Knowledge of the game helps Nash finally get his NBA championship ring

It is the one thing that eluded twotime NBA MVP Steve Nash of Victoria during his starry basketball career. He may have revolutionized the game by making passes and assisting a high art on the court, but he never won a league championship as a player.

But now the St. Michaels University School graduate has his elusive NBA championship ring. He was awarded one this week as a player development consultant with the 2017 champion Golden State Warriors.

Not only did the Arbutus Junior High product not win an NBA championship, he never made it to the NBA final after some close calls in Western Conference finals with the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks.

Karl Malone is the only other two-time MVP never to win an NBA title.

It was probably only a matter of time before some team would plumb the depths of Nash’s hoop knowledge. Few in the game ever saw the court as well as he did. Nash began working with the Warriors in November 2015, partly on a suggestion by friend and now Golden State star Kevin Durant. The pair hugged in the corridors of Oracle Arena following Golden State’s championshipclinching game over Cleveland this week.

The 43-year-old former Canadian captain and Olympian is also the general manager of Canada’s national team.

It sort of brings things full circle for Nash. As a high schooler at SMUS, he was taken by UVic coaching legend and former national team coach Ken Shields, who had connections with the Warriors at the time, to a Golden State game to see up close what it takes to become a pro basketball player.

Nash obviously absorbed that experience and listened well.

Now he has an NBA championship ring from the Warriors.