The NBA will hand out its 50th Most Valuable Player Trophy this Sunday and judging by the date the trophy is scheduled to be given out, it would appear that Steve Nash may have the upper hand over Shaquille O?Neal of the Miami Heat.

The Phoenix Suns are expected to start their second-round series Monday. Miami is slotted for a Sunday start to its second-round series if Washington closes its series with Chicago today.

If O'Neal is playing in Sunday's ABC game, it seems unlikely he would be the subject of the MVP halftime interview that ABC is promoting.

The last MVP to not receive the award a day before a playoff game was Utah's Karl Malone in 1999, when the Jazz were already eliminated.