.png){kind=small}
*Photo via USA Today
One of the greatest point guards of all-time called it a career on Saturday. Steve Nash decided to retire after 19 seasons in the NBA with the Suns, Mavericks and Lakers. A career that saw the Canadian guard tally the third most assists and the highest free throw percentage in NBA history. Nash was must see television, he was a magician with the ball making no look passes seem routine.
If you were a fan of scoring, then you were a fan of Steve Nash, from 2001-2009 his teams were number one in offense. He was the ring leader of those teams, his scoring and playmaking ability was one of the best the game has ever seen. Many people remember him for his passing, which he is one of the best in NBA history, leading the league in that category five times. What gets overlooked is how efficiently this 6’3 guard scored the ball. Nash is one of only six players in NBA history to shoot 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from three point range and 90 percent, from the free throw line in a season. Only Larry Bird, Mark Price, Reggie Miller, Dirk Nowitzki, and Kevin Durant have accomplished this feat. What is crazy is that of all these players the only two to do it more than once is Nash and Bird, Bird did it twice while Nash did it four times. His whole career was filled with these kind of achievements that included eight All-Star selections, three All NBA First Team selections, two All NBA Second Team selections, and a two time All NBA Third team member. The most impressive of his accolades were the back to back MVPs he won with the Suns in 2005 and 2006, which made him one of ten players in history to win back to back MVPs.
Those Suns teams were Nash’s best chance to get the one trophy that alluded him in his terrific career, the Larry O’brien Trophy. He is one of six players to win an MVP, but never a NBA Finals. He made one last attempt to get to a finals after the rebuilding Phoenix Suns traded him to the Lakers in 2012 to team up with Kobe and Dwight Howard. His stint in LA saw far more injury than success. He missed 24 games his first season and was reduced to playing in 15 games last season before having to sit out all of this year with a back injury. While Nash’s career didn’t end the way he would’ve liked, he will always be remembered as one of the best players and an even better person the NBA has ever seen.