A few people who have obviously lost their mind clearly got together and hatched some storyline that Steve Nash -- 35-year-old Steve Nash -- is better in 2009-10 than his two MVP seasons.
Better!
Funny stuff. It's not possible at such an advanced age. It's collusion because too many of the people who know best agreed in independent interviews. Or it's some PR drive to get Nash back into the warm glow after the Suns tumbled from relevance last season. And another thing:
It's true.
At the very least, it's close enough to being true to consider the possibility that players don't dominate their position (and most of the league) while winning consecutive MVP awards only to play better three seasons later. When they're a month away from turning 36. When their team supposedly began the season on the decline.
For all the accomplishments of his Hall of Fame career, 2009-10 could surprisingly become the lasting testament to Nash's greatness. This for a player who had long ago established himself as durable, dependable, a great shooter and a great passer. Nash has been all of those, only maybe never more than in his 14th season.
Nash himself, agreeing: "Because I can do the same things. I don't feel like there's any skill that I can't do that I once did. Maybe there are some slight differences, but if anything, there are probably some slight differences in experience too. But I don't feel any physical differences."
His coach, Alvin Gentry, a Phoenix assistant during those MVP runs: "I think so. I really think so. I'm not sure if we're as deep as we were with those teams and we had some very good players on that team. Not that we don't have good players on this team, but he does a lot more for us. His leadership has really picked up. I just think he's having a tremendous year."
An opposing coach, Paul Westphal of the Kings: "He really bothers me. Because he is 36, he's supposed to at least change his game. He doesn't even have an old-man game, he's still quick and great. I don't know if I've ever seen him have a better year, and he's won MVP twice."
| Steve Nash this season vs. his two MVP seasons | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Stats for this season through Jan. 8, 2010. |
Nash won the MVP in 2004-05 while averaging 15.5 points and 11.5 assists and shooting 50.2 percent overall including 43.1 percent from behind the arc. He had the compelling storyline -- and that hardware often goes to the candidate with campaign literature that transcends numbers -- of starring in the dramatic turnaround in his first season after leaving the Mavericks for the Suns as a free agent.
Nash won the MVP in 2005-06 while averaging 18.8 points and 10.5 assists and shooting 51.2 percent overall and 34.2 percent on 3-pointers. Joining Magic Johnson as the only point guards to win the award twice came, strangely, as the Suns stepped down from 62 to 54 victories, though they may have eased up the final couple weeks as they locked up the Pacific Division title and No. 2 in the West. The compelling storyline was easily leading the league in assists as the ignition to the first team in NBA history to finish first in scoring, shooting, 3-point percentage and free-throw percentage despite Amar'e Stoudemire playing only three games after a preseason knee injury. Nash had career highs in five categories, three of which still stand.
Nash in 2009-10 is at 18.9 points and 11.3 assists (No. 1) and shooting 54.3 percent overall (15th in all and tops among guards) and 44.1 percent from behind the arc (No. 8). He is on early pace to top 50 percent from the field, 40 percent on 3s and 90 percent on free throws for the fourth time, when Larry Bird is the only other player to do it twice. The compelling storyline, of course, is the Suns going from 46 wins last season while missing the playoffs to a 23-13 start that has exceeded most expectations.
"First of all, I think we're back playing the way he's comfortable playing," Gentry said, noting Phoenix's return to the signature up-tempo game. "I think that's huge. If you look at the last 30 games of last season, he had a great year. He had over 11 assists a game the last 30 games. I think he was meant to play this way. And if you play this way, he's going to be one of the best point guards in the league. He's as good a shooter as there is in the league. Obviously, the assists he makes. He's a great free-throw shooter. And he's a great teammate. To me, he's playing as well if not a little better than he did when he was the MVP in the league for two years."
It's back to the future and then some. Nash is nearly 36 and arguably exceeding the most-decorated seasons of his life in what could turn out to be the legacy moment of a great career, even more than the rare MVP run. It's true.
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