Source Image: benefit1970, 'Steve Nash and Andre Miller', 2009, Via www.flickr.com/photos/35054524@N03/4013795016/
Stephen John Nash also known as Steve Nash is a Canadian professional basketball coach and former player.
As a kid, he played soccer and ice hockey with his younger brother, he also played lacrosse and rugby. He didn’t actually start playing basketball until he was about 12 or 13. In Grade 8 he told his mother one day he would play for the NBA and become a star. He was not recruited by any University until the Santa Clara coach Dick Davey and requested video footage. He was awarded a scholarship by Santa Clara University for the 92-93 season. In the 95 to 96 season, he began to attract the attention of national media and professional scouts.
After graduating with a degree in sociology he was selected for the first round of the 1996 NBA Draft by the Phoenix Suns. Suns fans weren’t very happy about this. During his second season, he ranks 13th in the league 3-point field goal percentage. During the 1998 NBA Draft, he was actually traded from the Suns to the Dallas Mavericks. During the 1999 to 2000 season, he missed 25 mid-season games due to an ankle injury but came back to record 6 double-doubles in the last months of play. He led Canada to a silver medal at the 1999 Tournament of the Americas which qualified the team for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. His career highs came in the season of 2001-2002 with an average of 17.9 points and 7.7 assists per game.
After the 2003 to 2004 season, he became a free agent. He attempted to negotiate a long term contract with Mark Cuban. However, the Phoenix Suns made a better deal and he returned to the Suns for the 2004-2005 season. During the season, he became the first and only Canadian, at the moment, to earn the NBA MVP award. He ended up getting the award a second time the next season. During the 2006-2007 season here under that being one of the few people at the time to average 18.6 points and a career-high of 11.6 assists per game during a regular season. Towards the end of the 2011-2012 season, he was awarded the PBWA’s Magic Johnson Award which was his last season with the Phoenix Suns.
In the summer of 2012, the Los Angeles Lakers acquired Nash in a sign-and-trade deal with the Phoenix Suns. In his second game of the 2012-2013 season, he suffered a non-displaced fracture in his left leg after a collision with a member of the Portland Trail Blazers. He was out of the lineup for about 7 weeks when it was only supposed to be 1 week. He also ended up missing the last eight games of the season with a right hip injury that had caused nerve damage to his right hamstring. He ended up missing a total of 32 games in the regular season. He continued to suffer from nerve problems into the next season. In July of 2014, he announced the 2014-2015 season was gonna be his last. During pre-season, he experienced back pain that also ended up reoccurring during games.
In May 2012, he became the general manager of the Canadian senior national team and transitioned into a Senior Advisor role in 2019. In September 2015 he had taken on a part-time consulting role for the Golden State Warriors. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame three years after his retirement. From 2020 to 2022 he coached the Brooklyn Nets.