BLOG 91 STEVE NASH

BLOG 91 STEVE NASH

This Blog was a must since we have our very own Steve Nash at Every BODY’s Fit. He must be a pretty special guy if I named my pug after him. Steve Nash is a legendary NBA player whose leadership and talent not only earned him MVP status but also helped better the careers of many of his teammates around him. 

Steve Nash was born in South Africa in 1974. His father was actually a semi-pro soccer player there. His brother was also a professional soccer player.  But Nash was primarily raised in Canada. Nash received a basketball scholarship to Santa Clara, which wasn’t known as a powerhouse sports school, but none the less he proved himself there. Nash entered the NBA draft in 1996, the same year players like Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson hit the scene. He was pick 15^th in Round 1 to the Phoenix Suns. It was hard for him to find his groove on a team with such dominant point guards including Kevin Johnson and Jason Kidd. Playing time was scarce when you had super star veterans like these on your time. 

So he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks. It was here that was his time to shine. Playing alongside Dirk Nowitski, Nash took pride in creating plays for others and being the playmaker. His assist game was phenomenal and his leadership was outstanding. As such, “Nash had an uncanny gift for driving into the key and discovering new, seemingly impossible, passing lanes, and the new rules made Nash’s approach more effective than ever before as he led the league in assists per game five times (including his career-high 11.6 assists per game in 2006–07) during the eight years of his second stint with the Suns” (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Steve-Nash). 

In his personal life, Nash had a family of twin daughters and a son. He to this day owns the Steve Nash Foundation in which his website thoughtfully states “Assists Matter” (https://stevenash.org/). The organization aims to serve underprivileged children with health, education, and personal development. 

Magic Johnson put it best, ““Steve Nash is an iconic point guard who has always made his team mates better, just like Larry Bird and Michael Jordan did” (https://stevenash.org/about-steve/). Here are his stats (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/steve-nashs-achievements-on-and-off-the-court/article23575593/) :

• Steve Nash was named MVP of the NBA not just once, but twice – in 2005 and 2006 – making him one of only 10 players to win the award in back-to-back years
• Led the league in assists for five seasons, and is third in the league overall, with 10,335 assists
• The best free-throw shooter in NBA history, at 90.4 per cent
• Averaged 14.3 points per game in his 18-season career with the NBA
• Named an NBA all-star eight times
• In 2006, he was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world
• Represented Team Canada both at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and in 2004 in Athens

As a point guard throughout my basketball career, Steve Nash was a role model for me. Making other players around me better and being the play-maker was my goal. I was captain of Varsity all 4 years because I led by example…. a trait I still hold true of myself to this day. Leadership doesn’t have to be loud and that is what I liked about Nash. So now you know why I named my pug after this incredible player and why Nash is my little leader at the studio.