The National Basketball Association (NBA) is full of the best of some of the best basketball players in the world. Inside the NBA, there are multiple different awards given out to the biggest stand out players in whatever their respective category is for the award. The biggest award you can win as a player is being the association’s most valuable player (MVP).

Being an NBA MVP is a true honor to any athlete in the league, and this year the league is going to have a hard time finding just one true standout player. This year the top three candidates for MVP are the Houston Rockets guard James Harden, the Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook, and the Cleveland Cavaliers forward Lebron James.

All three of those players are outstanding and have been extremely exciting to watch, but Russell Westbrook is the league’s best candidate for MVP in my opinion. Westbrook is averaging 31.7 points per game, 10.0 assists per game, 10.6 rebounds per game, and 1.6 steals per game.

This year, Westbrook is averaging a triple-double and the season is more than halfway finished. A triple double is when a player averages double digits in three different categories, like for example Westbrook has double digits in points, assists, and rebounds.

Westbrook is impressive with these stats, because he will be the first person in the NBA since 1961-1962 when Oscar Robertson did it as well. Triple doubles are a rare thing to get once in a week, so for Westbrook to be able to do this on a nightly basis, it helps make him stand apart from the other candidates. This season, Westbrook has 30 triple doubles, and the next closest is James Harden, who only has 15 half of what Westbrook has.

Over the summer, Westbrook’s all-star teammate Kevin Durant left him with no other help, besides a bunch of role players. Instead of letting this affect him and hurt his team, Westbrook just stepped up and has played by far the best season of his career showing that he will fight through adversity and prevail.

The hard work and determination Westbrook has shown set him apart from the rest and shown he truly resembles what it means to be an NBA MVP.