is genuinely miraculous. He is one of just two players in league history to average more points than minutes in a season (minimum of six minutes). Wilt Chamberlain is the other participant.

It’s simple to ignore what Harden is doing because he has made this kind of spectacle his standard.

James, 30, is scoring these ridiculous amounts with efficiency for his team (the Rockets have made the playoffs all but one season since his arrival in 2012) and for himself as he shoots 45% from the field. This is happening in the middle of a Western Conference that is in turmoil.

We haven’t seen The Beard act in this way since Wilt Chamberlain. Nothing will make Harden’s greatness more understandable to you than that.