Yep there were no real candidates the years he won the MVP.
I wouldnt go that far...but it was a unique time in NBA MVP history.
Let's look at the two years Nash apparently "stole" the MVP:
2004-05 Voting
1. Nash - 1,066
2. O'Neal - 1,032
3. Nowitzki - 349
4. Duncan - 328
Nash barely beat out Shaq. O'Neal, for him, had a down statisctical year of 22.9 PPG and 10.4 RPG for his first season with Miami. Granted his presence onthe Heat transformed their team and he did nearly win this MVP.....but this was not a "30 and 13" Shaq season where we could make threads that thiswas the biggest conspiracy of all time that Shaq didn't win it. Tim Duncan, an MVP candidate every year, missed 16 games that year (most at the tail end ofthe season) which is the most he has ever missed in his career. He also averaged his lowest PPG and RPG totals of his at-the-time 8-year career during thisseason. For the Kobe fans, he was absent from the Top 4 because the Lakers went 34-48 and tied for last in their division.
Nash's case: Nash happened to win based mainly on taking over for Marbury in PHX and taking a 29-53 team to a 62-20 record, which at the time resulted inthe 15th-best team record in NBA history. Suns players and coaches spent all season gushing over how their team has pulled a 180 with Nash and he led the NBAin assists per game by 2.5 over the next highest player. It was a toss up between Shaq and Nash and he got the win, just like it was a toss up the year Kiddtransformed the Nets as a PG but narrowly lost (954 to 897) to Tim Duncan.
2005-06 Voting
1. Nash - 924
2. James - 688
3. Nowitzki - 544
4. Bryant - 483
Lebron James finishes in 2nd place and was 21 years old. We knew he didn't have a chance at MVP yet. Even MJ had to wait until he was 25. And the Cavs hadthe 6th-best record in the league. Bryant went off for 35 PPG and lit up the league offensively. But alas the Lake Show finished with the 10th-best record inthe NBA and as we know you are never (or rarely) going to outright win NBA MVP with your team that low down the pole. Dirk went off for nearly 27 PPG and theMavs went 60-22, and he definitely had a case for MVP.
Nash's case: The Suns come out of the gate losing Joe Johnson in a trade nearly everyone ripped. The 3rd game of the season they then lose Amare for theyear with his knee injury. What do the Suns then do? Proceed to go 54-28, 4th best record in entire NBA. Nash again leads the NBA in assists by a wide marginwhile shooting .512 from the floor and upping his PPG by over 3 from last year. Not even seeing one game that year a person would guess Nash would be in therunning for MVP again that year knowing the things above. And again, he so happened to win out.
Once people can get past looking at the history and who has won what and instead focus on the years Nash won we then can at least say "well, I didnt agreewith him winning it those two individual years.....but I can see how they voted for him." Instead of a few years later omitting the evidence and blaringhow it was criminal, he has more MVPs than Player X, the award is forever tainted, etc. This wasn't the 80's or 90's....and he had as much saythose two years as anyone.
I will save this info for the next thread that comes up.
