Quote:
Originally Posted by SpecC
that would kind of be like calling out people like karl malone and john stockton for never winning championships in the micheal jordan era
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John Stockton, the greatest pure point guard in nba history, never won an MVP. Karl Malone, the top 2 or 3 PF of all time won twice, and they both got to the finals
twice. None of those clauses apply to steve nash. And this certainly is not the jordan era. I don't see any 72 win teams winning the championship year after year after year. The only team that even compares to the Bulls dominance is the Spurs, but its still hardly a comparison.
You think of all the mvp's in league history and nearly all of them have been to the finals. The only two in recent memory that havent are dirk, nash, and KG. In KG's defense, he is the hardest working player in the league, and he just won defensive player of the year.
Let's take a look at the past 20 years of MVPs.
Dirk- No finals
Nash- TWO time winner, no finals
KG- One time winner, no finals, former defensive player of the year, won mvp when he had 1/10th the talent on his team as Nash did.
Tim Duncan- Two time winner. Arguably the greatest PF in nba history. Four time NBA champion. Only player in NBA history that's 9 time all-nba team and 9 time all-defensive team in first 9 season.
AI- One time winner, the hardest playing little man ever to play in the league. Took the lowly 76ers to the finals and won one of the greatest game 1 upsets I've ever seen.
Karl Malone - 2 time winner, 3 time all nba defensive team. 2 Finals appearances.
Shaq- 1 time winner, 4 time nba champion.
David "The Admiral" Robinson- 1 time winner, 2 time nba champion, 1992 defensive player of the year, 4 time defensive 1st team, 4 time defensive 2nd team.
MJ- 5 time winner. Often referred to as the GOAT. 6 NBA championships, 9 time first team all defense.
Magic Johnson- 3 time winner, 5 time NBA champion
Beyond 1987 you have Larry Bird, Moses Malone, Erving, Kareem, Moses Malone, Bill Walton, McAdoo, Willis Reed, Unseld, Petit, Oscar, and Cousy.
Out of all those MVPs, there are 3 that stand out as undeserving. I say 3 because Dirk and Nash I think are completely undeserving, KG and the Admiral only halfway undeserving.
So, lets step it up another level, because it would be a completely different argument if Nash had won once... but Nash won TWICE.
People who have won twice:
Kareem, Jordan, Russel, Chamberlain, Bird, Magic, Moses, Timmy D, Mailman, Pettit.... and Steve Nash!???
For the sake of argument, we'll scratch pettit off the list because he was born in 1932, making him ridiculously irrelevant to anything in 2008.
So looking at championships... not finals appearances, but full fledged NBA championships we have Kareem (6), Jordan (6), Russel (11), Chamberlain (2), Bird (3), Moses Malone (1), Timmy D (4), Mailman (0*)
Karl Malone indeed gets an asterisk because he got to the nba finals TWICE and lost to the greatest player of all time and the greatest team of all time (as far as winning percentages is concerned).
Thus, steve nash is the only two time mvp in the last 50 years to have never been to the nba finals. Steve Nash is one of two two time mvp's in the last 50 years to have never won the nba finals. Steve Nash is only player on the multi-mvp list to have played with another mvp winner and not won at 2 championships.
Now let's look at 1st/2nd all-defensive teams as well. Kareem (11), Jordan (9), Russel (1), first year of award), Bird (3), Moses Malone (2), Karl Malone (2), Tim Duncan (9). Chamberlain (NA)
So Steve Nash is the ONLY two time mvp in nba history to have played in the league since the inception of the all-nba defensive team and to have never been a member of it.
Given the above mentioned facts, I conclude that steve nash may have been worthy of one nba mvp. But to win two is an insult to players like Hakeem, Shaq, Walton, and Barkley who only won 1 and to players like Patrick Ewing and Kobe Bryant who have never been mvp winners.