WTF?Dallas had a much tougher route thru the playoffs than Phoenix.
Whoop-to-do-beating-a-7th-seed,( those relentless Suns!LOL!), ‘tho’ I love to watch their running game.

The improvement in Dirk’s game has been phenomenal since the days of Bruce-Bowen-keeping-him-out-of-the-box.He deserves MVP & most-improved:

(I’ll give him a hall pass on the Hasselhoff…must be a Deutsche thing…viel spass!!).

This doesn’t take a way from Big Ben, obviously he deserved his trophy. But I don’t see why more than 1 Piston’s player couldn’t have won a trophy, too instead of giving it to a player that doesn’t defend & is a part of a working system that deserves a lot of credit as much as any player that’s just a part(O.K., a big part, he does make those around him better, but….):

Would you like to give the MVP to “the Sun’s system than?”Surely you aren’t gonna tell me with a straight face that Steve Nash is a great defender?Perhaps you can address that instead of getting all tweaked-out as if you think I’m dissing other Piston’s players (who I absolutely love) when who I’m saying isn’t measuring up is Steve Nash.This has nothing to do with Ben Wallace.

If you think Chauncy Billups is more valuable than Ben Wallace, you are not paying attention. The MVP cannot be on a team with another viable MVP candidate — he must be clearly the most essential player to his team’s success. Shaq played at MVP levels in ’01 and ’02, but lost votes becuase of Kobe’s emerging dominance.

I also hate the “No-Amare” arguemtn–Kobe, LeBron, and Dirk have nothing resembling Amare, and never have. Odom, Z, and Josh Howard hardly play at Marion’s level, either.

Kobe turtled game 7? Maybe. But tell me Nash would have won the series if Tim Thomas or Leandro Barbosa had been on the Lakers…

I agree completely with MJD — praise the Suns coaching and off-season moves; praise Nash with All-NBA 1rst team and an All-Star start. Not the Maurice Podolof trophy. Even if Billups were the most valuable player on the best team, he can win a championship or finals MVP, not regualr season MVP. That is reserved for the player who brings more to his team than any other player in the league brings to their team. Like LeBron.

Not to the other Piston’s players who might also deserve it more than Steve Nash, but don’t get me started; (especially since they can also play ‘d’ unlike S.N.);

Might as well say the Mike Bibby of 2002(when the Sacramento Kings were a few plays away from the NBA finals) was the MVP. He had a great offensive run, & didn’t make the finals.But is he a great defensive player?
I’m sorry, but the same is true of Steve Nash.

& in no way does this take away from the Pistons; more like a statement on how mush better they are than the rest of the league.As if any other team had as many starters on the all-star team.

I said that the Lakers system does something similar. This Lakers team is fairly similar to the one last season. Sub in Smush Parker for Chucky Atkins and Kwame Brown for Caron Butler and you could argue they are worse off talent-wise.
I don’t think anyone would argue that the Suns are worse talent-wise this season than they were last season, if for nothing else, the simple fact that Amare was out for the season. Not to mention the major roster overhaul that they had.

The Joe Johnson comparison is almost laughable, considering he was pretty much the 4th option on a high powered Suns team last season and now he is the 1st option on a terrible Hawks team. He also has to create his own shots now. I think that has a little more to do with his stats difference than a simple change of system.

The fact is that the Lakers brought in Phil Jackson and love him or hate him (there seems to be no middle ground on him) his system works. The Lakers abandoned the Triangle last season and got nowhere. This season Phil is back and so is the Triangle and they won a lot more games.

Now, i’m not saying that this is the reason that Nash should win MVP, you could make a good argument for anyone of the top 5 or 6 candidates. I’m saying that your primary beef with Nash winning the MVP is the ‘system’ argument, but that also applies for the Lakers.

Look at the beginning of the season, Kobe was selfish. Kobe was me first. Hell, there were betting pools on when would Odam will kill Kobe in a game. Than they finish 7th and some people think because Kobe can put up gaudy numbers he means the most to his team. Scoring title sure. MVP no.

Nash, while you can argue the system or not, makes his teammates believe that they can win. He makes them believe they can take the shot and make it. He shows leadership on and off the court (building unity with the team). He shows faith in his teammates. Does Kobe? When has Kobe ever? Duncan does (2 time MVP).

Alot of writers are hung up on numbers. While numbers are part of the story, they aren’t the whole story.

And yes, Kobe quit in game 7. He wants to be the next Jordan. Do you think Jordan would have just stopped trying to score? Do think Jordan wouldn’t have found a way to fire his team up at half? They may have lost but he would have been heard. Kobe felt at half or early 3rd quarter that it was unwinnable so he quit.

Raja Bell, from his last season in Utah, to this season in Phoenix: 3P% from .403 to .422, and points increased over 2 per game.

Boris Diaw, from his last season in Atlanta, to this season in Phoenix: 3P%, from .180 to .267. Rebounds from 2.6 to 6.9. Assists from 2.3 to 6.2. Points from 4.8 to 13.3. FG% from .422 to .526.

Steve Nash, from 03/04 with Dallas, to this season: 3P% from .404 to .439. Assists from 8.8 to 10.5. Points from 14.5 to 18.8. FG% from .470 to .512.

And, my favorite, Joe Johnson, from his last season in Phoenix to this season in Atlanta: 3P% from .478 down to .356. FG% from .461 down to .453. His points did increase by 3 points per game, but… he took over 226 more shots with Phoenix than he did with Atlanta.

I think there’s something to that… I know Diaw didn’t play a lot in Atlanta, but the percentages tell a story, and even if you project both sets of his numbers out to 48-minutes per game, the difference would be substantial.

It goes both ways.

That being said, I don’t think there really was a clear-cut MVP this season, looks like a lot of votes were split between Kobe/LeBron/Dirk.
I’m a little surprised Brand finished so low, he was king of MVP talk at the beginning of the season, and for christ sakes he got the Clippers into the playoffs, and now into the 2nd round.

Kobe purist can hate all they want but he did not deserve the mvp this year. Until Round 1 of the playoffs he didn’t care to make his team better. 81 makes not an mvp. It makes for a memorable moment in sports history, but not an mvp.

asum – There’s just no way Kobe intentionally tanked a Game 7, in order to prove a point to his team. Maybe you believe he didn’t play well, and that’s fine, but tanking it on purpose? It’s ridiculous to believe that. And I knew someone would call me hypocritcal (and I guess it’s also “Compare MJD to Bill Simmons Week,” which is fine, because he’s right), and I understand why, but… if the Lakers had won the series, it would’ve validated Kobe being wronged (which I still think is valid anyway), but the same is not true of Nash, for the reason that I’ve stated 482 times: it’s the system, it’s not Nash. Whereas, with the Lakers… it’s not about system, it’s about Kobe. They are 100% dependent on Kobe Bryant.

And regardless of all that… I don’t see how eeking out a 7-gamer in a 2-seed vs. 7-seed validates Nash as MVP. If the 2-seed in the stronger conference also has the MVP playing for them, shouldn’t they also be a threat to win the NBA title, and not about to whooped by the 6-seed?