http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2005/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&id=2054677 Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash will be awarded the NBA's Most Valuable Player on Sunday. Steve Nash Point Guard Phoenix Suns Profile 2004-2005 SEASON STATISTICS GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT% 75 15.5 3.3 11.5 .502 .887 Nash has edged Miami center Shaquille O'Neal to become just the third point guard in 40-plus years to win the league's highest individual honor, according to sources familiar with the results. The others are Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson. The official announcement will come at halftime of ABC's 3 p.m. ET playoff game. O'Neal, three times an NBA Finals MVP, has won the regular-season MVP trophy just once in his 13 seasons. Apparently tipping this vote in Nash's favor was the Suns' 33-game improvement -- from 29 wins to a league-leading 62 wins -- after signing Nash away from the Dallas Mavericks in the offseason. Shaquille O'Neal Center Miami Heat Profile 2004-2005 SEASON STATISTICS GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT% 73 22.9 10.4 2.7 .601 .461 Nash's previous best MVP showing was 14th place in 2002. With Nash flanked by the athletic finishing of fellow All-Stars Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion, Phoenix became just the second team in NBA annals to win at least 60 games after a 50-loss season. The first? The Boston Celtics in Larry Bird's rookie season of 1979-80. But Nash is defying history to beat out O'Neal, and not simply because he had only one scholarship offer from a Division I university -- Santa Clara -- as a slight Canadian teen-ager in British Columbia. Allen Iverson, the NBA's 2001 MVP as a shooting guard, is the only player shorter than 6-foot-6 in the past four decades to win the award. Nash also becomes the first MVP since Portland's Bill Walton in 1978 to average less than 20 points per game. His 15.5-point scoring average for the Suns is the third-lowest all-time for an MVP, ahead of only Washington's Wes Unseld (13.8 ppg in 1969) and Boston's Bill Russell (14.1 ppg in 1965). Nash, though, did lead the league in assists (11.5 apg) by a wide margin for a Suns team that averaged a league-leading 110 points per game. Phoenix swept Memphis 4-0 in a first-round series and awaits the Dallas-Houston winner in the second round, raising the possibility of an emotional series against the team he left last summer. Is this the first time a non-America has won the award?
Na, you got it all wrong, it is Tmac who is really pissed off about the MVP trophy. Get your story straight.
I'm not dissapointed in the vote. Personally, I think Shaq should have won it, though. But Nash is likely deserving as well. But, the fact that Shaq has only won 1 MVP while players like Karla and Tim Duncan (the big fundamental is good, no doubt) have two, is mind-boggling. The guy could easily have been awarded the MVP every year of his career. He shot over 60% this year from the field!!
I tend to agree with that to a good degree. His stint in Miami has highlighted how valuable he really is...even if he looks clumsy. But had he won, I think it would have been more about his career than this year in particular. Sort of like how the academy awards give an award to a good actor for a so-so film late in their career. I'm glad Nash won. Maybe now he can afford a comb.
Very surprised. Not in a bad way though. It's a wonderful thing for Nash. And if I'm correct, he's the first *edit* er....Canadian?*edit* to win the award. *applause* Extremely close race this year. Evan
WOW! Shaq got straight up robbed How rediculous! IF this isn't a final proof that the NBA is pushing for "small ball" and that the traditional big man is looked down upon in today's league, then I don't know what is. Nash: a guy who does it on only one side of the court, and is not even the best player on his own team (that would be Marion). Luckily for Nash and the Suns, they won't have to worry about playing Shaq in the finals, the Suns won't make it that far.
Wow...My heart was with Nash, but I would have put my money on Shaq. So much for that mythical East Coast media bias. I think Shaq didn't win it because he didn't have a Shaq-like season. Second lowest scoring average of his career, lowest rebounds of his career, and the lowest free throw percentage of his career (now THAT is saying something). He definitely coasted through the regular season to save his energy for the playoffs. That being said, when did they start giving out the MVP so early in the playoffs? David Robinson didn't get his until the conference finals (getting b**** slapped by Hakeem that same night)...
INteresting...I am not sure if it was BEFORE or AFTER he was naturalized. My money would be on after he became a citizen. Wasn't Hakeem on the original "Dream Team"? If so, then that settles it
Yah, they needed another White guy I guess, since Van Horn/Nowitzki didn't pan out Shaq should allege RACISM!!
All I can say is just WOW. As great a season as Steve Nash may have had, it's no better than Jason Kidd's 2002 season when he had a tremendous impact in his first year with the Nets, leading them to the Finals. Also, bar none, Nash is now officially the worst player to ever receive the MVP award, and it's not even close. Every other MVP is either in the Hall of Fame or will be on his first/second ballot. NBA MVP's since 1956: One of these names just doesn't belong... 2004-05 Steven Nash?? 2003-04 Kevin Garnett 2002-03 Tim Duncan 2001-02 Tim Duncan 2000-01 Allen Iverson 1999-00 Shaquille O'neal 1998-99 Karl Malone 1997-98 Michael Jordan 1996-97 Karl Malone 1995-96 Michael Jordan 1994-95 David Robinson 1993-94 Hakeem Olajuwon 1992-93 Charles Barkley 1991-92 Michael Jordan 1990-91 Michael Jordan 1989-90 Magic Johnson 1988-89 Magic Johnson 1987-88 Michael Jordan 1986-87 Magic Johnson 1985-86 Larry Bird 1984-85 Larry Bird 1983-84 Larry Bird 1982-83 Moses Malone 1981-82 Moses Malone 1980-81 Julius Erving 1979-80 Kareem Abdul-jabbar 1978-79 Moses Malone 1977-78 Bill Walton 1976-77 Kareem Abdul-jabbar 1975-76 Kareem Abdul-jabbar 1974-75 Bob Mcadoo 1973-74 Kareem Abdul-jabbar 1972-73 Dave Cowens 1971-72 Kareem Abdul-jabbar 1970-71 Kareem Abdul-jabbar 1969-70 Willis Reed 1968-69 Wes Unseld 1967-68 Wilt Chamberlain 1966-67 Wilt Chamberlain 1965-66 Wilt Chamberlain 1964-65 Bill Russell 1963-64 Oscar Robertson 1962-63 Bill Russell 1961-62 Bill Russell 1960-61 Bill Russell 1959-60 Wilt Chamberlain 1958-59 Bob Pettit 1957-58 Bill Russell 1956-57 Bob Cousy 1955-56 Bob Pettit
Malone shouldn't have been there and Robinson that year shouldn't have been there....but at the same time im glad Robinson got the award...fueled Hakeem just enough..
The reason I think Iverson is better than Nash is because while Nash is only asked to be the table-setter for Phoenix, Iverson is Philly's table-setter, top scorer, and best perimeter defender (something Iguodala is changing this year). His responsibilities require him to expend far more energy than Nash ever has and he's done them very well. Also, he's been able to carry a team to the Finals (albeit from the East), something Nash has yet to do, even with loaded Mavs teams.
Who else was going to win the award this year? Duncan? Besides missing 15 games, he's on the deepest team in the league, which is the exact same reason nobody thought that Nash should have won it Garnett? Sorry, no playoffs = no MVP McGrady? Rockets only had 51 wins, plus that terrible start the team had killed his chances Iverson? BWAHAHAHA! Nowitski? Talk about playing one side of the ball... Let's face it, it was a two horse race between Shaq and Nash. Giving Shaq a token MVP award for having a slightly above average season makes even less sense than giving it to Nash...
I have one response: They shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath. Nash is not even top 10 player in the league today. This will prove to be the undoing of any legitimacy the MVP award still had. Nash over Shaq, Duncan, T-Mac, Iverson, Wade, (dare I say it) Dirk, even his own teammate Marion? What a joke!
