I can't hate on the man, he is not even top 10 in the league for Christ's sake If they wanted a White guy this bad, at least save some face and go with Dirk...Oh, wait, never mind, he is getting b****-slapped and pimped by the Macster
To be fair, giving it to Nash is no different from giving it to Nowitzki. Neither of those guys play ANY defense whatsoever. Bottom line is that even though this wasn't Shaq's best year, he still made an even bigger difference to his team than Nash. Miami went from a team hovering around .500 last year to title contender with him on board. Also, Shaq makes differences that can't be seen in his stats. Would Damon Jones really have had this type of season if he was on a team with Brian Grant in the middle? Also, as great as Wade has played, it has definitely helped him that other teams hardly ever have the luxury of double-teaming him. In my opinion, if John Stockton could never win an MVP, then Steve Nash should have never had a chance this year. As much as I may despise Stockton and his legacy, he had tons of seasons like Nash's this year and was never a serious contender to win one.
This is a travesty. They basically gave the MVP trophy to a Designated Hitter. The guy has absolutely no impact on the game except on the offensive end. There is a reason why he finished no better than 14th in MVP voting before this season. You take away him, Stoudamire, or Marion, and it makes the Suns a fringe playoff team. Also, you can gauge how great of a player he is by how Dallas is doing this year, which is not that much different to their team last year? Give me a break.
There shouldn't be a problem with Nash winning it, afterall he was the most VALUABLE player on the BEST REGULAR SEASON team in the NBA. The MVP is still given to the most valuable player for the regular season right? Shaq doesn't care for the regular season too much (which is fine, just don't complain about not winning MVPs!), that's why he's only won one MVP, the only year his team finished with the best record in the NBA. This season he not only cruised through the regular season, but through the first round of the playoffs too! HAHA! Wade and the rest of their supporting cast is that good. On the real, they probably don't need Shaq to turn it up until they play against Detroit in the ECFs. Nash on the other hand has to do his thing EVERY night or else the Suns wouldn't win nearly as much, especially not the way they win. So people can say he only plays on one side of the court all they want, because that's the side the Suns win their games on. It's like Ben Wallace finishing in the top 3-5 in MVP voting, people don't think he should be an MVP canidate because he only plays defense, ignoring the fact that the Pistons win with defense. As far as Nash not being a top 10 player in the NBA, I think he is THIS season, but even if he isn't that doesn't mean he can't be the most valuable player on the NBA's best regular season team.
Excellent point! Add Jason Kidd to that list, who are players that are/were twice as good as Steve "pretty boy" Nash. Well, thank the media hype machine for this one! I would have not protested as much if Marion was given the award, since they apparently wanted to give it to the best player on the team with the best record in the league. But, of course, since the media mid-way through the season have been proping up Nash for a while now, and they are really the ones who were saying that this is a race between "Shaq and Nash" (they limited the options more or less for the voters), then this outcome is more understandable. Hell, even that annoying Argentino Genobili would have been a better pick. Or if you dislike big men that much then you could have just picked the biggest little man out there: Iverson. Or even Wade for the stellar year he is having. It does help I guess to be on a team loaded with talent like the Suns this year.
Gee, I don't know, who has been the most impactful player in the league for the last...gee...like 10 years or something...Oh, that's right...SHAQ!
They certainly haven't lost much, if not actually been better off without him. In fact, it is funny when I think back to the playoffs a couple of years back, when Nick Van Exel was single-handedly carrying that squad in the playoffs. Nashie wasn't even the best PG on his team in the playoffs
No need for that, really, they could have just STILL picked the most impactful player in the game TODAY. Guess who that would be? Even the guy on the downside of his career is still clearly the most dominant in the league. Yah well, the anti-big man bias is just too obvious in the league today to further comment on. This is just one symptom of it. Yao is recieving the brunt of this bias right in front of our eyes. Shaq has just been slighted as well. It would be sweet justice if the two players meet in the finals
I'm not saying Shaq didn't deserve the award. I'd have been happy either way. And if you're going to compare how Dallas did without Nash (Booted from the first round! ), wouldn't it be better to compare how Phoenix did without Nash to how Miami did without Shaq THIS year??? If you look beyond this year...then..yes...Shaq should win. But if you look at only this year...then Steve is at least as deserving...probably more ..
I think you mean better POINT GUARD.... Anyhow I feel indifferent about this. Sure his presence on the Suns team basically lifted Phoenix right out of NBA hell and when he didn't play for that stretch of 3-4 games, the Suns looked stupified. And their coach ain't exactly a mastermind either. But... Somehow I feel like a poor man's John Stockton is getting the MVP. And Stockton played defense (to a certain legal extent). And back then, it was Malone who got the nod instead of Stockton for MVP honors. I don't know...it's one of those 'but you can make a case for' kind of deals. But then again, most MVP races are like that....
How Shaq in this 13 year career only has one MVP trophy is beyond me. When you define "most valuable", i think it goes beyond most valuable to your team. It should take into the concept of value to the overall league. It's the NBA MVP award not Team MVP. Which player adds the most value to any given team??? If you are a mavericks or rockets fan, which player would you rather have in these playoffs to add to your team, Shaq or Nash?? Don't you want the player who elevates your team closer to a championship? Isn't that how value is defined?? Again, the mavericks didn't fall apart without Nash, and the lakers did without Shaq. The Miami Heat went from 42-40, a medicore team in the Eastern Conference, to the number one seed this year. The Los Angeles Lakers went from NBA finalist to the one of the 10 worst teams in basketball. I've always felt the best player in the league is the most valuable. You take Shaq off one team and place him on another and the difference in value lost vs. value gained for each team is monumental. The Mavericks and Lakers both added players in lieu their departures. There's a reason the mavericks didn't collapse without Nash and Lakers did without Shaq.
The guy who made the comparision with Nash and Ben Wallace makes a good point. Ben isn't one of top 10 players in the league, not even close. But he's easily one of the top 5-10 most valuable players in the league, because he's the anchor of a championship team built on defense. He sets the tone for the Pistons, he gives them their identity. The same theory applies to Nash. He gives the Suns their energy, their identity. He's the leader for them in so many ways. For the record, the Suns record without Nash was 2-5. Enough said.
i think shaq deserved in just a little bit more than nash. i just dont like nash cuz he complains too damn much. Tmac should have gotten it though. Just wait til the 2nd round, tracy is gonna show nash who the REAL mvp is.
Really, Iverson, a career low 40% shooter who is not exactly known as a great team player shouldn't be mentioned with a guy who shoots near 50% from the PG position and makes his teammates much better? Earlier, people were saying Amare is not that good, that Nash was getting him easy shots. Isn't that better than putting up the whack low percentage shots that Iverson shoots?
Whether you play POINT GUARD or any other postion, you should SHOOT A HIGH PERCENTAGE, know how to PASS, and MAKE YOUR TEAMMATES BETTER. On all counts Nash is better.
Wow, how the hell did Iverson NOT win this award??? All through the year I was amazed at what the guy could do, leading the league in scoring and sacrificing his body, putting more effort on the court than any other player I had seen, even with his absolutely ****ty teammates. Somehow the media stopped talking about him even when Philly was out of the playoffs; then they got "hot" (or really Cleveland tanked) and climbed up to the seventh seed in the East. Iguodala showed his flashes of brilliance along side AI was Webber just looked stoned out there half the time. In my opinion, Allen Iverson was the single best player this season. Having said that, if I were to actually vote, it would be a tough choice between AI and Shaq. Yes, Nash was the most valuable to his team, but was not the best player in the league. I would even put Amare over Nash.
Field Goal percentage is so overrated to judge a player by. It is not at all a good indicator of how efficient a scorer a player is because it does not consider free throws made. Nash is a more efficient shooter than Iverson, but not by as wide a margin as most would believe. Field goal percentage is an unkind stat to Iverson, mainly because it does not take into acount how many free throws he shoots on a game-by-game basis. This past season, he took 857 shots to score 1165 points, a ratio of 1.36 points per shot with a fg% of 50%. Now, Iverson took 1818 shots to score 2302 points, a ration of 1.273 points per shot, with a fg% of 42.4%. Notice how with fg%, Iverson looks terrible in this comparison but the points per shot is a lot closer. Also, keep in mind that much of Iverson's shots are contested and that he takes them because nobody else on his team is any good. When you factor in all the other great things Iverson does, it's hard not to consider him a top player and a better one, overall, than Nash.
