Only Kobe fans were saying he got robbed in 2006 MVP, why?

[Ritzo]

MVP votes
1. Nash - 924 points
2. LeBron - 688 points
3. Dirk - 544 points
4. Kobe - 483 points
5. Billups - 430 points

Not only Nash won by a large margin, Kobe was never close of winning it. You never hear LeBron and Dirk fans saying they got robbed by Nash. They will always bring this up in the "Worst MVP winners" topics. How about bringing up the robbery they did to CP3 in 2008 when they gifted Kobe an MVP?

[One_and_Done]

Lebron fans don't need to cry about it, he's already proven he's the GOAT. 1 more or less MVP doesn't matter to Lebron. To fans of other lesser players, a mere 1 MVP is hard to swallow, especially when that MVP is widely panned as a lifetime achievement award.

[bledredwine]

Lebron fans don't need to cry about it, he's already proven he's the GOAT. 1 more or less MVP doesn't matter to Lebron. To fans of other lesser players, a mere 1 MVP is hard to swallow, especially when that MVP is widely panned as a lifetime achievement award.

Lebron is no where near proving he’s the GOAT.

As for OP, MVP’s are rarely indicative of league dominance. You can be the most dominant player in the league and not win MVP. I was watching a video yesterday analyzing the best individual seasons statistically and they definitely didn’t line up with MVP winners.

[Goomba3666]

So weird that one of the mods, who LOVES Lebron, told me that the term "stans" is forbidden. Ever since then, I haven't seen him ever enforce that even when it's blatantly obvious in the title. Lol

Title was changed to remove baiting. Do not backseat moderate or use threads to air your moderator grievances.

[bledredwine]

So weird that one of the mods, who LOVES Lebron, told me that the term "stans" is forbidden. Ever since then, I haven't seen him ever enforce that even when it's blatantly obvious in the title. Lol

It’s nothing new.

You should have seen the PC forum mods; favoritism, propaganda, double standards. They have it all in that terrible forum.

[UcanUwill]

Kobe definitely had a great season, I think a lot of people think he should have won MVP, not just ' Kobe stans'', who overall are the most delusional fanboys in the NBA. But here, its not just his fanboys.

[Mavrelous]

If Westbrook and Jokic (2021) deserved the MVP (IMO Jokic did, Wetbrook not so sure), then Kobe deserved the MVP in 06, or at least had a legitimate case, since what Nash did with Amare-less Suns was amazing.

[cupcakesnake]

Kobe averaged 35ppg in 2006 and the MVP race felt pretty wide open with no singular candidate sweeping the narrative. If you're a Kobe fan and believed Kobe was the best player in the NBA, 2006 seemed like a good opportunity to cement that with an MVP. The Lakers were solid that year (45 wins, 8th ranked offense) even though the roster looked really weak outside of Kobe and Lamar Odom.

Nash's case ended winning out (reigning MVP loses his all-NBA teammate and leads them to 54 wins, while improving his individual stats), but it wasn't something people felt overwhelmingly about. Nash got 57 first place votes, while 67 first place votes went to 5 other players (Lebron, Dirk, Kobe, Billups, and even 1 to Elton Brand).

In 2006, Shaq's prime was over, Tim Duncan's minutes/role were being managed in the regular season, and KG was on a joke team. I kinda felt Tim Duncan was still the league's best player, but it was a murky time when Nash, Dirk, and Kobe had the biggest spotlights, and Lebron's rise was beginning. Again, if you felt super high on Kobe, this was the time to push his case.

Nash had the best narrative (subjective thing to say, I know). If you want to make a stats based case that year, Dirk or Lebron were probably the correct vote. Dirk's Mavs won 60 games, and Lebron's meh Cleveland roster won 50. I can make a case for Kobe over Nash, but I don't see the case for Kobe over Dirk or Lebron that year. I think Wade has just as much a case as Kobe that year too.

[The Explorer]

2009 was the year he got robbed.

[JustBuzzin]

Steve Nash the biggest MVP fraud of all-time.

Those PHX teams were never a real threat to win a championship. They had regular season success but come playoff time they ran out of gas.

Also Nash was putting up 16ppg what MVP puts up those kind of numbers. You can look at who won MVP and you will notice Nash stats are very subpar to everyone else.

[Bornstellar]

Steve Nash the biggest MVP fraud of all-time.

Those PHX teams were never a real threat to win a championship. They had regular season success but come playoff time they ran out of gas.

Also Nash was putting up 16ppg what MVP puts up those kind of numbers. You can look at who won MVP and you will notice Nash stats are very subpar to everyone else.

The MVP is a regular season award buddy, the playoffs are irrelevant. The MVP award is not who had the highest PPG season but who was singularly most impactful to their teams success. And given that Nash took a 20 win team to 60 wins, his MVP award was deserved.

[Ancalagon]

Win Shares certainly don’t tell the whole story, but for what it’s worth:

1. Dirk 17.7
2. LeBron 16.3
3. Billups 15.5
4. Kobe 15.3
10. Steve Nash 12.4

Agree that Nash wasn’t deserving. Also agree it probably wasn’t Kobe on a team that won <50 games.

[Masigond]

Steve Nash the biggest MVP fraud of all-time.

Those PHX teams were never a real threat to win a championship. They had regular season success but come playoff time they ran out of gas.

Also Nash was putting up 16ppg what MVP puts up those kind of numbers. You can look at who won MVP and you will notice Nash stats are very subpar to everyone else.

No. This was a great team competing in a tough conference while having to deal with some injuries before losing to healthier and arguably better teams like the Mavs or Spurs (who really might have needed that Robert Horry foul and the subsequent suspensions for Stoudemire and Diaw to win that series).

Claiming that the Suns ran out of gas is simply wrong. For at least three years (and two of those were Nash's MVP years) they gave their opponents very much to handle.

[Hornet Mania]

Kobe fans were arguing most passionately in his favor, naturally, but it was understood at the time that historical factors were working against him.

No player from a 7th seed was going to win MVP in 2006, the award had only been given to the best player on a championship contender for many years leading up to that point. That standard has somewhat loosened up by now, Westbrook won in 2017 as a 4th seed for his triple double average and Jokic won in 2022 as 6th seed, but back then it was essentially iron-clad. Kobe had zero shot at winning the award given the standards of the era.

There were quite a few people at the time, even ones who were not Kobe fans, who said he had the best campaign of the 2006 season. They mostly agreed he couldn't win due to being on such a bad team, regardless of how statistically impressive his campaign had been. Add in that a lot of voters still held the 2004 rape allegations against him and he simply wasn't going to win MVP that year.

By 2008 he had the #1 seed in the his conference and the rape charges were further in the rear view mirror, plus the narrative of how he 'would have won' in 06 if not for his team being so bad was strong, which carried him to the trophy.

[dockingsched]

As a Lakers fan who at the time never believed Kobe deserved that MVP over Nash (back then mvps always came from a top seed), I can most certainly recall that many people across the nba landscape felt Kobe deserved it.

Idea it was just Kobe fans isn’t in line with the reality I remember.

[Pelon chingon]

So weird that one of the mods, who LOVES Lebron, told me that the term "stans" is forbidden. Ever since then, I haven't seen him ever enforce that even when it's blatantly obvious in the title. Lol

It’s nothing new.

You should have seen the PC forum mods; favoritism, propaganda, double standards. They have it all in that terrible forum.

The current affairs board takes the cake. You'll get banned for telling the truth over there.

[Blame Rasho]

Most of you guys weren’t here during those years. The majority of fans( both laker fans, casuals, and media)wanted him to win because he was “due” and had a great season. I thought he merited a higher placing but Nash had the stats and narrative of somehow getting the Suns perform at high level without one of their stars. We all expected them to fall off but they didn’t and that is a credit to him.

[Hitachi77]

Kobe fans were arguing most passionately in his favor, naturally, but it was understood at the time that historical factors were working against him.

No player from a 6th seed was going to win MVP in 2006, the award had only been given to the best player on a championship contender for many years leading up to that point. That standard has somewhat loosened up by now, Westbrook won in 2017 as a 4th seed for his triple double average and Jokic won in 2022 as 6th seed, but back then it was essentially iron-clad. Kobe had zero shot at winning the award given the standards of the era.

There were quite a few people at the time, even ones who were not Kobe fans, who said he had the best campaign of the 2006 season. They mostly agreed he couldn't win due to being on such a bad team, regardless of how statistically impressive his campaign had been. Add in that a lot of voters still held the 2004 rape allegations against him and he simply wasn't going to win MVP that year.

By 2008 he had the #1 seed in the his conference and the rape charges were further in the rear view mirror, plus the narrative of how he 'would have won' in 06 if not for his team being so bad was strong, which carried him to the trophy.

This pretty much sums it up. Yet we see dozens of threads every year with the same tired arguments. Basically taking the Westbrook and Jokic MVP criteria and applying it to those prior years. Also there is more parity now, more contenders than there used to be.

You can say the criteria for MVP sucks, and both Lebron and MJ should have 8+, but based on the criteria which has been used, there have been very few if any “robberies”. It has been pretty consistent.

[Slava]

That was one of the greatest floor raising seasons in nba history.

[JustBuzzin]

Steve Nash the biggest MVP fraud of all-time.

Those PHX teams were never a real threat to win a championship. They had regular season success but come playoff time they ran out of gas.

Also Nash was putting up 16ppg what MVP puts up those kind of numbers. You can look at who won MVP and you will notice Nash stats are very subpar to everyone else.

The MVP is a regular season award buddy, the playoffs are irrelevant. The MVP award is not who had the highest PPG season but who was singularly most impactful to their teams success. And given that Nash took a 20 win team to 60 wins, his MVP award was deserved.

Check the stats of the MVPs in the last 20 years.

Tell me Steve Nash stats don't stand out.

If he was having 20+ ppg and 13 apg then yeah you would have a point. He had low rebound numbers and his defense was below average. Guy won MVP giving you low points and high assist. Sorry that's not MVP caliber.

Maybe if he led his team to the Finals I would have gave him more credit, but he didn't.

It's why I always say Jason Kidd was a better overall player than Steve Nash. Kidd led his team to the Finals twice. Those Nets team never get any credit. Kidd won without another elite player. KMart was basically a poor man's Amare Stoudemire.

Kidd on the other hand played with some great players prime Dirk and Amare. Joe Johnson, Shawn Marion and need I mention the Kobe/Pau/Dwight failure.