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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

As expected Nash wins MVP award

Associated Press

PHOENIX – Steve Nash invited all of his Phoenix Suns teammates up to the podium when he accepted the NBA’s most valuable player award Sunday.

The gesture was befitting of a player who earned the trophy by getting everybody involved, and making his team a 62-game winner – 33 more victories than the previous season.

“I really just want to share this with my teammates,” Nash said. “This has been an incredible year for me and for our team. For me to come to a new situation and be accepted the way I’ve been by these guys, and for us to be able to form the bond that we have, it’s been special.”

The Suns point guard edged Miami Heat center Shaquille O’Neal by 34 points to win the award, the fourth-closest margin since the media began determining the winner in 1981.

Nash is from Victoria, British Columbia, and is the first Canadian to win the NBA’s MVP award.

“It’s an incredible oddity in many ways,” Nash said. “My neighborhood didn’t have any NBA players. I was offered one scholarship. Obviously hockey is the first, second and third story in our country, so to be here is very unlikely.”

Nash, 31, was drafted by Phoenix as the No. 15 pick overall out of Santa Clara in 1996. Two years later, with Kevin Johnson and Jason Kidd playing ahead of him, he asked for a trade and was sent to Dallas. The deal included the draft choice that the Suns used to get Shawn Marion.

Just after last season, the Suns loaded a charter jet with team officials, new owner Robert Sarver, coaches and players and went to Dallas to try to persuade Nash to sign a free agent deal with Phoenix.

“We went there with one purpose and that was to come back with Steve Nash,” Suns chairman Jerry Colangelo said.

Nash agreed to a five-year, $65 million contract, and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban didn’t match it.

Nash received 65 first-place votes to O’Neal’s 58. He is the sixth guard to win the award, joining Bob Cousy, Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson.

Nash is the first player to lead the league in assists (11.5) and be named MVP since Johnson in 1987, and joins Charles Barkley (1993) as the second Phoenix player to win the award.