devilalum said:
Listening to Barkley tell how KG is a much better MVP candidate than Nash was weak. His rationale made no sense at all. Stephen Smith was on the other day telling how it would be a farce if Nash won over Kobe.
Of course these guys are entitled to their opinions but I believe they are racially motivated. Barkley said that Nash is not legit because the Suns style of play won't win in the playoffs?!?! Steven Smith was focused on how many points Kobe can score and the 81 point game.
Contradicting to this comments from Barkley himself....
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/spor ... amp;k=7152
Nash merits 2nd MVP: Barkley
Clippers star Brand also endorses him, 'even over me'
Bruce Arthur, National Post
Published: Saturday, February 18, 2006
HOUSTON - Everywhere you look, there's an icon. Kobe Bryant. Kevin Garnett. Shaquille O'Neal. In a way, being at the NBA All-Star Game is not unlike being trapped in one hell of a shoe commercial. Or all the shoe commercials, rolled into one.
And softly stepping among the giants is some Canadian named Steve Nash. And even with all the stars in the room -- the brightest lights of basketball -- almost anyone you ask will tell you that Nash is the MVP. Again.
"If he won the MVP last year, he's doing better this year," says Charles Barkley, an icon himself. "Steve Nash is playing fantastic. The level of basketball overall in the league is brutal. So if you've got a guy who's going to make everyone around him better ... "
The Round Mound of Wall-to-Wall Sound is an outspoken man, but on some issues, he gets it right. But maybe we are viewing Nash through overly Canadian eyes. Who else belongs in the MVP conversation?
"Nobody," says Barkley, emphatically. "Nobody."
There were critics who thought Nash's MVP victory last year was in part due to novelty voting -- to the allure of a small, white man winning the award for the first time since Bob Cousy in 1957. So the win by the kid from Victoria was, in some circles, written off as a fluke.
As Nash's opponents might plead while they backpedal: not so fast. Forward Amare Stoudemire -- the Karl Malone to Nash's John Stockton -- has missed the entire season after knee surgery. Phoenix's two designated shooters, Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson, were traded. Nash came to camp with eight new players, and three new starters. A .500 record was predicted by most.
All Nash has done, of course, is propel the Suns back to the fourth-best record in the league. In Stoudemire's absence, Nash is averaging a career-high 19.4 points per game, along with a career-best 4.5 rebounds, and is again leading the league at 11.0 assists per game while directing Phoenix's running-down-the-mountainside offence. His shooting, which fell early as he adjusted to taking more shots, is steadily climbing towards the magical Larry Bird trifecta: .500 from the field, .400 from three-point range, and .900 from the free-throw line (he's short .005 in the field-goal category right now, and closing). Sure, the 31-year-old Nash leads the league in turnovers, but those are dropping, too, as he learns more about his teammates, and as they learn about him.
"He gets my vote for MVP," says Phoenix guard Raja Bell, acquired over the summer from Utah. "He just makes everything so much easier. You play with an average point guard, and you get the ball and you have to wind up making a play for yourself. And with Steve, I very rarely have to make a play for myself. The ball finds me, and all I have to do is jump up and shoot it."
Of those new Suns -- as Barkley says, "We didn't even know they were alive [before] this year," -- Bell, James Jones, and Leandro Barbosa are all averaging career highs in scoring. And all give the credit back to Nash.
"Just look at anybody they plug into the system, they score, they do well," says Richardson, who has struggled since being shipped to New York. "Anybody you put out there with him. They said that James Jones and Raja Bell and all those different guys weren't going to be able to shoot like myself and Joe. But those guys -- it has a lot to do with Steve. When you have a guy like Steve giving you the ball, you can't help but make shots."
The list of men who have won back-to-back MVPs looks like this: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan. If Nash joins this club, it will be entry into basketball Valhalla.
"I read at least once a week about a guy that has a good week or a good month, he's a superstar now," says Barkley. "I think Tim Duncan is a superstar. I think Shaq is a superstar. I think Kevin Garnett is a superstar. I think Kobe Bryant is a superstar.
"[Nash] is a superstar."
Barkley later admitted there might be other candidates -- well, one other. Not Detroit Pistons point guard Chauncey Billups, whom Barkley considers less essential to his team than centre Ben Wallace. Not Nash's former Dallas teammate, Dirk Nowitzki. Instead, Barkley mentioned Los Angeles Clippers forward Elton Brand. But even Brand accepts second place in this particular race.
"For MVP right now, I'd have to go with Nash," he says cheerfully. "Even over me. Because without Amare Stoudemire ... he orchestrates all that. And they're No. 1 in the Pacific over us. So once we catch them, maybe I'll change my mind. But I'd have to give it to him right now."
Kind words all, but Nash, of course, does not find it hard to be humble.
"I guess in some ways, for sure," says Nash. "But I judge myself on how many wins we have, and we had more wins last year."
Ignore his words, and watch his play. Nash will not say it, but right now, he is more valuable to his team than Kobe Bryant, than Kevin Garnett, than Shaquille O'Neal. He is one of the icons, even if, while looking around the room, he does not quite feel like it.
"I'm definitely in awe, and I don't know if I have the confidence sometimes to say hi to all these guys," he says.
In other words, sometimes, Steve Nash can't believe how high he has climbed, what he has done.
Well, believe.
Its too bad it has to come to that. MVP and all the other post season awards are way to political at times. Why can't they just give it to the guys that deserve it?
