Kyrie Irving and LeBron James might not have clicked as teammates in Cleveland, but Irving still respects the Cavaliers star's eye-popping stats.

And while Irving says Houston Rockets star James Harden deserved winning the MVP award this season, the Boston Celtics guard says the case for James is clear.

"MVP, it's hard to gauge nowadays," Irving said in a New York radio appearance on Wednesday. "Because now you have the people's MVP and you have, like, the NBA's MVP. I think the people's MVP was definitely James (Harden), but the NBA MVP is definitely LeBron (James)."

"If we're talking strictly based off stats, like checks every mark. … He's incredible, he's incredible."

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Harden, 28, led the league in scoring last season when he averaged 30.4 points per game. 

He added 8.8 assists and 5.4 rebounds per game in leading the Rockets to the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference playoffs, where they fell to the eventual champion Warriors in Game 7 of the conference finals.

He finished runner-up for the award in 2017 to the Oklahoma City Thunder's Russell Westbrook and in 2015 to the Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry.

All James, 33, did last season was average 27.5 points, 9.1 assists and 8.6 rebounds while playing all 82 regular-season games and making it all the way to the NBA Finals (after beating Irving's Celtics in seven games in the East finals, though Irving was injured and did not play). 

The Cavs were swept by the Golden State Warriors for the title.

LeBron has four MVP awards over his 14-year career, the last coming in 2012-13 while with the Miami Heat.

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