CHARLOTTE -- It took awhile, but the New Jersey Nets may have finally come up with a can't-miss slogan for their best season ever:

We wuz robbed!

The cries of outrage and indignation over Jason Kidd losing out on the MVP voting and Byron Scott finishing third for Coach of the Year were loud and long out at the team's Champion Center facility.

	Would Jason Kidd leave the Nets because they didn't push him for MVP?

And, quite simply, the results were the best thing to happen to this team.

As if the Nets didn't already have something to prove, now they've got extra fuel for their motivational tanks. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, they should thank the many members of the media who went with Tim Duncan for MVP and Rick Carlisle for Coach of the Year. It all comes down to respect, something the Nets still don't get, for one very good reason.

They haven't done anything, yet.

"Everyone keeps asking if we have the respect, and I still see it as we're getting very little of that," Scott said. "But like I said, I don't think we'll get that respect until we get to the Finals."

There's no reason why the Nets can't get that far, and now they've been given the perfect boost. They can ride this lack of respect theme farther than any Jersey team since they sold Dr. J to the Sixers. Unable to locate the playoffs for so long, they now have the best road to a conference finals of any of the remaining teams. Up 2-0, they're facing a Charlotte team that badly misses Jamal Mashburn and has seen Baron Davis run out of gas in two fourth quarters against the mercurial Kidd.

Every time the Nets hit the floor, including Thursday night's Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series, they have something to prove. That's a good carrot to place in front of a young, unproven playoff team which almost was shot out of the playoffs by Reggie Miller.

"We all felt that Jason and Byron deserved the awards," said Nets center Todd MacCulloch. "Those two guys deserved it, with all the hard work they've put in and the results we've had here. They've turned this team around."

But let's also be honest: In being considered for MVP for the first time as a pro, Kidd didn't lose out to any bum. Duncan only dominated the last third of the season, outplaying the best players in the league, night in and night out. From the standpoint of head-to-head competition, he goes up against the crème de la crème almost every game, from Chris Webber, Kevin Garnett, Karl Malone, Rasheed Wallace, on down. We don't need to remind anyone about how the West puts the East to shame.

"Tim's well-deserving, so there's no controversy, as far as I'm concerned," said Kidd, ever the diplomat. "But they can't take away what I accomplished."

His No. 1 accomplishment ranks up there with anything ever done in the Meadowlands. He's the one player responsible for doing what no one thought humanly possible: Turning the Nets from big-time losers into winners. The fact they improved from 26 wins to 52 en route to their first Eastern Conference championship was his best case for the MVP.

"I expect this is going to just make Jason play even harder and better," said Lucious Harris, the Nets' third guard. "He's had a phenomenal year already. Now, he can take it out on other teams."

As Charlotte has been finding out.

"He was not solely responsible for what the Nets did," Hornets coach Paul Silas said. "But Jason, he had the biggest part of anybody in turning things around. That should stand for something."

Unfortunately, the Nets failed to lobby hard on that very point for their superstar. Instead of unleashing a saturation PR bombing campaign, the Nets went with a one-page release extolling Kidd's MVP worthiness.

The turnaround wasn't mentioned.

Will Kidd hold that against the team in the summer of 2003, when he is all but certain to opt out of his contract and explore free agency?

"This has nothing to do with the Nets," said Joumana Kidd, Jason's wife.

	(Byron Scott) didn't help his own cause by stating that he deserved the award. He also didn't ingratiate himself with the writers and broadcasters by saying that the voting should be left to players, coaches, GMs and team executives.

But the fact is, the Nets had a chance to market Kidd for MVP and they made a conscious decision not to. But this is typical of the Nets, who don't believe in pushing stars. They didn't promote Kidd at all in his first season in New Jersey. This is something that Kidd could view as a negative to signing long-term.

"Just play it out and enjoy it," is how Kidd sees his future in Jersey. "You never know. But maybe we haven't just gained that respect."

Winning will cure that, of course. It always does. As for Scott, more victories will also continue to help his cause. Finishing behind Carlisle and Rick Adelman was no disgrace. Jerry Sloan, considered one of the best coaches by his peers, has never won the award. Carlisle was a deserving winner, as a first-time head coach who led his team to 50 wins and a Central Division title. Take a close look at the talent level he's working with, compared to Scott, and that was no small accomplishment.

In Scott's two years, he has transformed the Nets from a sorry defensive team into one of the best ones. "He told us from Day 1, if we turn our defense around, we'll be able to compete for a title," Harris said. "That was the foundation to the program he put in."

Scott should be applauded for that. But he didn't help his own cause by stating that he deserved the award. He also didn't ingratiate himself with the writers and broadcasters by saying that the voting should be left to players, coaches, GMs and team executives. "They're basketball-wise, no disrespect to most writers," Scott said.

It's easy to see Scott's frustration. As a player, he was forever in the shadows of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy. Winning the award would have finally allowed him to start making a name for himself.

But the bottom line is, Kidd, Scott and the Nets weren't robbed. But if they really believe they were victims of grand larceny, it can only help the cause.

Mitch Lawrence, who covers the NBA for the New York Daily News, writes a regular NBA column for ESPN.com.