Is Parker better than Nash.....
 

When Nash won the MVP two years in a row? Maybe I give it to Nash for one year but not two! Is this constantly going to be a popularity contest? Damn small market... Keep it up TP and take the nba championship too.

Tony may not have an MVP under his arm but maybe that's because his arm is too heavy totting the 3 World Championship rings of the 4 that the Spurs have won. But to answer your question, yup!!

There was no one of Lebron's talent, skill, and productivity when Nash won those awards, so the comparison is not valid.

Lebron, Wade, and Melo were in their 2nd year. Also don't forget Kobe and even Duncan. I'm not sure what the formula for MVP is.

Tony is a victim of Tim Duncan and Gregg popovich, in the same way that he is a beneficiary. The spurs are not nearly bad enough when tony sits. I think that's what will eventually keep him from challenging lebron.

lebron has another all stars/former all stars too...

i've always thought they gave it to Nash as the franchise was in a steep downhill fall before he got there. his contributions were impressive, but Dirk should've easily have been the MVP in 2006.

it depends how the writers want to look at the MVP debate. if it's by skill, Lebron wins. if it's by record, Parker should win.

if it's by contributions with their teams, then it should still go to Parker because Lebron has Wade next to him along with Bosh. Parker has Manu/TD but they're not near as dominant on both ends of the floor as they used to be. Parker is the only one on the Spurs that can dominate a game on a regular basis.

Melo?!?!

Seriously though, in those years, LeBron had great stats, but his team's record wasn't strong enough. He is a unique player the likes of whom have been seen rarely in the history of the league. To borrow a bit from baseball, he's a three tool player. Those other guys you named from 05, 06 were one or two tool players. Nash scored and passed. Duncan and Noe-whikey scored and rebounded. Kobe and wade were pure scorers. That is why I don't see it as such a travesty that Nash won it those years. The competition was fairly close.

This season Lebron scores (3rd in league), passes (10th in assits), and rebounds (25th) at an elite level. As far as teammate ability goes, I think it is a wash. Sure Miami has better stars with 2 all-stars to go along with James while the Spurs just have one, but the Spurs are deeper whereas there is no one else in Miami. As far as team performance goes, there is only one loss separating Miami and SA so again this is a wash.

As I said before in another post, if Parker played more minutes and put up more stats then I think a much better case could be made for him. He'd score almost as much as LeBron does with more assists to make up for his lack of rebounding, but thanks to Pop's system of holding down minutes to keep his guys fresh Parker's output suffers.

TP has a finals MVP.... has Nash been there?

Lebron James:
38.5mpg
27.3ppg
7.3apg
8.1rpg

Tony Parker:
33mpg
21.1ppg
7.6apg

to some, you actually might be making the case for Parker over Lebron. James has players in Dwayne Wade & Chris Bosh who can dominate games on given nights. who does Tony Parker have? Tim Duncan can't dominate a game by himself anymore neither can Ginobili. he has a better group of an overall team, but Lebron surely has a better starting unit in respect to skills.

think about that: Parker is playing less minutes with less skilled players than James and leading the team to the best record (so far).

MVP doesn't mean best player either. who's more valuable to their team right now? the Heat would be in way better position without Lebron b/c of their other stars than the Spurs would be without Parker for the same allotted time. Parker definitely is more valuable to his team than Lebron.

Tony is playing phenomenal. I think the difference is that Nash benefitted from the "wow" factor of transforming a franchise with a system built around him, and his competition during those years wasn't as obvious. Lebron/CP3/Howard were too young, Timmy/Shaq's numbers were slowing down, and KG/Kobe were on terrible teams. plug in this year's version of Tony or Chris Paul into Phx in '05, and you probably get the same results, like 25&11 averages, and an mvp.

but... i know #'s only tell part of the story, but it's worth pointing out. some past mvp numbers:

19pt / 4rb /11as
25pt /4rb /8as / 1stl
32pt /6rb /5as /1.4stl
27pt /8rb /7as /1.7stl
23pt /13rb /4as /2.9bl
24pt /14rb /5as /2.2bl /1.5stl

they were Nash, Derrick Rose, Kobe, Lebron (this year), Tim, KG.

i think one of the common themes with a lot of mvp's is when a guy is basically doing EVERYTHING for his team. this was the case with KG/Tim where they were leading their team in nearly all statistical categories -- and this is true of Lebron today. he leads in mins, pts, rbds, assists, and steals. he runs the offense and guards the best player to close out. he runs the offense as pg, then runs back and defends a center/pf. i'll always lean towards Lebron over Durant given how much more Lebron does for a team.

I see Tony more like Nash/Durant in running the offense and doing it extremely well, but i put Lebron in the Timmy/KG category of being asked to do everything for the team, playing multiple roles/positions, and wreaking havoc in every aspect of the game.