Feschuk Dave - Steve Nash: the unlikely ascent of a superstar

VINTAGE CANADA EDITION, 2014

COPYRIGHT 2013 DAVE FESCHUK AND MICHAEL GRANGE

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Published in Canada by Vintage Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, in 2014. Originally published in hardcover in Canada by Random House Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, in 2013. Distributed by Random House of Canada Limited.

www.randomhouse.ca

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Feschuk, Dave

Steve Nash : the unlikely ascent of a superstar / Dave Feschuk and Michael Grange.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-307-35948-3

1. Nash, Steve, 1974. 2. Basketball players CanadaBiography. 3. SuccessPsychological aspects. I. Grange, Michael II. Title.

GV 884. N 37 F 48 2013 796.323092 C 2013-900623-0

Cover design by Jennifer Lum

Cover image: Noah Graham / National Basketball Association / Getty Images

v3.1

To our families

It was a February night in Los Angeles and Steve Nashs Lakers were beating their ancient rivals from Boston. Up 8165 with just under five minutes to go in the third quarter, Nash made an efficient if unthreatening feed from the right wing to Lakers forward Antawn Jamison, who promptly turned, shot and scored. And with that simple transaction, Nash passed Magic Johnson for fourth place on the NBAs all-time assists list.

There was no ceremony. There wasnt much to-do. But it was the kind of occasion that prompts sporting giants to take stock. After the game Lakers coach Mike DAntoni was compelled to offer some insight into the stuff that made Nash one of the great players in basketball history.

Just his mastery of the fundamentals, DAntoni said. Hes a lot stronger and more athletic than people give him credit [for being]. Because you look at him and say, Hes normal. But hes not normal.

That his looks can deceive is one of the essential truths of Nashs incredible climb from ambitious Victoria high-schooler to surefire Hall of Famer. He looks normal because hes a man of relatively modest proportions playing a game populated by genetic aberrations, but his story most certainly is not. Hes a Canadian who learned the fundamentals in a small Canadian city excelling in a sport perfected and still dominated by Americans groomed by the best collegiate basketball system in the world. At 18, a little more than two decades before hed compiled a resume that includes two NBA MVP trophies, he was an unknown quantity in a landscape often given to prodigies, able to convince precisely one NCAA Division I head coach to offer him a spot on a team.

Nash has lasted seventeen seasons in the NBAs high-altitude power game, but hes a master of subtler arts performed well below the rim. Vision, feel, an uncanny instinct for team dynamicsthese are some of his weapons. But hes also a crowd thriller in his own right. His is one of the great shooting strokes in the history of the NBA; and the area beyond the three-point line is one of his comfort zones. For a man who has defined himself as a brilliant passeras a collegian, Johnson once called him Little Magichis best theatre has come during those shining moments in which he has decided to become an unrepentant scorer.

In perhaps his greatest offensive performancea 48-point explosion in the 2005 NBA playoffs as a member of the Phoenix SunsNash showcased every nuance of a skill set honed during countless hours of solitary communion between boy, ball and rim. He was playing against the Dallas Mavericks, the franchise that had balked at signing him to a long-term contract a summer earlier for fear his then 30-year-old body couldnt weather the rigours of another long season, let alone another multi-year contract. A few months past his 31st birthday, he looked awfully healthy. He swished his lean-back fall-away jumpshot. He made his left-handed floater, his spot-up three-pointer and his dime-stop crossover foul-line pull-up. He hit his fake-left, fake-right step-through lay-in. He made a shot as he careened at high speed toward the cameramen on the baseline, his body out of bounds before the high-arcing work of art found the bottom of the net. The Mavericks tried bigger defenders, stronger ones, quicker ones. But again and again Nash (who has spent a career showing that straight-line speed isnt necessarily as dangerous as changing speeds) used slow-fast hesitation drives to open up the space he needed to operate.

Watching the broadcast now, you can still hear the play-by-play mans astonishment: How easy can it get?!

In truth, its rarely been easy for Nash, even if, in his best moments, he makes a complicated puzzle look simple. He struggled in his early days at Santa Clara University. He was a third-stringer in his first year as a pro. He was booed by the home crowd in his first season as a starter in Dallas. But struggles can be overcome, Nash has shown the world, if you go to work every day and vow to get a bit better.

Nash came into the NBA as a good shooter, but hell leave it as one of the finest to ever loft a ball at a rim. No player has been more accurate from the free-throw line (he and Mark Price are the only players to shoot better than 90 percent from the charity stripe for their respective careers). When Nash missed two consecutive free throws during a game in the 201213 season, Hubie Brown, the great former coach and broadcast analyst, proclaimed his shock: I nearly fell off the couch. Indeed, Lakers centre Dwight Howard missed more free throws in the 201213 season than Nash has missed in his entire career. Nash is one of only a handful of men in the 504090 Clubthat is, players who shot 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from three-point range, and 90 percent from the free-throw line in the same season. Larry Bird did it twice. Nash has done it four times. Nobody else has done it more than once. And if you broaden the criteria just a bit, Nashs excellence is even more tellingan NBA player has shot 394989 (not as catchy, but still remarkable accuracy from all three spots) just 24 times while playing at least 24 minutes a game, and Nash is responsible for seven of them.

Nashs list of accomplishments in the years since he made a series of clutch free throws to help Santa Clara pull off a memorable upset of Arizona in the NCAA tournament is gaudy and unfathomable. Eight times hes played in the NBA All-Star Game. Only one other Canadian has played in the game, Torontos Jamaal Magloire, and he made it once, as an injury replacement. Seven times hes been a member of the All-NBA Team, including three seasons on the starting five. Two times hes been named regular season MVP. Nash will be counted among the greatest Canadian athletes in history. Many of his peers in those ranks have defined themselves on a hockey rink, but there have been few Canadians whove proven themselves superior in a sport with a truly global talent pool, let alone one in which the great power to the south takes nationwide interest, and hes done it at point guard, the one position in basketball where sheer size doesnt automatically narrow down the pool of applicants; its the most competitive position in the sport.