Nash wins MVP...Kobe fourth?!

Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash was finally named the 2006 MVP. News of this arose weeks ago, so it's not exactly a surprise. But what is surprising is that the Mamba finished fourth. 81 points and being surrounded by guys named Smush apparently don't merit awards these days.

LeBron came in second in the voting, followed by Dirk Notvdx#s^eiz*ski, then Kobe. Chauncey Billups of the Detroit Pistons came in fifth.

(By the way, that's Dirk pictured with Nash as teammates on the Mavericks about 10 minutes before game time).

We by no means followed the NBA close enough to know who should be getting this award. Though 81 points and the lack of a supporting cast would be a pretty good argument for Kobe. Nash, meanwhile, has Shawn Marion, Boris Diaw and some other guys who play basketball a helluva lot better than Smush and Luke Walton.

As pointed out by the Mighty MJD, Kobe was somehow left off of 22 of the 125 voters' ballots. Those voters either:

a. didn't watch the NBA this season
b. don't like black people
c. don't like rapists
d. all of the above

D would be the correct answer there. If you didn't know that already. So we have back-to-back MVPs for Nash, giving hope to ugly Canadian guys everywhere.

In other NBA news: Detroit beat Cleveland 113-86 Sunday after the only player who actually caught the plane to Detroit was LeBron James.