So you are saying being an mvp does not matter? how much on his resume would he need to be considered great. No offense, while Nash is damn good, does he have 1 title to back him up? same goes for Paul - without the title would he even think of talking about Kobe this way?? Dirk has 1 MVP in the NBA and a "soft as a cupcake" reputation, he is a great shooter, but Manu beats his Arse in heart and determination hands down.
Things like reuptation and awards aren't always based on merit or the most deserving, in any sport...prime example, look at golden gloves in baseball...supposedly a 'fielding' award, but bobby abreu has one, which is nonsensical cause he's pretty bad in the field.
Awards voted on by sportswriters have as much use in a discussion of who is a better performer on the court as paris hilton has use participating in a presidential debate.
I'm not impressed with indvidiaulistic awards given to players as some sort of demonstration of their greatness...same goes for a 'reputation'....i'm a philadelphia sports fan, i know how reputations can be rightly or wrongly perpetuated, again by the useless media.
I'm saying that whether or not one has won an MVP award doesn't weight one way or another in the overall EVALUATION of their game.
And even if you want to use MVP - sorry but i personally find the overall level of basketball in the NBA more impressive than the overall level of basketball in other leagues or country tournaments.
So if i were to consider MVP as a factor, for instance, steve nash has TWO NBA MVPs, Manu Ginobli has zero (and his sixth man award is bogus in my opinion since he plays starters minutes)...hence, Steve Nash leads the MVP debate in the league that i think matters especially since paul pierce was referring to the NBA.
The fact is that paul pierce (and many others probably) probably don't consider steve nash a foreign player, but canada isn't the united states, so i consider it a foreign country and hence nash is a foreign born player.
Just the way I look at things, but being a fan of baseball i'm used to seeing 'award based' travestys quite often...hell i'm used to seeing nonsense spouted like "Steve Nash shouldn't win 3 MVPs ina row because he's not as good as jordan or anyone else who won 3 MVPs in a row" which to me is just an asinine and ridiculous rationale