2-time NBA Most Valuable Player, 8-time NBA All-Star, 7-times named to the All-NBA team, 5-time NBA Assist leader, and a 4-time member of the 50–40–90 club. Steve Nash will be retiring from the NBA after an 18 year playing career that saw him on the Phoenix Suns twice, the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers.
Nash’s career is one that can’t be forgotten, his play was masterful and artist like. He weaved through defenses, mastered the pick and roll and perfected the precision pass. After his tumultuous tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers, Nash has decided to hang it up and retire.
Following from Steve Nash’s piece on ‘The Players’ Tribune’.
I’m retiring.
I heard someone once say there comes a day when they tell us all that we can’t play anymore. We’re not good enough. Surplus to requirements. Too slow, maybe. When you’re a teenager with outsized dreams and a growing obsession, and someone tells you this ain’t gonna last forever, it’s scary. I never forgot it.
When I signed with the Lakers, I had big dreams of lifting the fans up and lighting this city on fire. I turned down more lucrative offers to come to L.A. because I wanted to be in the “fire,” and play for high risk and high reward in my last NBA chapter. In my second game here, I broke my leg and nothing was the same.
Last spring, when I returned to the court, I was given a standing ovation at Staples Center. It was a dark time in my career and that gesture will be one of my best memories. There’s been a lot of negativity online, but in my nearly three years in L.A., I’ve never met anyone who didn’t show me anything but love and support for my efforts. There’s a lot of class in Lakerland, and the organization and staff have given me unwavering support.
Fans around the world have shown me so much appreciation throughout the years, it’s unbelievable. Going out to shoot hour after hour, day after day as a kid, I never sought or dreamed of the amount of support and love people have shown. It’s been a huge source of motivation and inspiration. Thank you eternally.
I will likely never play basketball again. It’s bittersweet. I already miss the game deeply, but I’m also really excited to learn to do something else. This letter is for anyone who’s taken note of my career. At the heart of this letter, I’m speaking to kids everywhere who have no idea what the future holds or how to take charge of their place in it. When I think of my career, I can’t help but think of the kid with his ball, falling in love. That’s still what I identify with and did so throughout my entire story.
In Nash’s piece, he also gushed about his former teammates, coaches and family. He pointed specific people out individually and gave them all some love, one at a time. Nash’s career can’t be put into words but it can be personified in video form because he was a master of making the amazing happen. Nash and his once beloved coach Mike D’Antoni changed the NBA to how it is now. A faced paced, up and down game that everyone has been playing for year, thanks to D’antoni.
Nash laid it all out on the court. Through the bumps and bruises, through all the blood and tears, Nash played through it all and his teammates, coaches and fans loved him for it.
He will, without a doubt be an NBA Hall of Famer. Nash’s passes were crisp and pristine and he had a dead eye shot that was one of the most reliable in the history of the NBA. When Nash licked his fingers, moved his sweaty, floppy hair behind his ears you knew, it was about to go down.
He hands down made the Suns relevant again after many years of being down in the dumps. He also put the Mavs on the map alongside Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley for one of the greatest trios of all-time. He put Canadian basketball in the forefront and now the list of players who have enjoyed Nash, who are from Canada, are also some of the brightest young stars in the league. He made Amar’e Stoudemire a better player, even making Amar’e a 100 million dollar player. He made the bad players good, made the good players great and he is an all-time great.
Enjoy some of Nash’s finest moments.
