--Two Phoenix Suns finished among the top nine in the voting for Most Valuable Player. Amare Stoudemire placed sixth, the highest finish of his career, collecting three fourth-place votes and 18 fifth-place votes (27 points) from a panel of 126 sportswriters and broadcasters.

Steve Nash, who won back-to-back MVPs in 2005-2006, finished ninth with 18 points (four fourth-place votes, six fifth-place votes).

Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers won his first MVP award, garnering 82 first-place votes (1,105 total points) and easily outdistancing New Orleans G Chris Paul (28 first-place votes, 889 points) Boston's Kevin Garnett, Cleveland's LeBron James and Orlando's Dwight Howard all finished ahead of Stoudemire.

--With Mike D'Antoni now on board, there figures to be a roster makeover in New York, and media speculation is already swirling about a Knicks-Suns deal. One paper had the Knicks trying to coax Steve Nash to Manhattan -- where he lives in the summer -- while another had D'Antoni trying to dump high-priced G Stephon Marbury while bringing in favorites Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw.

Kerr responded to those reports with tongue firmly in cheek.

"I think it makes sense to move Amare and Steve for Marbury and Eddy Curry," Kerr said. "Come on. Since Mike is now the coach of the Knicks, does he just get to take all of our guys too? I don't think it works that way."

--NBA Commissioner David Stern said the league will consider rule changes to the "Hack-a-Shaq" strategy that was taken to almost comical proportions by the Spurs in their five-game win over Phoenix in the first round of the playoffs.

Stern said fouls away from the basketball will be on the docket when the NBA Competition Committee meets later this month in Orlando.

The Spurs repeatedly fouled O'Neal away from the ball to both put a poor free throw shooter at the line and disrupt Phoenix's offensive rhythm. The tactic worked on both counts as O'Neal missed 32 of 64 free throws in the series (50 percent) and several Suns, including Steve Nash, admitted the ploy affected Phoenix's flow.

The league could extend the current rule that governs the final two minutes -- the team is awarded one free throw and retains possession -- or treat the intentional foul like the current "breakaway" foul, where the offended player gets two shots and the team retains possession.

Suns GM Steve Kerr said he planned to bring up the issue himself in Orlando and was happy to hear it's already on the commissioner's mind.

"At the risk of sounding like a homer because we have Shaq, it needs to be looked at," Kerr said. "It wasn't a gimmick, (Spurs coach) Gregg Popovich used it as a strategy through the series in hopes of disrupting our offense and it worked.

"But I have heard from a lot of fans who said the fouls turned the games into a farce and took a lot of the enjoyment out of it. And that's something we need to be concerned with."

QUOTE TO NOTE
"I'm definitely sad to see him go. It was four of the most memorable and fun years of my career. Mike is a great person and a great coach. Even at the end, I thought it was 50-50 that we could come together for another try, with Shaq (O'Neal) for a full season because there was some real promise with this group." -- G Steve Nash, after getting word that Mike D'Antoni left the Suns for New York.

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