Steve Nash League MVP Again

[Amare32]

Source: Nash to be MVP
Suns guard would be 10th player to win award in consecutive seasons

Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 26, 2006 12:00 AM


Suns star Steve Nash will be named the NBA's Most Valuable Player for a second straight season, according to a league source familiar with the voting.

The announcement may not come for two weeks, like last season's May 8 ceremony. The votes have been tabulated in what was expected to be a close race with LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, Chauncey Billups and Kobe Bryant.

Nash won the fourth-closest MVP vote last year, edging Shaquille O'Neal a year after Nash was not even an All-Star. advertisement




Nash, 32, impressed voters this season by posting career highs in scoring (18.8 points per game), rebounding (4.2 per game), field goal percentage (.512) and free-throw percentage (NBA-best .921). He led the league in assists again with 10.5 per game and finished sixth in three-point shooting (43.9 percent).

After Amaré Stoudemire's knee surgery deprived the Suns of their top scorer, Nash led the team to 54 wins and its first repeat division title with only Shawn Marion and Leandro Barbosa back for a full season.

Nash would be the first international and Suns player to win twice.

Only nine previous players repeated as MVP winners. Magic Johnson was the only point guard to do so.

 

[CardsFan222]

 

[D-Dogg]

Really surprised if this is true. Would have bet a billion that league darling LeBron would have snaked this one.

If Kobe doesn't get it, I'm very happy that Steve will. Even though he does owe D'Antoni a new house, car and a hundred grand for the award.

 

[D-Dogg]

By the way, why the very early leak? Much sooner than usual.

Is the league wondering that the Lakers might make it a close series? It would not be good if they saw the Lakers upset and have the MVP awarded when the winner isn't playing, so they are leaking it now? I find this very early to unofficially announce this.

NBA hedging its bets?

Regardless...congrats to Steve...great player. This all but secures his spot in the HOF. Can't keep him out now.

 

[D-Dogg]

[can of worms]

I know all Suns fans will rejoice in this one, but I'd like to see arguments on why Steve should be a two time MVP winner when a guy like Stockton (and I have much hate in my heart for Mr. Shortie Shorts) doesn't have one.

See the numbers:

John Stockton
1988-89: 17.1 ppg, 13.6 apg, 3.0 rpg, 3.2 spg for 51-31 Utah Jazz.
1989-90: 17.2 ppg, 14.5 apg, 2.6 rpg, 2.7 spg for 55-27 Utah Jazz.
1990-91: 17.2 ppg, 14.2 apg, 2.9 rpg, 2.6 spg for 54-28 Utah Jazz.
1991-92: 15.8 ppg, 13.7 apg, 3.3 rpg, 3.0 spg for 55-27 Utah Jazz

Personally, I just don't see why Steve gets two, for similar or less numbers, when nutters stockton didn't get one. Yeah, Jordan was ballin in those days, but Kobe was ballin this year.

You have to conclude that Unfrozen Caveman Point Guard was lucky to excel when he did, or that the MVP has seriously lost its luster. I go with the latter here, given that Shaq during the championship runs got one, and probably earned one outside the ring years. MVP is a pop contest these days...with the best likeable player winning...of course, that would mean that Bron Bron Bron Bron would have won this one....maybe ESPN couldn't swing enough votes.

Don't get mad PHX fans...just trying to insert some perspective on history on one of the only three guards ever to win multiple MVPs, and why.

And damn I hate Stockton...and damn I'm glad that nutter never got the MVP trophy. Big laugh to the Jazz!!!

[/can of worms]

 

[hsandhu]

YESSS! No matter what happens from here on, this season will be a memorable one because of this. Of course, I wouldn't mind we at least get out of the first round.

Also, this could either piss kobe off to the point that he is just killer the rest of the series or becomes selfish to the detriment of his team. I actually dont think it'll effect his mindset too much, but then again listening to him, it was clear how badly he wanted that award.

 

[scotsman13]

there are 3 reason why nash gets over twice while stockton didnt get it. first of all looking at the way the game is played today nash's play brings back the selfless play of the old days when point guards were pass first something that has been lacking in todays point guards of score first, score second and then see if i can find someone to pass to as the clock runs down. during stocktons time in the nba there were a number of guards who were ringing up 10 assist a game. thomas, magic, kj, and mark jackson all had 10 plus assist seasons during that time so it wasnt that rare then, now it is almost unheard of.

second stockton played with what a lot of people would say is the best power forward of all time in malone (personally i like barkley better), nash has marion, while i love marion for every little thing he does lets just say he is no malone.

the last things is the players that nash is going up agianst for the mvp award, kobe, dirk, billups, and labron vs. stockton going up against the dream, jordan, barkley, malone, david robinson, magic johnson and larry bird. lets face facts those are some of the best all time players ever for stockton to fight against while nash is having to go agianst players who make the top 50 in the nba but then again they may not.

those 3 things along with the simple fact that nash makes his teammates better something that the others dont do that, no matter how great their personally abilities makes it so that nash was handed his second mvp award.

all hale the king, thanks for letting ride along with you nash. :notworthy

 

[asudevil83]

[can of worms]

I know all Suns fans will rejoice in this one, but I'd like to see arguments on why Steve should be a two time MVP winner when a guy like Stockton (and I have much hate in my heart for Mr. Shortie Shorts) doesn't have one.

See the numbers:

John Stockton
1988-89: 17.1 ppg, 13.6 apg, 3.0 rpg, 3.2 spg for 51-31 Utah Jazz.
1989-90: 17.2 ppg, 14.5 apg, 2.6 rpg, 2.7 spg for 55-27 Utah Jazz.
1990-91: 17.2 ppg, 14.2 apg, 2.9 rpg, 2.6 spg for 54-28 Utah Jazz.
1991-92: 15.8 ppg, 13.7 apg, 3.3 rpg, 3.0 spg for 55-27 Utah Jazz

Personally, I just don't see why Steve gets two, for similar or less numbers, when nutters stockton didn't get one. Yeah, Jordan was ballin in those days, but Kobe was ballin this year.

You have to conclude that Unfrozen Caveman Point Guard was lucky to excel when he did, or that the MVP has seriously lost its luster. I go with the latter here, given that Shaq during the championship runs got one, and probably earned one outside the ring years. MVP is a pop contest these days...with the best likeable player winning...of course, that would mean that Bron Bron Bron Bron would have won this one....maybe ESPN couldn't swing enough votes.

Don't get mad PHX fans...just trying to insert some perspective on history on one of the only three guards ever to win multiple MVPs, and why.

And damn I hate Stockton...and damn I'm glad that nutter never got the MVP trophy. Big laugh to the Jazz!!!

[/can of worms]

last season the suns were the HUGEST suprise team. the year before they were absolute crap. a big part of this turnaround was Nash....that's why he won.

this season the suns were once again one of the suprise teams of the NBA. Nash was once again a HUGE part of this. lets not forget that Amare has been down all season. do you honestly think that Stockton would have won 50+ games during ANY year that Malone was gone? had Malone been down with an injury for an entire season, yet the Jazz barely lost a step, then Stockton would have probably been a strong contender for an MVP. this is why Nash is the MVP.

additionally, you cant overlook a player who has been pretty much the sole contributer to 7-8 players posting their career bests in scoring. that in and of itself is absolutely amazing.

 

[KloD]

Wonderful! That's great, now...

to finish off the first round so I can come to the Suns board and not have it filled with the whining of Faker fans.

 

[Ollie]

That's great !!!

News is now reported on Espn http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2422255

 

[SirStefan32]

 

[elindholm]

For the last time, Bryant and James weren't candidates. For right or wrong, the unwritten rule is that you have to be on a team with a very good W-L record. Nash won (if he did win) pretty much by default this year.

Malone has two MVPs, so that answers the Stockton question.

 

[MastersofCombat]

Its simple why Nash won this MVP again, The NBA wants and is encouraging basketball to return to the style somewhere between the style of the early 80s to the mid 90s.
That was a wide open offense where all teams but the Knicks would average 100pts per game. Teams like Phoenix averaged about 112. which is pretty close to where they are now.

Lebron is best talent in the league but his own fans rip him daily and so does the cleveland media.
Kobe will never ever win the MVP, because we already gave an MVP to a ball hog in Allen Iverson. This is not the day an age to be a selfish guard ( see stephon, baron, and francis)

 

[slinslin]

What's the point of bringing up Stockton's stats? It's a totally different basketball era 20 years ago. Different rules , different style there were plenty of PGs averaging over 10 assists per game. Now check how many PG averaged oder 10 assists per game in the last 10 seasons. Nash will be one of the few guys.

 

[Zobaczcie suki]

Congrats to Nash, the consumate team player.

Will be interesting to see how this motivates Kobe in the series.

 

[fordronken]

Its simple why Nash won this MVP again, The NBA wants and is encouraging basketball to return to the style somewhere between the style of the early 80s to the mid 90s.
That was a wide open offense where all teams but the Knicks would average 100pts per game. Teams like Phoenix averaged about 112. which is pretty close to where they are now.

Lebron is best talent in the league but his own fans rip him daily and so does the cleveland media.
Kobe will never ever win the MVP, because we already gave an MVP to a ball hog in Allen Iverson. This is not the day an age to be a selfish guard ( see stephon, baron, and francis)

I don't think the NBA can "encourage" enough votes to swing an MVP choice. And plus, it's probably a lot better for the league to have LeBron or Kobe win it.

 

[mribnik]

[can of worms]

I know all Suns fans will rejoice in this one, but I'd like to see arguments on why Steve should be a two time MVP winner when a guy like Stockton (and I have much hate in my heart for Mr. Shortie Shorts) doesn't have one.

See the numbers:

John Stockton
1988-89: 17.1 ppg, 13.6 apg, 3.0 rpg, 3.2 spg for 51-31 Utah Jazz.
1989-90: 17.2 ppg, 14.5 apg, 2.6 rpg, 2.7 spg for 55-27 Utah Jazz.
1990-91: 17.2 ppg, 14.2 apg, 2.9 rpg, 2.6 spg for 54-28 Utah Jazz.
1991-92: 15.8 ppg, 13.7 apg, 3.3 rpg, 3.0 spg for 55-27 Utah Jazz

Personally, I just don't see why Steve gets two, for similar or less numbers, when nutters stockton didn't get one. Yeah, Jordan was ballin in those days, but Kobe was ballin this year.

You have to conclude that Unfrozen Caveman Point Guard was lucky to excel when he did, or that the MVP has seriously lost its luster. I go with the latter here, given that Shaq during the championship runs got one, and probably earned one outside the ring years. MVP is a pop contest these days...with the best likeable player winning...of course, that would mean that Bron Bron Bron Bron would have won this one....maybe ESPN couldn't swing enough votes.

Don't get mad PHX fans...just trying to insert some perspective on history on one of the only three guards ever to win multiple MVPs, and why.

And damn I hate Stockton...and damn I'm glad that nutter never got the MVP trophy. Big laugh to the Jazz!!!

[/can of worms]

Karl Malone is the reason. We can compare the statistics as much as we want, but they don't tell the whole story. Nash didn't have Malone this Season, not even close.

Karl Malones #'s for those years.

88-89 - 27.7ppg, 12rpg
89-90 - 29.1ppg, 10.7rpg
90-91 - 31.0ppg, 11.1rpg
91-92 - 29.0ppg, 11.8rpg

In terms of value relative to his team, Nash has him beat, I'd say.

 

[tobiazz]

[can of worms]

I know all Suns fans will rejoice in this one, but I'd like to see arguments on why Steve should be a two time MVP winner when a guy like Stockton (and I have much hate in my heart for Mr. Shortie Shorts) doesn't have one.

See the numbers:

John Stockton
1988-89: 17.1 ppg, 13.6 apg, 3.0 rpg, 3.2 spg for 51-31 Utah Jazz.
1989-90: 17.2 ppg, 14.5 apg, 2.6 rpg, 2.7 spg for 55-27 Utah Jazz.
1990-91: 17.2 ppg, 14.2 apg, 2.9 rpg, 2.6 spg for 54-28 Utah Jazz.
1991-92: 15.8 ppg, 13.7 apg, 3.3 rpg, 3.0 spg for 55-27 Utah Jazz

Personally, I just don't see why Steve gets two, for similar or less numbers, when nutters stockton didn't get one. Yeah, Jordan was ballin in those days, but Kobe was ballin this year.

You have to conclude that Unfrozen Caveman Point Guard was lucky to excel when he did, or that the MVP has seriously lost its luster. I go with the latter here, given that Shaq during the championship runs got one, and probably earned one outside the ring years. MVP is a pop contest these days...with the best likeable player winning...of course, that would mean that Bron Bron Bron Bron would have won this one....maybe ESPN couldn't swing enough votes.

Don't get mad PHX fans...just trying to insert some perspective on history on one of the only three guards ever to win multiple MVPs, and why.

And damn I hate Stockton...and damn I'm glad that nutter never got the MVP trophy. Big laugh to the Jazz!!!

[/can of worms]

Nash wouldn't have won back then either (with his current numbers), so I don't think it's anything to worry about. Just a product of the competition.

For example, Yao could one day win an MVP if Houston becomes good since he may be the only good center left. Meanwhile his theoretical stats would probably be worse than those of Hakeem and The Admiral in years that they did not win an MVP.

I think it's tough to compare MVP results from more than maybe 2 years apart because the league changes. 12 assists/game now might be more impressive than 14/game in the late 80's. It may not change as drastically as baseball with it's Dead-ball and Steroid eras, but it changes nonetheless.

 

[Nashfan]

Question about NBA League Pass

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone else is having this problem. I ordered NBA League Pass at the beginning of the season and now they are not letting me acsess it during the playoff's. I had it last year and I was able watch it throughout the whole playoff season. I like to see the postgame interviews of our Sun's plus I noticed some of the other teams in the playoff's have games on NBA League Pass. Hopefully none of the Sun's games will be in that channel. I don't live in Phoenix anymore. I live in Idaho, which is really sad since i love our Phoenis Sun's and miss going to the games. Thanks for any insight into my question!

 

[JS22]

[can of worms]

I know all Suns fans will rejoice in this one, but I'd like to see arguments on why Steve should be a two time MVP winner when a guy like Stockton (and I have much hate in my heart for Mr. Shortie Shorts) doesn't have one.

See the numbers:

John Stockton
1988-89: 17.1 ppg, 13.6 apg, 3.0 rpg, 3.2 spg for 51-31 Utah Jazz.
1989-90: 17.2 ppg, 14.5 apg, 2.6 rpg, 2.7 spg for 55-27 Utah Jazz.
1990-91: 17.2 ppg, 14.2 apg, 2.9 rpg, 2.6 spg for 54-28 Utah Jazz.
1991-92: 15.8 ppg, 13.7 apg, 3.3 rpg, 3.0 spg for 55-27 Utah Jazz

Personally, I just don't see why Steve gets two, for similar or less numbers, when nutters stockton didn't get one. Yeah, Jordan was ballin in those days, but Kobe was ballin this year.

You have to conclude that Unfrozen Caveman Point Guard was lucky to excel when he did, or that the MVP has seriously lost its luster. I go with the latter here, given that Shaq during the championship runs got one, and probably earned one outside the ring years. MVP is a pop contest these days...with the best likeable player winning...of course, that would mean that Bron Bron Bron Bron would have won this one....maybe ESPN couldn't swing enough votes.

Don't get mad PHX fans...just trying to insert some perspective on history on one of the only three guards ever to win multiple MVPs, and why.

And damn I hate Stockton...and damn I'm glad that nutter never got the MVP trophy. Big laugh to the Jazz!!!

[/can of worms]

 

[golfcardfan]

Well deserved and is the obvious choice for MVP ! Lebron I would imagine would have been very close in votes but the rest were never really even in the race. Kobe please not MVP material, Detroit still a solid team without billups, dirk well he had a good year but that team has alot of talent also. Nash playing with a bunch of nobodys have made some careers just this season, wonder how much money these guys are gonna make because of Nash? They all should be thanking him daily haha! Congrats to Nash he deserves it!!

 

[Sundance]

Phoenix has a 2-time MVP. Dallas has a 70 million dollar center that comes off the bench. Mark Cuban seen atop the American Airlines Center, preparing to jump.

 

[George O'Brien]

If Amare was healthy this season, there is no way Nash wins it. What Nash did was take a team widely predicted to miss the playoffs and win 54 games (not to mention a few throw aways at the end of the season).

Was there a single "expert" at the start of the season that would predict the Suns without Amare would:

1 Lead the league in scoring at 108.36, which was almost 6 ppg better than second place and rank fourth in point differential at 5.54 ppg

2.Lead the league in shooting percentage at 47.9%

3 Lead the league in three point shooting at 39.9%

4. Lead the league in assists with 26.57 per

I'm emphasizing the team stats because that's where Nash made his greatest impact. When added to his outstanding individual stats, there is no doubt about his being worthy.

 

[Chaplin]

If Amare was healthy this season, there is no way Nash wins it.

Well, duh.

Nice one, Captain Obvious.

 

[sunsfn]

Phoenix has a 2-time MVP. Dallas has a 70 million dollar center that comes off the bench. Mark Cuban seen atop the American Airlines Center, preparing to jump.