Tuesday 19 February 2019 12:05, UK
LeBron James shouldn't be ruled out of the MVP race despite having missed a large section of the NBA season with injury, according to former All-Star Glen Rice.
After joining the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent last summer, James guided a young squad to a 20-14 record, which had them cruising towards a playoff spot, before he suffered a groin injury on Christmas Day.
The Lakers went 6-12 during the 18 games James missed and are now facing a challenge just to reach the post-season, as they sit three games back from eighth place in the Western Conference with 25 games remaining.
"You always got to keep in mind LeBron, because he brings so many assets to the game," Rice told Sky Sports.
"Before he got hurt the Lakers were in like fourth place. When he was out they dropped immediately."
"I think after the All-Star break, once he's acclimated with the team, they're just going to rise back up to the top. When someone can make that much of a difference, there's no way in the world that you can leave him out of the MVP conversation."
A four-time winner of the NBA's most prestigious individual award, James spent the past weekend surrounded by his rivals for the prize at All-Star weekend.
Rice, who made three All-Star appearances during his 15-year NBA career, singled out James Harden and Paul George as the other contenders for the award.
Harden has put together a historic scoring streak of 31 games with 30 points or more to drag his injury-hit Houston Rockets into playoff contention.
"I think these things he's doing now are unbelievable," Rice said of Harden.
"(The) 30-point stretch he's doing, it's only been done maybe one other time. He's displaying some unbelievable skills offensively so it's hard not to say he's the front runner."
George, meanwhile, has put together the best season of his career to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to third in the West, with only his team-mate Russell Westbrook's shooting struggles causing doubt over the franchise's championship credentials.
"When you look at how he has come back from that serious injury that he had and being able to be a huge part of the success of the OKC team, it's remarkable," Rice said.
"He's a two-way player. He's really good on offence and really good on defence. You can argue that he's the front-runner, because he's having one of his best seasons ever, all around."
