Steve Nash revived the Phoenix Suns in the 2004-05 season by improving them by a staggering 33 wins from the previous year’s campaign. I won’t try to sway you from believing that he didn’t whole-heartedly deserve that MVP. Others will tell you that Shaq or Amare could have won the award, but the deeper you dive into the numbers, the more you’ll understand why Nash earned this award.

The 2005-06 season, however, is an entirely different story. While Nash was without his favorite target, Amare Stoudemire, for all but three games he managed to get the Suns back to the playoffs with the NBA’s Most Improved Player, Boris Diaw. Nash’s 15.5 points and 11.5 assists per game were above average, but not MVP-level. Just a 6-hour drive west from Phoenix you’d find a 27 year old superstar carrying a ragtag group to the playoffs on his back. Kobe Bryant had a career-high and league-leading 35.4 points per game to go along with his 5.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists in the ’05-06 season. The Lakers won 45 games and clinched the 7-seed despite the lack of talent that surrounded Kobe. (The other four starters Kwame Brown, Lamar Odom, Chris Mihm, and Smush Parker) Kobe carried that team, scoring 40 or more in 21 games, 50 or more in 4 games, 62 once, and a legendary 81 point game against Toronto. Had the Lakers finished higher in the standings, I think that Kobe’s efforts would’ve been awarded. Bryant finished 2nd in first place votes and 4th overall in MVP voting but he was robbed, in my opinion.

I don’t want to downplay the performance of Steve Nash. The Suns wouldn’t have even made the playoffs without him. He is an incredibly valuable player, but he wasn’t the MOST valuable player. In 2005-06, that player was Kobe Bryant. No hard feelings, Steve.

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