NBA: MVP Race Down to the Wire

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Suns' Steve Nash or the Miami Heat's Shaquille O'Neal will win the NBA's Most Valuable Player award, to be announced next week.

The race for the NBA's 50th MVP is too close to call. The Republic surveyed 104 of the 127 writers and broadcasters with MVP votes and found that Nash and O'Neal each received 51 first-place votes. Amar? Stoudemire of the Suns and Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs received the other two.

The voting deadline was April 21. Based upon the 10-7-5-3-1 points system (10 points for a first-place vote, seven for second, etc.), Nash holds an 875-869 lead over O'Neal. When the announcement comes (likely Tuesday or Wednesday), it could produce the smallest margin ever between the winner and runner-up. Since writers took over the voting from players in 1981, the tightest races were when Magic Johnson edged Charles Barkley by 22 points in 1990 - despite Barkley having 11 more first-place votes - and when Karl Malone edged Michael Jordan by 29 in 1997.

For the sake of Nash's chances, it is a good thing his opinion won't count. Nash believes O'Neal should get the award.

It is so close that the difference could be the questionable ballots of two voters who dropped O'Neal to fourth. Two others had O'Neal third. Nash was voted no lower than third, which happened on only three ballots. Many voters said this was their toughest MVP decision yet.

"I vote for Shaq every year," Chicago Tribune writer K.C. Johnson said. "Every guy has a flavor-of-the-month-type season like Kevin (Garnett) last year. There's no question they're good players, but Shaq impacts the game every year. He changes the game. Every team's defense is impacted by him and he makes teammates have career years. Shaq leaves LA and the Lakers disintegrated. Nash leaves Dallas and they're still in the playoffs."
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