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Was Shaq shafted in MVP voting?
by Marc Narducci / May 8, 2005

It was at the All-Star break and Philadelphia 76ers guard Allen Iverson was beginning to mount an interesting MVP campaign of his own when he was asked his opinion on the NBA's MVP.

"If I had to vote it would be Shaquille O'Neal," Iverson said about the Heat center. "No disrespect to anybody else, but I would vote for Shaquille O'Neal every year."

It appears that many others wouldn't follow suit. O'Neal just finished as the runner-up in a close MVP race to Phoenix point guard Steve Nash.

It's not as if Nash didn't have appropriate MVP credentials. He helped Phoenix improve from 29 to 62 wins. That's a 33-game increase, the third highest in NBA history.

Nash did a masterful job bringing his selfless style and turning the Suns from a playoff viewer to a championship contender in one year. He averaged 15.5 points and a league-high 11.5 assists and revived what had been a dying franchise.

That said, O'Neal was a more deserving MVP candidate. And usually is every season. O'Neal, who helped Miami improve by 17 wins this season, averaged 22.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2.34 blocked shots per game, requisite MVP numbers. For good measure, he also led the NBA in field goal percentage (60.1). In all fairness, his one Achilles heel was at the free throw line, where he shot just 46.1 percent. Still, no one player has a more profound impact on the game than Shaq.

As Iverson alluded to, numbers aren't what O'Neal is all about. Sure, he is judged in history by the No. 3 – the total of NBA championships he has won. In each of those years, he also was named the MVP of the NBA Finals from 2000-2002. The most mind-numbing statistic about O'Neal is that he has only been name the NBA's regular season MVP just once in his 13 seasons. That came in 1999-2000 when he averaged 29.7 points and 13.6 rebounds.

Numbers don't explain everything concerning Shaq simply because of how much better he has made his teammates. Nash, obviously did the same, but he got to work alongside two Olympians – Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion. He also had an emerging Joe Johnson and productive free agent Quentin Richardson.

While Nash gives opposing defenses their share of headaches, he doesn't receive the type of double and triple-teaming that Shaq faces on a daily basis. And despite his size (7-1, 335-pounds), nobody takes a bigger beating
than O'Neal.

Again, this is to take nothing away from Nash, because like O'Neal, he make players better, but Shaq's supporting crew didn't quite measure up to Phoenix's.

Sure, Dwyane Wade is among the best players in the NBA, but even his scoring average improved by almost eight points per game to 24.1 ppg. this season. Think Shaq had something to do with that?

Eddie Jones, who at 33-years-old, has seen his better NBA days, still was more than effective, especially after a slow start this season. Jones averaged 12.7 points and even more surprising was that he played more minutes than Shaq – 35.5 per game, compared to 34.1.

In addition, the Heat got a career season from Damon Jones, who had toiled with nine different teams before landing in Miami.

With so much defensive attention on Shaq, Jones averaged a career-high 11.7 points. His previous best was 7.0 points. Jones is a good shooter who was able to get wide-open shots since so many defense collapsed on Shaq. He shot 43.2 percent from three-point range.

Heat forward Udonis Haslem averaged almost a double-double, 10.9 points and 9.1 rebounds. There weren't many people talking about Haslem before Shaq's arrival.

In fact, people weren't saying much about Miami either. Often when these MVP debates take place, the person one is arguing against gets disparaged. Nash doesn't deserve that type of treatment.

O'Neal is simply somebody who has been so extraordinary that many take his accomplishments for granted. As the old saying goes, nobody likes Goliath. People think that Shaq earns his points simply because of his sheer size and strength. While those traits contribute greatly to his success, he is among the most athletic players in any sport.

His agility and quickness, especially for somebody so big, is incredible. So is the fact that Shaq hasn't had to prepare an MVP acceptance speech more than once during his Hall of Fame career.

Marc Narducci covers the NBA for the Philadelphia Inquirer and is a regular contributor to HoopsHype.com

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