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During the regular season, the Phoenix Suns fastbreaked their way to the NBA's best regular season record. At 62 wins and 20 losses, the team won more often than the three proverbial favorites to win the NBA title, the Miami Heat, the Detroit Pistons, and the San Antonio Spurs. Playing in the more difficult Western Conference, the Suns were the height of consistency, winning 31 home games and 31 road games, demonstrating a balance unheard of in today's NBA game. Their outstanding regular season earned the Suns the distinction of holding home court advantage throughout the playoffs.

In addition to securing the NBA's best record, the team has now taken home two of the major post season awards to date. One of those major award winners was head coach Mike D'Antoni, this year's NBA Coach of the Year. One of several coaches to take over an NBA team during the 2003-2004, D'Antoni led the Suns from their exceedingly modest 29 wins a year ago to the league's best of 62 this season. The 33 win increase from one NBA season to the next is extraordinary and represents one of the best single season improvements in NBA history.

With the signing of the high octane Nash in the off-season, D'Antoni made a full commitment to the fastbreak, uptempo offense that has been the Suns forte all season. He took an athletic power forward in Amare Stoudamire and moved him to center to take advantage of Stoudamire's speed. Likewise, D'Antoni took small forward Shawn Marion and moved him to power forward, again taking advantage of superior quickness and athleticism. By starting Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson, two players tall enough to play small forward but good enough on the perimeter to be shooting guards, D'Antoni produced a phenomenally versatile athletic starting five.

With Nash at the point, the team simply out ran opponents. Stoudamire, quicker than most centers, and Marion, quicker than most power forwards, simply beat their defenders down the floor and Nash found them with pass after pass, leading to dunk after spectacular dunk. Getting the team to run initially took the leadership of the coach but in order to get a team to continue to run, especially the big fellas, the players have to see the ball on the break. Nash made D'Antoni's fastbreak offense work, allowing one of the league's youngest teams to use its incredible athleticism to earn the best record despite playing in the NBA's more difficult conference.

The combined effects of player and coach were noted by basketball pundits everywhere. As good an approach as D'Antoni had, the piece of the puzzle that made it all work was the unselfish play of Nash. And the recognition of the point guard's importance was never more apparent than when he was selected as the league's Most Valuable Player. It was an unusual choice, one that still surprised many. Quite frankly the player chosen is seldom a guard and when a guard has been chosen, it has generally been because of their ability to be a dominant scorer. But Nash is a player who leaves the scoring to his teammates.

His selection caused a stir among many, even drew comments of racism. The white Nash topping the black Shaquille O'Neal was seen by some as a choice of race instead of basketball prowess. Those claims seem absurd when true consideration was given to the players two seasons. Miami was already an up and coming team prior to Shaq's arrival. O'Neal was seen as the final piece to making the Heat a championship contender and the Big Diesel has done just that. But the Heat are as much Dwayne Wade's team as they are Shaq's. In the early aspects of the playoffs, under the scrutiny of the national media, this has never been more evident. Wade has simply been the better Heat player thus far.

In contrast, Nash joined a team with a losing record that was seen as improving, becoming perhaps a playoff contender. But that was the extent of the early season thoughts - anyone posturing that the Suns would earn the NBA's best regular season record or contend for an NBA title would have been met with a look of extreme skepticism. Instead, with Nash and D'Antoni, the Suns are in fact a legitimate title team.

Both coach and player are extremely deserving of the awards they have received. In fact with the best record on the season and now with the Most Valuable Player and Coach of the Year awards in their trophy case, the Suns have only one award left to seek, that of NBA champions.