L.A. Lakers Steve Nash: Goodbye to a Good Guy

The news broke on October 23 that, due to nerve root issues in his back, Lakers’ star point guard, Steve Nash, has officially been ruled out of the entire 2014-15 season. Unfortunately, the veteran also allegedly damaged the root nerves in his back while moving some bags. Despite all of this, Nash has yet to announce his retirement. Barring a minor miracle or victory over Father Time; the injuries will bring an end to Nash’s improbable and illustrious 18-year NBA career, one which includes him being named the league MVP twice. There is no doubt that Steve Nash is one of the best point guards in NBA history. ESPN ranked him as the ninth-greatest point guard of all time in 2006.

Nash is one of six players (the others being Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Allen Iverson, Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant) that has won an NBA MVP award but not an NBA Title. He has led the league in assists and free–throw percentages several times throughout his career. The 18-year vet ranks as one of the top players in NBA league history by consistently shooting at least 50percent from the field, 40 percent from the three-point arc and 90 percent from the free throw line.

Several Lakers and NBA fans have viewed Nash’s tenure in Los Angeles as stealing money. At face value, the thought is not too far off base; the Lakers got 65 games from Nash for $27.9 million over three years.

Nash is on the books for $9.7 million for this season. However, if you view his arrival from a basketball standpoint, the thought of him stealing money in order to stop a risky move by a team simply does not make sense. After being unable to secure the services of guard Chris Paul, the Lakers went after and landed Nash and center Dwight Howard. At the time of the trade, no one knew Nash would have major back issues and that Howard would be unable to raise his game up enough to become a leader. The Lakers are still in the basketball business though, and their last Championship was in 2010.

Several things have changed since then.

Looking back, the new NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement that was signed in 2011 changed the rules. In December of that year, then-NBA Commissioner David Stern vetoed a proposed three-team trade that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers, power forwards Lamar Odom to the New Orleans Hornets and Pau Gasol to the Houston Rockets.

Former commissioner David Stern, who was then wearing two hats (NBA Commissioner & NBA Owner), was being influenced by several NBA small market owners and decided that the Hornets were better off keeping Paul for basketball reasons. Had the deal gone through as planned, the Lakers would still be one of the top teams in the Western Conference.

That decision was the spark that started a chain reaction. Odom felt disrespected upon learning of the trade publicly and wanted out. Former Lakers’ head coach Mike Brown had replaced Phil Jackson and the Lakers no longer ran the triangle offense nor had a need for Odom to initiate the triangle offense. L.A. traded Odom to the Dallas Mavericks for a first-round pick and an $8.9 million trade exception.

If this is the end, Nash has accomplished a lot in his career… one that started with Phoenix Suns’ fans booing in disapproval at the relatively unknown South African-born-Canada-raised point guard out of the University of Santa Clara being selected 15th overall in the 1996 NBA Draft two picks after Kobe Bryant (who is now the only active player from that draft class).

Nash had an impressive college career and showed great potential but did not play in one of the major college conferences. When you consider that during his first two years he was in a support role behind guards Kevin Johnson and Sam Cassell (both players with NBA Finals experience);  and Jason Kidd (the second overall pick in the 1994 draft) you can understand Suns’ fans frustration.

These same fans — at the time — had no idea that their team selected a man that would become one of the most unselfish players, best shooters and most fierce competitors in NBA history. Nash has the third-most assists in NBA history with 10, 335. He has played in the most playoff games in NBA history without winning a ring. An amazing player Steve Nash is a class act, known for putting on a great show on on a regular basis and playing at a high level with style and grace .