Steve Nash: The Most Overrated NBA Superstar

Steve, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Dec 29, 2006 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

Let me start off by saying, Steve Nash is a great point guard, probably the best in the NBA. But he is overrated. Marked especially by the fact that he has two MVP awards.

Contrary to popular belief , just because you are great doesn't mean you're exempt from being overrated. Even the legendary Michael Jordan has been overrated several times, when he is put into a god-like untouchable status. Overrated doesn't mean he's bad, just that people think he's better then he is. I just had to give the English lesson to some of you people out there.

People love to give Steve Nash all the credit for "making his teammates better", but what they fail to realize, is that Steve Nash didn't make Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson, Amare Stoudemire, or Boris Diaw good or great players. Of course he helped, he is a great point guard with terrific point guard, with terrific vision, so traditionally he's going to help players put points on the board. Something he has definitely helped Raja Bell with, who wouldn't be anywhere near the shooter that he is without Nash, and playing in the Phoenix Suns style of play.

The Suns spread the floor better then any other team. Everyone from their one to their four are excellent 3 point shooters. They also get much more possessions the most teams in the league, combine that with their run and gun system, and you have the best offense in the league. But you also have the biggest stat inflating system in the league as well. Steve Nash would never average what he does if he played in a set half court system, such as with the Spurs, or the Mavericks.

What about the myth that Steve Nash makes his teammates better? Well he does, just not the level that is believed. Does anybody remember the fact that Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks got better when Nash left? Amare Stoudemire was already becoming a great player before Steve Nash went to the Suns, if you watched Suns games the seasons before Nash, you would know this. The combination of Amare Stoudemire out a in 2004 and Stephon Marbury being their point guard is why they lost.

Joe Johnson is the same status as Amare. I don't even have to explain this one though. All you have to do is watch an Atlanta Hawk's game, and you'll see that he isn't how good he is because of Steve Nash.

Shawn Marion was already a top 5 player at his position. He was a 20 point, 10 rebound guy. And the possession increase of the game really helped him out when Steve Nash came in.

Steve Nash got extremely lucky, and didn't deserve his MVP with all of these great players on the team. This award should have went to Shaquille O'neal of the Miami Heat.

Fast Forward to 2006. Amare goes down for the whole season, and Joe Johnson signs with the Hawks. But the Suns still win the Pacific Division, and they still win 54 games without him. Steve Nash must be MVP right? Wrong. The Suns were still good a good team, and Steve Nash still had great supporting cast around him. Shawn Marion stepped up his game, and had the best year of his career. Boris Diaw was already a good player in Atlanta, the coaching staff just didn't understand the way to use him, so they didn't give him much minutes. In 2005, Boris Diaw was an 18 minute player, by 2006 he became a 35 minute player. That's a 17 minute jump. No doubt his amount of minutes and most likely, him working on his game his self, were the main reasons he became very good for the suns. So Boris Diaw came out and played great for them as well. They were a 50+ team without Amare with the addition of players like Diaw.

Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Dirk Nowitzki all have something in common. They all deserved the MVP award over Steve Nash last year. The real reason Steve Nash got it again was because the press made the horrible mistake of voting him the MVP the year before. They felt almost backed to the wall because Steve Nash had improved statistically since his first MVP, and the team only won 8 games less without Amare. Well they should have looked deeper into it. You don't give someone an MVP based off the last year(especially when he didn't deserve it). You base it off how well he's doing this year compared to his competition, and Kobe, LeBron, and Dirk were all better then him. Anyone of those three deserved it.

I've heard comparisons to great point guards such as John Stockton and Isaiah Thomas when it comes to Steve Nash. That alone proves my point of him being overrated. They actually played defense, and actually played great for more then three seasons.

Steve Nash is the most overrated superstar in the NBA.

Published by Steve

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