valuable players.
'I imagine it was just the luck of the draw,' Nash said about his athlete-of-the-year honour.
(Bill Kostroun/Associated Press)
Still, no one soared higher than Nash.
The Phoenix Suns point guard capped his second straight MVP season
Tuesday by winning the Lionel Conacher award as Canadian male athlete
of the year in a survey by the Canadian Press and Broadcast News.
Nash beat out fellow MVPs Justin Morneau and Joe Thornton, finishing
with 321 points and 78 first-place votes in balloting of sports editors
and broadcasters across the country.
"It's incredible, I suppose. Somehow I believe though that they just
pulled my name from a hat, because there's no way I'm more deserving
than those guys," said the ever-humble Nash. "I imagine it was just the
luck of the draw."
It marks the third time the Victoria native has won the Conacher
Award, named for the all-rounder voted Canada's athlete of the
half-century in 1950. Nash also captured the award in 2002 and 2005.
The Canadian female athlete of the year will be named Wednesday, followed by Canada's top team on Thursday.
Morneau, first baseman for the Minnesota Twins and the American
League's most valuable player, was second with 221 points and 35
first-place votes.
Pittsburgh Penguins star forward Sidney Crosby was third with 123
points and 22 first-place votes, while Thornton of the San Jose Sharks,
the reigning MVP in the NHL, was fourth with 47 points and three
first-place votes.
Nash solidifies star status
With his fast-paced game of deceptive passes and all-out effort, Nash solidified his star status in 2006.
He led the Suns to a 54-28 regular-season record — despite the loss
of their leading scorer Amare Stoudemire to a devastating knee injury —
and all the way to the Western Conference final, where they were ousted
in Game 6 by Nash's former team the Dallas Mavericks.
"I was proud of my team," said Nash. "It was difficult not to win
[the championship], but we had a lot of injuries and at the same time,
we were fairly close and probably didn't have enough bodies to go as
far as we wanted to."
'As if Kid Canada had to justify his first MVP honour, he went out and one-upped himself.'-Trevor Kenney, sports editor at the Lethbridge Herald
Nash was named a starter to the Western Conference all-star team for
the first time in his career, and finished the 2005-06 season with
career highs in points (18.8 per night), rebounds (4.2), field goal
percentage (51.2), and free throw percentage (a league-high 92 per
cent). His 10.5 assists a night also topped the league.
"As if Kid Canada had to justify his first MVP honour, he went out
and one-upped himself," said Trevor Kenney, sports editor at the
Lethbridge Herald.
"Without running mate Amare Stoudemire, Nash had to be even more for the Suns and raised his game to yet another level."
Could Nash win 3 MVPs in a row?
Nash, 32, has extended his MVP performance to the 2006-2007 season.
He sparked the Suns to a recent franchise-high 15-game winning streak —
it was snapped by the Washington Wizards — and is averaging a
league-best 11.6 assists a night, prompting hoops enthusiasts to
wonder: could Nash do the unthinkable and make it three in a row?
A third MVP trophy would vault him into the lofty company of Hall of
Famers Larry Bird, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, the only three
players in history to achieve such a feat.
The six-foot-three point guard is an unassuming gym rat with a
unrivalled work ethic. Because he never stops working on his game, he
continues to defy the odds, and simply gets better every season.
"We should be used to the whole Nash thing by now, but my
astonishment is fresh every time I think about what he's done," said
Erik Rolfsen of the Vancouver Province.
Nash rarely pauses to consider the impact he's had on the game, or the honours and awards that continue to pile up.
"I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about it, to be honest,"
Nash said. "I'm just busy trying to win games, and trying to get better
every game and trying to be a good teammate. Just enjoying life.
"I think that I've always been an underdog and I wake up every
morning with that mentality still and it doesn't allow me generally to
rest on my laurels."
Nash ordinary off the court
As impressive as Nash's unselfish style is on the court, he remains
an ordinary superstar off it, carrying himself with class in a league
of diamonds, furs and brash bravado.
'With so many spoiled and pampered
professional athletes in the world today, Nash is one of the few who
can be labelled a role model.… He's our Wayne Gretzky.'-Montreal Gazette sports editor Stu Cowan
"It's remarkable to think that a relatively short kid from Canada
could be named MVP in the NBA once — never mind in back-to-back years,"
said Montreal Gazette sports editor Stu Cowan.
"With so many spoiled and pampered professional athletes in the
world today, Nash is one of the few who can be labelled a role model.
He is a great ambassador for Canada with the way he handles himself
both on and off the court. He's our Wayne Gretzky."
Nash, the father of two-year-old twin girls Lola and Bella, is also
generous with his time and his money. He's involved in numerous
charitable activities, including helping build a hospital in Paraguay,
the birthplace of his wife Alejandra Amarilla.
© The Canadian Press, 2006
