Before he became known as one of the best basketball players in the world, the first love for a native of the capital city of the Canadian province Victoria, British Colombia was soccer, which his dad played professionally in many parts of the world. He did not start playing basketball until his early teen years. By eighth grade, his dreams changed when he told his mother that one day that he would play in the NBA and become a star. While it did not happen right away, this Canadian not only became a star, he became a perennial All-Star, a two-time league MVP and a four-time member of one of the most exclusive statistical clubs in the history of the game. He talked about the early lows, the stellar seasons and everything in between on the latest edition of NBATV’s “#NBATogether With Ernie Johnson.”
On Wednesday, Ernie Johnson, studio host for the NBA on TNT and TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” presented by Kia conversed via video chat with Hall of Famer of 19 NBA seasons with the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, and Los Angeles Lakers Steve Nash, who won back-to-back Kia MVPs; was an eight-time All-Star; seven-time All-NBA selection; five-time league assists leader and four-time member of the famed 50-40-90 club (field goal/three-point/free throw percentage).
Nash these days of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic is quarantined in Los Angeles, CA with his wife of nearly four years Lilla Frederick; their youngest child Bella; two-year-old son Luca Sun; twin 19-year-old daughters Lola and Bella, and nine year old son Matteo from a previous marriage.
“We’re hanging,” Nash said to Johnson about the time with his family in L.A. during this pandemic.
Before he took off in basketball, Nash was like most Canadians into hockey. But his first love was soccer and he was a huge fan of professional football legend in Diego Maradona from Argentina, who is best known for “The Hand of God” goal in the quarter-final match between Argentina and England during the World Cup on June 22, 1986.
“I mean, for sure Maradona was a huge idol,” Nash said. “Actually, my father being English I rooted for England. So ‘The Hand of God’ knocked England out of the World Cup.”
A then 12-year-old Nash said he did not remember whether the goal in the moment was legally or illegally scored, but he remembers being devastated that England got knocked out of the World Cup 34 years ago this June.
The player that Nash wanted to play like was Glenn Hoddle, a former midfielder who played for his family’s soccer squad of Tottenham Hotspur, who Nash said could score a goal from “60 yards” in a flash and had the “vision” that really caught his attention.
When it came to basketball, playing professionally was something that was not on Nash’s radar because unlike today where the sport is just as popular as hockey is in Canada because of the now defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors.
Nash though growing up was a huge fan of the then Seattle Supersonics and was “swept” into the game because of Hall of Famer and six-time NBA champion with the Chicago Bulls Michael Jordan.
After originally attending Mount Douglas Secondary School in Saanich, British Colombia, Nash’s parents Jean and John enrolled him at the private boarding school St. Michaels University School to get him back on the right track academically.
It was here that he became a star basketball, soccer, and rugby player. As a senior, Nash averaged 21.3 points, 11.2 assists and 9.1 rebounds in 1991-92, earning the province’s Player of the Year, while leading his team to the British Colombia AAA provincial title.
Even after a solid senior season, Nash did not garner the attention of any of the 30 major universities his head coach Ian Hyde-Lay sent a video reel of is lead guard. That was until then head coach Dick Davey of the Santa Clara University Broncos got footage of the Nash and after watching that film awarded Nash with a scholarship for the 1992-93 season.
In his time with the Broncos, Nash was a major reason the program was resurrected capturing three West Coast Conference (WCC) titles in his four years. Was named the WCC Player of the Year in back-to-back years in 1995 and 1996, the first player in school history to win that honor since seven-time NBA champion with the Lakers Kurt Rambis did it in 1980.
Nash finished his collegiate career as the Broncos all-time leader in career assists (510), free throw percentage (.862) and in three-pointers made and attempted (263-656). He remains the school’s all-time leader in scoring (1,689) and holds the single season record of shooting 89.4 from the charity stripe.
After a stellar college career, graduating with a degree in sociology, Nash was selected with the 15th overall pick by the Phoenix Suns in the 1996 NBA Draft.
He spent the first two seasons of his career in a reserve role behind star lead guards in All-Star Kevin Johnson, current Los Angeles Clippers assistant coach Sam Cassell, and later on, perennial All-Star and NBA Hall of Famer Jason Kidd, who he competed against in college when Nash played for the University of Santa Clara and Kidd played for the University of California, Berkeley.
Nash did during these first two seasons get a chance to play against his idol in Jordan and when asked by Johnson how did he play against the guy he loved growing up while still wanting to beat him and the Bulls.
“I think when you get on the court, you’re a competitor. For sure. And you’re competitive nature,” Nash said. “And if anything, maybe it’s you want to get his respect.”
Nash told the story that in the first month of his rookie season, the Suns played the Bulls twice. After their first encounter, a 97-79 at the Bulls on Nov. 11, 1996 Nash’s teammate at the teammate Chucky Brown gets on the team bus after the loss with shoes Jordan wore during the game, which astonished Nash.
Nash asked Brown how he got them? Brown said that he asked for them, which Nash could not believe that you could do that.
Nine days later when the Suns hosted the Bulls, a 113-99 loss they sustained to them on Nov. 20, 1996, Nash and Jordan shared a jovial moment, which Nash posted on Instagram that had the caption after the first episode of the ESPN Documentary about the 1990s Bulls “The Last Dance,” “My hero. I think he was insulting me in this photo I obviously thought it was hilarious. The Last Dance…. LFG!!!!”
What led to that jovial moment was during the game when Nash got switched onto Jordan defensively, he backed him down on a post-up and hit a turnaround fadeaway jumper on him.
After one of Nash’s teammates is on the free throw line after getting fouled, he is standing as the lead guard behind the shooter and Jordan comes over to him, and says, “You were at a slight disadvantage.”
“As a rookie, it was like that moment were I was like, ‘Holy #!@#,’ MJ just scored on me. He’s letting me have it in a fun way. This is unbelievable,” Nash said of that moment. “And all I could think of was Chucky Brown got his shoes.”
“So, he tells me you were at a slight disadvantage. And I turn, and I go, I laugh and I go, ‘Can I have your shoes after the game?’”
After the game, Jordan gave Nash his shoes. The moment took him back to where he was in his maturation as a rookie to where his teammate and close friend Rex Chapman was so “pissed” that Nash asked for Jordan shoes and got them.
It showed the difference between where Nash was and the vets at that time that competed against Jordan to where they “feared” and “respected” him, but also “begrudged” him, and wanted to beat him or gained his acceptance.
Along with being able to play against his idol, Nash in the first couple of seasons with the Suns he got the opportunity to really learn how to play the point guard position from two of the best to ever do it in the aforementioned Johnson, Cassell, and Kidd, where he learned how to raise his competitive level. To never surrender and keep on working on his game, even though he was not getting a whole lot of playing time, especially in his first year.
“Frankly, those guys gave me a lot of confidence,” Nash said of playing behind Johnson and Kidd specifically.
Nash said that Johnson pulled him to the side once and said to him that he is as good as anyone he played against and that he had to “believe” that.
That vote of confidence from one of the best players to ever step on the hardwood, Nash said it helped to raise his level confidence and all the work that he was putting in can get him to be in the same sentence as one of the best in the league at his position and overall.
That chance for Nash came when he was dealt to the Mavericks following the 1998 draft.
The start was not spectacular as Nash averaged just 7.9 points and 5.5 assists in the 40 games he played in the lockout-shortened season of 1998-99, where the Mavericks finished with a 19-31 mark.
The next season for the Mavericks was not that much better as Nash missed 25 games with an ankle injury in the middle portion of this season, but he did finish that season strong with six double-doubles in the final month of that NBA campaign. Nash finished the season with averages of 8.6 points and 4.9 assists as the Mavericks compiled a 40-42 mark barely missing the playoffs.
One of the things that Nash had to get use to doing when he was dealt to the Mavericks was to become more of a scorer and not just a distributor, which he said then head coach Don Nelson demanded of him.
Unlike today’s top floor generals in the NBA who growing up were taught to be assertive offensively, compared to how Nash was brought up to have the mentality to register 10-plus assists each night they took the floor.
Nash said he was taught to be a true orchestrator where you passed first and shot only if you were open and make those open shots consistently.
“Nothing wrong with that. There’s still a place for that. But I think analytics has driven the game that you have these really skillful and athletics point guards. The numbers say rightfully attack,” Nash said. “And so, I think this generation of the two previous generations have been much more attack minded and much less of the pass first point guards out there.”
“So, I think that was in a sense almost a bygone tradition of a point guard and rightfully. You got these incredibly talented skilled players. These guys should be attacking.”
As Nash was getting adjusted to his new surroundings in “Big-D,” he was building a very solid friendship with now future Hall of Famer in Dirk Nowitzki that continues to this day.
A big part of that bond was the fact that both players were really for the first time in their lives were evolving as people without a family support system. Nash was changing teams and Nowitzki had moved from another part of the world coming from Wurzburg, West Germany.
Nash said that he felt that it was important for him to help Nowitzki adjust to being in a new country. It also gave him somebody to be friends with right from the jump when he came to South Texas.
He also said that their close bond came from their obsession with basketball, and that they pushed each other to always be in the gym to where they worked out twice a day.
That drive is what according to Nash is how they kept the naysayers who questioned if they could lead the Mavericks back to being a playoff perennial like the were back in the 1980s, which they did with the help of another former Sun in All-Star Michael Finley, who was traded to the Mavericks on Dec. 26, 1996 and now long-time owner Mark Cuban.
“Our friendship in large part was built by being two young single guys alone in a new city. And then just being obsessed with the game, and working hard every day,” Nash said of his friendship and on court bond with Nowitzki.
That bond led to the Mavericks returning to the playoffs for the first time since 1990 in the 2000-01 season, where they won their first postseason series since 1988 beating the Utah Jazz led by Hall of Famers John Stockton and Karl Malone in five games, but lost in the Semifinals to the now five-time NBA champion and the interstate rival San Antonio Spurs in five games.
Despite the Mavericks’ rise back to being a playoff perennial, which totaled 12 straight seasons and 15 of the next 16 seasons, when it came time to make some major investments in the core of the team team like Antoine Walker, Finley, Nowitzki and Antawn Jamison, which came to nearly $50 million, Cuban felt signing a then 30-year-old Nash to a long term contract was risky. So, he offered Nash a four-year deal worth about $9 million, with a partial guarantee on the fifth year.
Nash said that he respected Cuban’s decision, he was just “pissed” at the fact that the franchise who gave him the chance to be the player he felt he could become did not invest in him.
In his second go-around with the Suns, Nash alongside the likes of All-Stars Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson and Amar’e Stoudemire, and now Houston Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni engineered a turnaround that not only put them into the conversation of being a title contender but they did it by playing a style of basketball where it was done at a high octane level offensively that consisted of smaller players that were athletic that can outshoot, outrun and outscore opponents.
That helped turn the Suns from a 29-win team in 2003-04 into a 62-win team, which tied a franchise record for a single season in 2004-05. That was followed by marks of 54 and 61 wins the next two seasons, with Nash winning Kia MVP back-to-back in 2005 and 2006.
When Nash on league MVP in 2005 thanks to averaging 15.5 points and a league-leading 11.5 assists on 50.2 percent from the field and 43.1 percent from three-point range.
He became the first Canadian to win the league’s highest individual honor and joining Hall of Famers Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Bob Cousy as the only lead guards to win that award.
“I never really thought of myself as the best player in the league,” Nash said of winning those back-to-back MVPs. “But I thought that I raised my game into that sort of company. Playing at an extremely high and efficient level, with winning a lot of games. Was closing out a lot of games.”
To Nash though, this accomplishment was a victory for all the one scholarship kids, like a fellow two-time MVP in perennial All-Star Stephen Curry of the three-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors.
Players who had to persevere and keep working when you have a lot people in the media saying that you cannot become an MVP.
Nash said that being let go by the Mavericks when he felt he had plenty left in the tank. The fact that he did not play well in his former team’s five-game setback to the Sacramento Kings in the opening round of the 2004 Playoffs. Having a coach like D’Antoni who knew how to best utilize his unique and exceptional skill set and playing with a grew of players who need a true lead guard that can facilitate made all the difference.
“When you count it all up, you know, I definitely played at a higher level than I did in Dallas. But it was kind of what was needed for me to fit into that team, and I fit in perfectly.”
While it was a perfect fit in the regular season, the were a lot of skeptics that wondered could that kind of high-octane offensive attack work in the playoffs?
In 2005, it got the Suns to the precipice of the NBA Finals, but they lost to the eventual NBA champion Spurs in the Western Conference Finals 4-1.
The next spring, the Suns lost in six games to Nowitzki and the eventual NBA runner-up Mavericks in the Western Conference Semifinals 4-2.
Perhaps the most painful loss in the postseason for the Nash led Suns came in the 207 Semis to the Spurs where late in Game 4 of that series where seven-time NBA champion forward Robert Horry hip checked Nash into the scorer’s table, which led to Stoudemire and Boris Diaw leaving the bench and they were suspended by the league for that. The Suns lost Games 5 and 6 and lost the series 4-2.
Nash said though that he felt that moment was not the main reason why they lost that series to the Spurs. He felt that they did not enforce their style enough. That they played the game on the Spurs terms where they played more half court instead of forcing the tempo and shooting a lot of three-pointers, which they only hit five in that Game 4 win to tie the series at 2-2.
It is those setbacks in the playoffs, which also included the Suns six-game setback in the 2010 Western Conference Finals versus the eventual NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers that Nash said brings him to “tears” because he felt as the leader of the team you could have done more, coupled with the equal “disappointment” from your teammates.
The tears for Nash especially came after the Canadian national team that he captained lost by five to France in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where the entire country of Canada was “swept” up in their run which he said was the “best” experience of his basketball career.
The difference Nash said between that setback and the losses his Suns teams had in the previously mentioned in the Conference Finals in 2005, 2007 and 2010 was that they were right at the doorstep of being in The Finals only to lose to the eventual NBA champion of that season in the Spurs twice and the Lakers. But both losing in the playoffs and the Olympics are equally painful.
“So, there was an accumulative affect of the kind of the release and the sadness of when you don’t get there. The frustration,” Nash said adding “But both incredibly difficult. And at the same time, there’s still tons of reward in the journey, in the battles and the fight, and just didn’t make enough plays in either place.”
While Nash had two solid seasons with the Suns following the 2009-10 season, they missed the playoffs.
There seemed to be a chance to achieve that dream of winning an NBA title when he was dealt to the Lakers on July 11, 2012 teaming up alongside the late Kobe Bryant and All-Stars Ron Artest and Dwight Howard and reuniting with Coach D’Antoni.
Injuries, inconsistent chemistry, and that D’Antoni’s offensive style did not fit with the personnel put those championship dreams down the toilet and Nash announced his retirement from the NBA on Mar. 21, 2015.
While he did not win a ring as a player, he does have two from his time with the Warriors as a part-time consultant.
The biggest thrill for Nash in being a part of the mix of the Warriors led by head coach Steve Kerr, who has a total of eight rings from his time as a player and now coach is seeing his former competitor go from being a player to a broadcaster for Turner Sports and now head coach.
“He’s an incredible person. He’s an incredible basketball coach,” Nash said of Kerr. “And I think when you get to see those two things are part of the same fabric, I’ve learned a lot of lessons from him and to watch the way he’s built that culture and team, and the spirit and energy has been remarkable.”
“So, for me, I hopefully able to help some of the players and some of the staff. But I’m the one whose learned the most watching Steve work.”
Perhaps the biggest lesson Nash has learned in this new part of his basketball life is to appreciate the moment, while also not letting go of the pain of not winning a title as a player, but being able to compartmentalize that time to now winning one as unofficial member of the Warriors organization.
It was a lot easier to Nash to compartmentalize a proud moment in his basketball journey back on September 7, 2018 when he was formally inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
As part of his speech Nash said, “I was not supposed to be here. I was never supposed to be walking up those steps. And basically, walking into the Hall of Fame.”
Nash told Johnson of that moment that it was the “closing of a circle” of where you start to play the game of basketball as a kid. You fall deeply in love with it, become “obsessed” with it. Work hard to get better at it every day. Find a way to get into college and then the pros and try to carve out the kind of career that gets you into the Hall of Fame.
“It just takes you back to the beginnings,” Nash said. “When you’re a kid with big dreams and nobody thinks that’s possible, probably yourself included for much of the journey. And here you are.”
His first love was soccer as child before falling in love with basketball at the start of his teen years. That love got him into college at the University of Santa Clara. He became a First-Round pick by the Phoenix Suns. He took what he learned and made himself into a solid player with the Dallas Mavericks. Became a two-time MVP in his second stint with the Suns and one of the best floor generals in NBA history.
Steve Nash was not the biggest player on the floor, but he was the savviest and the hardest working and that allowed him to carve out a stellar career where he along with Hall of Famers Larry Bird and Reggie Miller; former NBA All-Star guard Mark Price; the Warriors Stephen Curry, the Indiana Pavers Malcolm Brogdon, two-time Finals MVP and current Brooklyn Nets’ All-Star Kevin Durant; future Hall of Famer and former Mavericks teammate Dirk Nowitzki and reigning WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne are the only players in pro basketball history to be a part of the 50-40-90 club.
Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 5/13/2020 8:30 p.m. edition of “#NBATogether With Ernie Johnson;” https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/n/nashst01.html; https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CHI/1997_games.html; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Hoddle; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_hand_of_God; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/50-40-90_club; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Phoenix_Suns_seasons; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dallas_Mavericks_seasons; Steve Nash’s family-Google search; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Nash
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