Steve Nash is point guard for the #1 seed Phoenix Suns, the best team in the NBA. Steve Nash led the NBA in assists for the team that led the league in scoring. Steve Nash is the 2004-2005 NBA MVP. Steve Nash is white.
See any connection?
Unless you’re Miami Herald columnist Dan LeBetard, you probably wouldn’t. At least I would hope not.
Because there is none, nothing, zilch. You’d be picking at straws, waving into thin air, hallucinating a conspiracy that is too big, too dangerous to be toyed with.
Nash edged out Shaquille O’Neal in the fourth-closest MVP voting in NBA history, his 75th steal of the year, and a shocker among the casual “hey, look the Lakers are playing” fan but no more than a well-deserved slice of big-man pie for the true NBA die-hards. He became the first non-center since Allen Iverson in 2001, and the first white man since, you guessed it, Larry Bird in 1986. He makes us all look back at Jason Kidd in 2001, Isiah Thomas in 1990, and John Stockton just about entirely through the 90s and think, gee, have they been here all along?
Nash didn’t win because he’s white, he won because he is not Shaquille O’Neal. He doesn’t have 325 pounds to knock around, or a 7-foot frame to utilize. He’s smart and crafty and commanding, he’s quick and understated, and he doesn’t refer to himself as a Greek philosopher.
He averaged a league-best 11.5 dimes a game, the most since Stockton in ’95, to go with just under a steal and 16 points per. He took a Phoenix Suns team to the third-greatest turnaround in NBA history, finishing 62-20 (60-15 with Nash healthy), up from 29-53 last year, and provided a major part of the highest-scoring offense in the league (110.4 ppg).
And with a #1 seed and a convincing first-round debauchery of the Grizzlies, the Suns seem like everyone’s favorite to meet up with an Eastern Conference foe in the Finals this year, marking their first trip since 1993.
Yet, the hammer drops. LeBetard thinks there’s a race issue, Nash only won because he is white–Shaq was more deserving. The black community, the same community which has dominated professional basketball since the 80s, has been side-swiped by a 6’3″ white boy who somehow broke into the party and is now taking all the favors.
“Voters might have simply chosen Nash because he was different and the underdog,” he wrote in a Sunday column. “And being white is part of what made him those things”
Stop the presses. It’s just ridiculous, positively ridiculous, to bring race in on this issue. Did LeBetard and Jermaine O’Neal go to the same high school? Shaq has not taken the Heat any farther than they went last year without him, and until he does so let’s not keep singing his praises, chiming his bells, and erecting statues along South Beach in his honor. His numbers were not Bonds-esq, he doesn’t transcend the game more than he has done his whole career, a career which has seen him only one other MVP award.
I try not to fall for the self-proclaimed Diesel hype, because, as we saw last year in the Finals, he can be stopped. His numbers (22.4, 10.6) were not awe-inspiring, and had the Cavs made the playoffs and Philly done better against Detroit, I’d bet LeBron and Iverson would each have tallied more votes. But they’re black, so it’s fine, right?
MVPs down the line of history have always been scoring rulers or home run champions, the statistical garbage disposals with gross amounts of talent and charisma–not all of them leaders in more than a stat line. Nash, finally, is a little bit more hearty, more complete, someone a true sports fan can appreciate, giving hope to the Stacey Augmons and Derek Fishers of the world. We look at him and keep thinking he is in a league way above his head, but in reality he is heads above everyone else. He doesn’t get the added hype or attention because he’s white, it’s because he deserves it, a concept only Ron Artest and Kobe Bryant can only begin to understand.
There is something about the underdog that sportswriters and fans love, but voting for the Most Valuable Player in a league has nothing to do with it. For once it wasn’t just about the numbers but about the player’s impact on a particular team. LeBetard says it’s “unprecedented”; I say it’s about time.
Value is always magnified when you’re 7-feet tall, a biogenetic freak like Shaq is. But his numbers don’t lie, and when comparing value there is only one man who stands taller.
Figuratively, that is.
4 replies on “Nash’s Bridges”
excellent Amazingly written, well argued. Great work. I agree nash should have been MVP, but even if i didnt, this is just a stellar piece of writing.
Chicken and the Egg If NASH is responsible for the turnaround why is D’Antoni coach of the year?
Nash is being propped up here. Not because of race…I agree that’s absurd…but because he had a great year for the team with the best record. Does that make him MVP? Nope.
Anyway – well written dude.
not a racial issue but shaq shouldve won Saying that Nash is what a “true sports fan” thinks a player should be is absurd. Shaq has the biggest fan base in the entire NBA. Also shaq does have the body frame to take the ball up the court like nash does. So how is he supposed to compare with Nash on assists, so how can you hold Shaq’s size against him. Anyway the Suns wouldve in my opinion would have been a .500 team without nash the way Amare,Johnson, and Marion are all playing. But it was a well written arguement and I dont think it was racial issue either i just think Shaq deserved the award
NBA MVP is a joke. It always goes to the player with the most hype heading into the playoffs. The person who most deserves an award in Phoenix is Colangelo (the GM). He went and got a PG (Nash) to run with the pieces that he already put in place.