Nash honored, but says he would have voted for Shaq

[ducks]

Nash honored, but says he would have voted for Shaq
By BOB BAUM, AP Sports Writer
May 7, 2005

PHOENIX (AP) -- The official announcement won't come until Sunday, but the word was out when the Phoenix Suns practiced Saturday: Steve Nash has won the NBA's most valuable player award.

The Suns' ever-energized point guard said the impending honor would be a recognition of the team's success and refreshing, unselfish style of play more than of his individual accomplishments.

``I definitely won this award because of my role on the team,'' Nash said. ``I didn't win this because I overpower people or I'm dominating people with physical ability, whether it's jumping ability or strength or height.''

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The addition of Nash was the main reason the Suns went from 29 victories in 2003-04 to a league-best 62 this season. The new-look, up-tempo team averaged 110 points per game, the most in the NBA in a decade. It is, Nash has often said, the way the game is supposed to be played.

``To be considered in this setting, and the way the team plays, is really a testament to the game of basketball,'' Nash said of the award. ``Our team couldn't come close to winning 60 games if we didn't share the ball.''

With Nash at the controls, the Suns used a turbocharged version of ``small ball'' to blow past opponents. All five starters -- Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson -- had 30-point games. The Suns shattered the NBA record for 3-pointers in a season. Nash led the way with a career-best and NBA-leading 11.5 assists per contest.

``It's really an unbelievable honor for him,'' coach Mike D'Antoni said, ``and the team should take a lot of pride in that. Amare, Shawn, Joe, Q, Jimmy (Jackson), all those guys have really helped him with the award, it's part them, part him.''

With Nash getting him the ball, Stoudemire's scoring average climbed by 5 1/2 points to 26 per game, and his field goal shooting from 48 to 56 percent.

``I think it's more like a team award,'' Stoudemire said, ``but Steve is the motor. He has the ball in his hands 80 percent of the time, and a guy like Steve, he gets everyone involved.''

Nowhere are Nash's accomplishments more celebrated than in his native Canada. He grew up Victoria, the distinctively British-flavored capital of British Columbia on Vancouver Island and not exactly a basketball hotbed. After high school, Santa Clara was the only college to seriously recruit him.

Even Nash wonders how someone from that background could become an MVP in the NBA.

``I don't really know what to make of it,'' he said. ``I had one scholarship offer, and I didn't have any NBA players in my neighborhood. I don't even think I dreamed about this award. I don't know what to say. I just kept trying.''

The Suns return to playoff action Monday in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. In some ways, the award is a distraction.

``I think that's another thing that's really preventing me from getting a good handle on what's happening here,'' Nash said, ``because I am totally concerned with Monday and our game, and pending awards and stuff like that, no matter how much of an honor it would be, is really in the way of what's most important.''

As one would expect from one accustomed to giving rather than receiving, Nash said he wouldn't have voted for himself.

``I would probably vote for Shaquille (O'Neal),'' he said. ``He's one of the greatest ever to play the game. I look up to him. He's a huge part of this game's history already. He's one of the very best personalities and players in the game's history.''

[ducks]

Shaq says Washington, not MVP snub, is his top concern
By TIM REYNOLDS, AP Sports Writer
May 7, 2005

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AP - May 7, 5:14 pm EDT
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MIAMI (AP) -- Watching Washington's series-clinching win over Chicago on television with his Miami teammates, Shaquille O'Neal heard Wizards fans chanting, ``We want Shaq! We want Shaq!''

Bad move.

``Be careful what you ask for,'' O'Neal said Saturday. ``We'll be ready.''

So, while Phoenix guard Steve Nash formally is named the NBA's Most Valuable Player on Sunday, O'Neal insists all his attention will be on the Wizards, whom the Miami Heat host in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

O'Neal said he didn't consider losing the MVP race to be a snub. Others strongly disagreed; Heat coach Stan Van Gundy called the result ``beyond ludicrous.''

``If you went and asked any general manager in the league for the past dozen years who's the one player they'd want to have, they'd say Shaquille O'Neal,'' Van Gundy said. ``And he's been selected by you brilliant people in the media, selected as the most valuable player in the league one time. Once? Only once?''

The Wizards, who were 0-4 against Miami during the regular season, seemed less than excited about the prospects of facing an angry and motivated Shaq -- who says his sore right thigh is much better and that he doesn't expect to be physically hampered in this series.

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``He didn't win MVP? Uh-oh,'' Washington guard Gilbert Arenas said. ``Oh, wow. No comment.''

O'Neal feigned disappointed tears when asked about the MVP topic Saturday, and congratulated Nash -- the first Canadian to win the award -- on his season.

``He's a great guy,'' O'Neal said. ``It's been a good year for Steve. He had twins, just got married, is playing great basketball. Congratulations, Steve. Congratulations to the Canadian people. It's a great honor. ... But we're focusing on the big prize at the end. I think that's going to be more important.''

The Wizards are the next obstacle for the Heat, who had the week off waiting for the Chicago-Washington series to conclude. Miami won its four regular-season games against Washington by an average of 12.5 points, but the teams haven't played since Dec. 15.

Washington -- which is in the second round of the NBA playoffs for the first time since 1982 -- feels it has improved vastly since then.

``I think we're a better team now. I know we're a better team,'' Wizards coach Eddie Jordan said. ``I'm sure they are, too, so let's toss it up and see where it goes.''

The biggest statistical discrepancy Washington couldn't overcome against Miami in the regular season was points in the paint; the Heat outscored the Wizards by 90 points around the basket in the four matchups.

And, certainly, the Wizards won't come up with a way to stop O'Neal before Sunday, especially with their frontcourt corps thinned by the suspension of forward Kwame Brown for the remainder of the postseason. But Washington's triumvirate of perimeter threats -- Arenas, Larry Hughes and Antawn Jamison -- could give Miami fits, especially if Heat point guard Damon Jones is limited defensively by his bruised right heel.

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AP - May 7, 4:51 pm EDT
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Arenas, Hughes and Jamison combined to average 63.4 points -- more than three-fifths of the Wizards' total offensive output -- in the six-game series against the Bulls. No other Washington starter averaged double figures against Chicago.

``We're going to play our game, we're going to try to keep the tempo and force the pace, make them run with us,'' Jordan said. ``We'll pressure, we'll zone, we'll do everything we can to get them out of a rhythm -- which is going to be hard to do.''

True, especially since Heat guard Dwyane Wade is coming off a sensational series against New Jersey, one where he became just the seventh player in NBA history to average more than 25 points, eight assists and six rebounds while shooting 50 percent in a playoff round.

``Everything starts with their guards, and they're playing well right now,'' Wade said. ``But we've got a lot of confidence and things have been going well for us.''

If he was paying attention, Wade may have learned long ago that these teams would meet in the playoffs. Hughes said he told him things would work out that way during their last regular-season meeting.

He says the Wizards are relishing the chance to silence their critics.

``It's fun to have people doubt us, and we did lose to them in the regular season,'' Hughes said. ``But it was early. We're a much better team. We have better focus now. We're ready to play.''

[scott]

When the Suns get bounced by [pick any Texas team] for the lack of defense that generally follows Nash around, most writers say they should have voted for Shaq too.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Nash, you don't have to suck up to Shaq. You won't make it out of the West, so you don't have to worry about playing him.