After announcing that the 2014-2015 NBA season would be his last due to an ailing back, it appears that Steve Nash's career has abruptly ended before any farewells. After straining his back lifting luggage this past week, Steve has announced that he will be out for the entire season, one week before the regular season is set to begin. While he says that he plans to rehab his back all year, he has yet to announce his official retirement which could be a good thing for Lakers fans.
Steve Nash has never been known as a “feel good story” in the NBA but that's exactly how his NBA career began. Like the NFL's Wes Welker, Steve Nash didn't receive much attention coming out of high school from college coaches. More than 30 big time programs rejected his inquiries but Santa Clara University decided to take a chance on a player that was “horrible on the defensive side”. He played for the Santa Clara Broncos from 1992-1996 and by the time his senior campaign began, he was already attracting attention from professional scouts.
After breaking many school records at Santa Clara, the Phoenix Suns drafted Nash with the 15th overall pick of the 1996 NBA draft. He would immediately play behind some of the NBA's best guards in Jason Kidd, Sam Cassell and Kevin Johnson. He wouldn't stay in Phoenix long after that and was traded to the Dallas Mavericks where he would play for six seasons. In 2004, he returned to the Phoenix Suns for his second stint with the team before finally joining his current team, the LA Lakers in 2012.
Some of his most notable personal accolades would include being named the NBA's most valuable player twice during his career (2005, 2006). He was also an eight time NBA All-Star selection, five time NBA season assist leader and three time all NBA first team selection. He never won an NBA championship although he always had a strong supporting cast playing with players such as Shaquille O'Neal, Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion, Kobe Bryant and Michael Finley.
What made Steve Nash such a great player was his uncanny ability to find open teammates, some would call this his play-making ability. He had excellent ball handling skills and was an above average threat from the perimeter and behind the arc. He is number three on the NBA's all time assists list trailing John Stockton and Jason Kidd who had long NBA careers as well. He is also the all time NBA leader in free throw percentage with a mark of 90.4%.
Among other NBA point guard legends, only Jason Kidd, John Stockton and Mark Price could have been considered as “complete” as Nash. He had no holes in his game and he never played the game with a ton of flair. He was just an extremely fundamental player with one of the highest basketball IQ's on the court at any time. Steve, you will be missed by basketball fans all around the world. And if you don't go down as the NBA's greatest point guard, you will definitely go down as the greatest basketball player to ever come out of Canada.
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