Nash to be named MVP on Sunday

[Pistons < Spurs]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...v=ap&type=lgns

PHOENIX (AP) -- The Phoenix Suns scheduled a news conference for Sunday to announce that Steve Nash is the NBA's MVP for the second year in a row.

The announcement of the 1:30 p.m. EST news conference did not specify the reason, but Suns officials confirmed it was to present the award to Nash.

The Arizona Republic reported earlier that Nash would get the award, becoming the 10th player to win it in consecutive seasons.

The award is determined by a panel of sports writers and broadcasters.

Nash, 32, won his first MVP award last season, when he directed the Suns to an NBA-best 62 victories. This year, the Suns lost Amare Stoudemire to injury, and traded away Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson.

This season, Nash had career highs in scoring (18.8 points), rebounding (4.2), field goal percentage (.512) and free throw percentage (a league-leading .921). He led the league in assists at 10.5 per game and finished sixth in 3-point percentage at 43.9.

"Any time you sit back and think about just winning it once, it's mind-boggling -- the company and what it means in the history of the game," Nash said after the Republic broke the news. "To win it twice obviously just compounds that. It's just an incredible honor."

Nash was drafted by Phoenix as the No. 15 pick overall out of Santa Clara in 1996. Two years later, with Kevin Johnson and Jason Kidd playing ahead of him, he asked for a trade and was sent to Dallas. The deal included the draft choice that the Suns used to get Shawn Marion.

The Suns signed Nash to a five-year, $65 million contract in 2004, a deal Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban wouldn't match.

[Pistons < Spurs]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2436205

Nash expected to receive second MVP on Sunday


PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns have scheduled a news conference for Sunday at which it is expected guard Steve Nash will officially be named MVP for the second straight season.

The announcement would come the day after Nash helped lead the Suns to an opening-round playoff series win over the Los Angeles Lakers, becoming the eighth team to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a playoff series.

Late last month, several news outlets reported Nash would win the award for a second consecutive season. The Arizona Republic and others reported that the voting shows Nash edging LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, Chauncey Billups and Kobe Bryant for the MVP.

The Phoenix Suns playmaker would become the 10th player to win the award in consecutive seasons.

Nash, 32, won his first MVP award last season when he edged Shaquille O'Neal in what was the fourth-closest balloting in history.

This season, Nash had career-highs in points (18.8 points per game), rebounds (4.2 per game), field goal percentage (51.2 percent) and free-throw percentage (92.1 percent -- best in the league). He was also the league-leader in assists (10.5) and shot nearly 50 percent from 3-point range.

[JHoLove]

I was hoping the Lakers would win so Nash would be out of the playoffs when it was announced... I wanted to see how that would work out.

[TDMVPDPOY]

td finish 8th and tp finish 9th i heard on sanantonio radio

[polandprzem]

http://www.nba.com/awards2006/gmsurvey_mvp.html

The results.

Brand infront of TD

[JMarkJohns]

My top three were Nash, Kobe and Dirk with either of them being worthy for the honor.

Brand was fourth and LeBron was fifth in my opinion. Billups, then Wade, then Parker, then Duncan, then Arenas to finish out my top-10.

[Texas_Ranger]

I think that Dirk should be MVP

[1Parker1]