Thursday, May 12, 2005

Pistons Lose And The MVP Race

Okay, the Pistons lost. They beat the Pacers senseless in Game One, got up big early in Game Two and mailed the rest of the game in. It's not the end of the world. I defer to ESPN's Chris Berman for this nugget of wisdom. Once is an accident, twice is a trend, three times is a problem. Well, boys and girls, the Pacers have one win. I'm not ready to go into panic mode quite yet.

If Indiana wins Game Three, thus giving them two wins, that qualifies as a trend and then I would start to wonder. However, until Game Three is over, I still think the Pistons will advance.

There was some controversy about the NBA MVP Award. Most of it caused by Miami Herald columnist Dan LeBatard's left-handed assertion that race "may" have played a factor in Steve Nash capturing the award over Shaquille O'Neal. The easy comeback is to assume that being a homer played a part in LeBatard's opinion-where was he all the other years Shaq came up empty while in L.A.? Unfortunately, by bringing race into the matter, all LeBatard accomplished (besides getting himself more attention) was diminish Nash's remarkable season.

Nash was just as valuable to Phoenix as O'Neal was to Miami this year. Last year, the Suns couldn't even dream playoffs. This year, they are the best in the West. When Nash missed some time due to injury the Suns stumbled.

While Miami dominated the East in 2004-05, the Heat did manage to get to the playoffs last year while the Big Guy was still playing and fighting with Kobe Bryant. O'Neal elevated the Heat, but they weren't crummy without him. Phoenix, however, was terrible a year ago and is a completely different animal with Nash in the fold.

Shaq was indeed worthy of the MVP award. So was Nash. Why some just cannot accept that is puzzling.

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