Nash is NOT the Real MVP!

I saw that Steve Nash over the weekend was named NBA MVP. Now, I love Nash, I think he is great, he plays for my boys (Phoenix) and he clearly helped a Suns team that didn't have Amare still matter. But he wasn't MVP.

As much as this pains me to say it, Kobe was higher than Nash. Kobe took a lame-ass supporting cast, with Lamar Odom and a number of castoffs and who-dats, and made them matter. Indeed, the Lakers probably should have beaten the Suns in the first round of the playoffs. So Kobe, for making a bad team matter, ranked higher than Nash, but not the highest.

The real MVP was LeBron. This year, without LeBron the Cavaliers were a 25-win team, at best, and probably looking at moving to Kansas City or Oklahoma City in 2007. Instead, the Cavs won 50, won a playoff series and are clearly pointed in the right direction. Yet, LeBron has done even more than that - arguably, he is saving that franchise. No Lebron, and guys like Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes and Damon Jones don't want to play there. TV doesn't want to broadcast their games. Kids don't want to buy their jerseys. In other words: they're the Hawks or Warriors.

So, not only for making the biggest difference on his team this year - but for making the difference between the Cavaliers mattering and the Cavaliers moving - LeBron should be MVP this year.

Of course, that is OK he didn't get it, he will get some before he is done.

The Texans are NOT Idiots!

Every sports show and story that I have heard is taking the Texans to task for signing Mario Williams instead of Reggie Bush at #1 overall. Some have gone as far as to call this Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan redux. I disagree with this assessment for a number of reasons:

• Running backs in football are like first basemen in baseball. Yes, it is great to have one. But take a look at championship teams of the past. My team, the Patriots, won their first two SB's with a patchwork running game led by an aging Antowain Smith. The third one was won by Corey Dillon, a talented head-case who the Pats got for a song. This year, the Steelers won with a running game comprised of an undrafted FA (Willie Parker) and Jerome "Rasputin" Bettis. And, in 2002, the Buccaneers won with Warrick "Duck" Dunn and Mike Alstott, both of whom were good but not world-class.
  
• Yes, the Ravens won in 2000 with Jamal Lewis, an elite back, and yes he did play a key role. I would submit, though, that he is the exception that proves the rule. Those Ravens won not because of their offense, which was pedestrian and efficient at best. Rather, they won because of their dominant, for-the-ages defense.
• As in all sports, while offense puts asses in the seats and generates sales of merchandise, it is defense that wins championships. Especially in football, where if Mario Williams is as good as advertised - and he was generally considered one of the elite players in this draft - he will go a long way toward making that Texans defense viable.
  

I fully expect that Reggie Bush will be an elite player and will quickly find a niche in the offense in New Orleans. In fact I would say New Orleans was as good a landing spot as he could have gotten - great offensive coach (Sean Payton), solid QB (Drew Brees), weapons on offense (Joe Horn, Deuce), so he will not be asked to do as much. The bottom line though, is that while you can find solid running backs in the aftermarket, that will work for a year or two, it is not nearly as easy to find a solid defensive end there. And it is true that, while you can win with an excellent defense and a pedestrian offense, it is very difficult to win the other way around.

So I think the Texans made the right call, and I think, when all is said and done, a lot of these idiot sportswriters and talk show hosts will need to reconsider.