Tonight the Phoenix Suns Defeated the Dallas Mavericks 121-118 to take a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals.

While I have been a Mavericks fan since I was a kid, I’m really happy for the Sun’s starting point guard, Steve Nash.

He’s been kicked around and criticized very unfairly over the past few years on a variety of different issues. So here’s to a class guy who, for at least tonight, has silenced his critics.

Nash was drafted by the Suns out of Santa Clara University and had a couple of unremarkable seasons before being traded to Dallas in 1998. After struggling with various injuries, Nash asserted himself in the 2000-2001 season, taking Dallas to the playoffs for the first time in more than a decade.

He became an all-star, known for his unselfish play and an uncanny ability to make creative plays and hit big shots in the clutch. However, he began to run into controversy in early 2003.

Nash made public statements critical of the US Government’s efforts to provoke a war with Iraq. Although he avoided inflammatory rhetoric and tempered his views with his characteristically diplomatic style, his statements created a rift between himself and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

Cuban is a Dallas based Billionaire who has been a vocal supporter of George W. Bush and the US occupation of Iraq. So much so in fact, that he contributed large sums of money to a fake documentary produced by a right wing think tank called “Voices of Iraq”. With Cuban’s help, this film was shown in cities all across the US in the weeks prior to the 2004 election. “Voices of Iraq” advances the familiar storyline that things in Iraq are really much better than the press suggests, and that press coverage of Iraq is slanted.

Here is an excerpt from a Common Dreams story, linked below.

Nash was the first high profile athlete to come out against Dick Cheney’s “war of a generation” showing up at the 2003 All-Star game in 2003 wearing a T-shirt that read, “Shoot baskets not people.” When questioned on his incendiary attire, Nash said, “I think that war is wrong in 99.9 percent of all cases. I think [Operation Iraqi Freedom] has much more to do with oil or some sort of distraction, because I don’t feel as though we should be worrying about Iraq.” He also showed far more prescience than Bush, Cheney, Colin Powell or Condoleeza Rice saying, “I think that Saddam Hussein is a crazy dictator but I don’t think he’s threatening us at this point in time. We haven’t found any nuclear weapons — no matter what anyone says — and that process is still under way. Until that’s finished and decided I don’t think that war is acceptable.” He then reiterated his position that, “Unfortunately, this is more about oil than it is about nuclear weapons.”

Nash also took issue with the pro-war media. Two years before the New York Times and The Washington Post were forced to issue apologies for their slavish, slothful pro-war coverage, Nash said, “I think a lot of what we hear in the news is misleading and flat-out false, so I think it’s important for us to THINK deeper and find out what is really going on.” He didn’t backpedal from this stance despite criticism from his boss at the time, Mavs owner Mark Cuban and Spurs center David Robinson who said, “”If it’s an embarrassment to him maybe he should be in a different country.”

Cuban and Nash agreed to disagree on this issue, and once the war began, Nash toned down his comments on the issue out of respect for the families of US Servicemen fighting in Iraq. However when Nash’s contract came up for renewal in 2004, Cuban, while insisting he wished to retain the services of his popular starting point guard, stated publicly that he did not feel that Nash was worth more than $9 million a year, even though the Suns had offered Nash over $10 million a year to return to Phoenix. Nash reluctantly left his teammates and signed a six year deal with Phoenix worth $63 million.

Upon arriving in Phoenix, Nash quickly transformed the Suns from also rans to contenders, taking the Suns to the Western Conference Finals and winning the League’s Most Valuble Player (MVP) award for the 2004-2005 season. However, controversy again hounded Nash, as people in the press and elsewhere grumbled that Nash did not deserve the honor. Many claimed that Miami Heat Center Shaquille O’Neil should have gotten it and there were ugly rumors that race may have played a role in Nash winning the award. Many in the sports media gave these insulting suggestions credibility. The Common Dreams story on his being named MVP is here.

The Suns came into the 2005-2006 season with injuries to key players and some new, young players in prominent roles. They were expected to struggle. However, Nash led them back to the Western Conference Finals against long odds, winning the MVP award a second time along the way. Although Dallas is expected to easily defeat Phoenix, after the Sun’s thrilling win in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series, it appears that may not be such a certain outcome.

I was appropriately ecstatic when the Mavericks defeated the hated San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Semifinals. And I don’t wish to engage in a bout of Mark Cuban bashing. I give the guy credit, although he and Nash clearly have their differences, Cuban has been gracious toward Nash and has said he is happy for the guy’s success in Phoenix. Still, while I’d love to see the Mavs advance to their first ever NBA Finals appearance, I won’t be too upset if the Suns win instead.

Hey, so long as I don’t have to see that whiny ass cry baby Tim Duncan in the Finals, I’m good. Duncan is the star player for the San Antonio Spurs. I originally posted some trash talk for the Spurs fans here at the end. It was all meant in good fun, but they started crying. So I edited it out. So they won’t cry. But the Spurs still suck, though.