04/16/24
April 26, 2006
posted by liam to basketball at 07:47 PM - 30 comments
I hope Gilbert O'Sullivan sues you for getting that song in my head. Hey, he went after the be i to the zee. Em. Ehh. Arrh. Kay. Eye. 2. The. Zee.
posted by yerfatma at 08:29 PM on April 26, 2006
Ya know, in the past years there has always been one guy who has stood out over everyone else for a year, so predicting the MVP was like picking an apple from a bowl of oranges. This is the first year in a while that there have been four or 5 legit contenders for the honor. Steve Nash comes back to defend the honor, Lebron James leads his team to the playoffs for the first time in god knows when, Kobe has a breakout year scoring awesome amounts of points and getting the Lakers into the playoffs, and then Chauncey Billups leads the best team in the NBA. I say or 5 cuz there are 2 wild cards i think could do it. Dwayne Wade and Tony Parker have both been huge for their teams this year. But then again, look at the source. From a newspaper in Arizona. Nash plays in Arizona. Heck, the papers in Atlanta are probably saying Z. Pachulia deserves the honor of MVP.
posted by zachaweenus at 08:29 PM on April 26, 2006
Yerfatma, a thousand apologies. I had forgotten the song but it must have been lodged in my subconscious since childhood. I promise in future posts only to reference Leo Sayer or Dan Fogelberg, or Dan Hill in matters pertaining to ice hockey.
posted by liam at 08:50 PM on April 26, 2006
The Canadian Press says so too.
posted by loquax at 08:50 PM on April 26, 2006
posted by wingnut4life at 08:54 PM on April 26, 2006
Sigh. Steve Nash the Derek Jeter of the basketball world strikes again. Of course, he took a team that didn't have any great players and took them to the playoffs unlike LeBron James and Kobe Bryant with all the superstars that surround them. Nothing against the man, clearly one of the elite basketball players of our times, and, from all accounts, a nice man. I just hate when the media latch onto certain players and deify them.
posted by uglatto at 09:26 PM on April 26, 2006
I feel like Kobe was robbed. He really should had won the MVP.
posted by STUNNER at 09:35 PM on April 26, 2006
Steve Nash the Derek Jeter of the basketball world strikes again. Except, the difference here is that at least Steve Nash is the most valuable player on his own team. That, everyone can pretty much agree on...
posted by grum@work at 10:40 PM on April 26, 2006
You got me, Grum, I agree. I just wanted to say that he was overrated by the media and was terrible at defense. But, yes, I can't argue with that.
posted by uglatto at 10:47 PM on April 26, 2006
I would just like to say that I have never seen Steve Nash boot a grounder.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 12:07 AM on April 27, 2006
Of course, he took a team that didn't have any great players and took them to the playoffs unlike LeBron James and Kobe Bryant with all the superstars that surround them. So you are telling me that Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion aren't great players? What superstars play for the Lakers and Cavs? Because Lamar Odom is no superstar, and neither is Alan Hughes. If Nash did get the MVP, then Kobe got screwed. I didn't see Nash get 81 points in a game, or get 50+ points in 5 games.
posted by kingosiris at 03:40 AM on April 27, 2006
who the f!@# is "Alan Hughes" ? larry hughes is pretty famous do you have an endoresment deal? Because Lamar odom has a few ilgouskus is a really good center phill jackson is an o.k. coach amare played 2 games maybe 20 mins this whole season marion is really good has the ugliest jump shot in the league but he is solid who else barbosa diaw tim ive played for more teams than kendall gill thomas come on koby is a rapist he might have to score 1000 points to ever win MVP.
posted by BigSpizznizzle at 04:22 AM on April 27, 2006
Of course, he took a team that didn't have any great players and took them to the playoffs unlike LeBron James and Kobe Bryant with all the superstars that surround them. this comment was so foolish i swore it was sarcasm.... it is right?
posted by Pabo at 05:53 AM on April 27, 2006
Spizz, good thing you put a period at the end of that or I wouldn't have known you'd finished your sentence...
posted by ajaffe at 07:21 AM on April 27, 2006
Kobe didn't get robbed. Lebron didn't get robbed. No one got robbed. Nash is a deserving MVP - he had great numbers, is a true leader (according to all who play for him) - helped five guys on his team to career years (last time I checked none of Kwame, Lamar, Brian or any of Kobe's teammates had better years, but I guess that's not really his job) and his team, whom many picked to not make the playoffs - got the second seed. Cleveland and the Lakers just didn't have good enough years. It's tough for an MVP to come from a 4th or 7th seed. I am happy at Nash winning, I love watching him play and find his game to be unique among point guards. Too many people harp about his defence (Kobe is the only guy on the list of MVP candidates that plays a lick of one-on-one defense), and he is far from a good one-on-one defender, but he can take charges, force turnovers and plays "team defense" (if there is a such a term). Anyone who watched the game last night should be pretty impressed with his total game. He scores when it is needed and is very capable of putting up 30. It's just not his job. I think it's a fine choice.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 08:28 AM on April 27, 2006
Take a look at who was the point guard on the highest scoring team in the NBA for like the last 6 six years. Then, take a look at the career averages of everyone on the Suns and compare them to their scoring averages this year. And you might want to wait for Nash to lead his team to 4 championships before comparing him to Jeter. Surely, Bryant and James are strong contenders though, not sure anyone could really quibble with the choice of any of the three. er, on further review, what weedy said too.
posted by sfts2 at 08:31 AM on April 27, 2006
Kobe is the only guy on the list of MVP candidates that plays a lick of one-on-one defense) Weedy, does that list include Chauncey Billups? He plays very solid one-on-one defense.
posted by bkdet at 08:36 AM on April 27, 2006
I am not the NBA fan that I used to be, but I don't see how Steve Nash can be the MVP, especially in light of Kobe Bryant and Lebron James carrying their respective teams into the playoffs with much less talent around them.
posted by MassNole at 09:41 AM on April 27, 2006
Kingosiris.... Did you miss the game where Nash had a double double in the first quarter?? I didn't see Kobe do that. MassNole...I forget that Kwame Bown was a second round pick. Lamar Odom... No talent. Drew Gooden, wasn't a #4 pick. If you think the Suns had more talent, you're making the argument for Nash. Nash just made those guys look better. I think it's sad that we're so focused on an individual accomplishment like scoring that we cannot recognize a great team player who makes the guys around him that much better.
posted by LostInDaJungle at 12:39 PM on April 27, 2006
Good news as I was part of the Anybody But Kobe coalition. If it can't be Billups it should be Nash. Lebron will get his soon enough with likely more to follow. Wade too.
posted by gradys_kitchen at 01:32 PM on April 27, 2006
aaarrrghhh...
posted by everett at 01:56 PM on April 27, 2006
like i said in my earlier posts about nash being the nba mvp..its a team game,not tennis..nash takes 4-5 average guys,makes them better,nash buys into the team concept,unlike kobe or lebron,where as, its all about them,not the team..shaq plays for the team..heat wasn't in the playoffs until shaq arrived..shaq won 3 championships with the lakers..what's kobe done?81 pts? so? 50+ 5 times? out of 80 games? what's kobe done for the other 75?nash could easliy be selfish and score 30+ points a nite,but does he? no.. he scores 18 points,10 assists a night..that's why he's the MVP..
posted by ktown at 02:31 PM on April 27, 2006
You guys all realize that Phoenix essentially has no set plays, right? They literally give the ball to Nash and he gets it done - to the tune of 54 wins. He calls for the pick and roll, he spots ths mismatches and arranges them to be taken advantage of, and he has the ball 95% of the time. He is that team. I think Kobe's scoring is easily worth 25 wins to the Lakers. I think Lebron's game is worth an equal amount. But I think Nash on Phoenix means 30-35 wins. Seriously, look at that team as you would at the beginning of the season with that personnel. They'd be awful. They're all cast-offs (save Marion, who is fun to watch but not nearly as good as he thinks he is - just see last night's game for proof).
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 03:26 PM on April 27, 2006
I have to admit I just love Nash's game...he just so, so, so...scrappy.
posted by sfts2 at 03:54 PM on April 27, 2006
what's kobe done?81 pts? so? 50+ 5 times? out of 80 games? what's kobe done for the other 75? Well, for the other 74 games (since he scored 81 and had 5 OTHER games over 50), he scored 2487 points, for an average of 33.6 PPG. Even after you arbitrarily take away his best 6 games, both stats would be enough to still lead the league. I think Kobe's scoring is easily worth 25 wins to the Lakers. I think Lebron's game is worth an equal amount. But I think Nash on Phoenix means 30-35 wins. I think that's a bit much. If they replaced Kobe, Lebron and Nash with league-average bench players, do you really think that the win totals would be 20, 25 and 19 for the Lakers, Cavaliers and Suns respectively? Now this is just a rough bit of number crunching (as I don't usually delve into basketball stats), but factoring in all the possible plays that are directly tied to scoring points (points and points-derived-off-assists*), the totals for the three players are: Kobe: 3618 (44.37% of his team's total points) Lebron: 3609 (45.10% of his team's total points) Steve: 3342 (37.61% of his team's total points) * points-derived-off-assists is calculated by the number of assists, times the average points per field goal made by the team. For LA it was 2.18, for Cleveland it was 2.17 and for Phoenix it was 2.24. The idea is that an assist is registered for any basket made, but not all baskets are of equal value (2pt or 3pt). But not every team has an equal ratio of 2pt/3pt baskets, so I calculated it based on the number of baskets made by the whole team of each type (2pt/3pt). If I really cared, I'd have removed all the baskets each player made and calculated the points/basket made for the rest of the team. But I'm a bit lazy this afternoon.
posted by grum@work at 05:45 PM on April 27, 2006
Grum you've made some good points, I think one thing that that helps prove is that while people rag on Kobe for being a ball hog, it may not neccesarily be hurting his team. Kobe is the best player on his team, hands down, and has a much better chance of hitting shots than the other players. Obviously, ball hogging too much hurts the overall effectiveness of an offense, but ragging on Kobe just because he scores a ton and carries the Lakers on his back is not justified. However, I think that a scored like Kobe is most effective when he is playing so well he draws multiple defenders, therefore leaving other players open. It is at that point that the top player has to realize the oppurtunity and get the ball to the open players for the jump shot. If a team can do that, they have the potential for a lot of success.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 06:30 PM on April 27, 2006
grum - there is a guy on every team that will have a similar percentage to Nash. Arenas, Carmelo, Garnett, Carter, Bosh, Wade, Pierce yadda yadda. But given the fact that NBA.com's poll of GMs also crowned Nash, I have a feeling your numbers may not bear the weight of significance.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 08:55 PM on April 27, 2006
i dont care how much they score in da game as long u make ya team better and brought them to the playoffs its cool he scores 81 but it doesnt matter so screw kobe 81 pts
posted by defrag3x at 03:06 PM on April 28, 2006
what about other stats.......... kobe nash winner points 35.4 18.8 kobe assits 4.5 10.5 nash boards 5.3 3.6 kobe steals 1.8 .7 kobe blks .38 .15 kobe to 3.13 3.49 kobe WINNER KOBE
posted by coolb3223 at 02:23 PM on April 30, 2006
As a Spur fan, this is one Pro athlete that I fear the most when we lock horns. An honor well deserved. Well done Steve.