NBA: Ranking every MVP winner in league history

SANTA MONICA, CA - JUNE 25: James Harden, winner of the 2017-2018 MVP award, poses with his mom Monja Willis in the backstage photo room during the 2018 NBA Awards at Barker Hangar on June 25, 2018 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images) /

12 of 36

Steve Nash (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /

NBA: Ranking every MVP winner in league history: 25. Steve Nash

Stats:

14.3 points
8.5 assists
42.8% from three

Accomplishments:

8 time All-Star
7 time All-NBA
2 time MVP

The story of Steve Nash always needs to be thoroughly explained. The numbers, while good, don’t exactly speak of his true Hall of Fame status.

When Nash was smack dab in the middle of his prime, arguably no one outside of Magic Johnson could control a game better. His Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns teams were high-powered offenses that scored before the opposition got a chance to blink. Nash wasn’t a big scorer but he could pass and make plays with the best of them. On six different occasions, he led the league in total assists, and five times he led it in assists per game.

Nash was as efficient a scorer as you’ll find, hitting shooting slashes of 50/40/90 on four separate occasions, no other player has done it more than twice.

But for Nash, it wasn’t just that he was efficient or seemingly had eyes in the back of his head, his calling card was how effortlessly he could turn around a moribund franchise. Case in point would be his work with the Suns. After winning just 29 games during the 2003-04 season, Nash propelled them to 62 wins in his first year and 54 the following, resulting in back-to-back MVPs. Unfortunately for Nash, he’s a part of that ever so depressing list of all-time great players who never won a ring but still, there was only a handful of NBA players in history who were better.