Nash lands job as next Nets coach THE QUOTE
Keeping an eye on the world of sports during the pandemic:
Steve Nash was one of the NBA’s most entertaining point guards, the engineer of a highscoring team that helped usher in a new era of basketball.
Now the Nets want to see what he can do as a coach.
The Nets hired Nash on Thursday, putting the Hall of Famer in charge of the team that hopes to have Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving together next season.
“Coaching is something I knew I wanted to pursue when the time was right, and I am humbled to be able to work with the outstanding group of players and staff we have here in Brooklyn,” Nash said in a statement.
Nash, two-time MVP as the playmaker of the Suns teams under Mike D’Antoni that piled up points and 3-pointers long before they became the norm in the NBA, had been a player development consultant with the Warriors, where he worked with Durant.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr was the Suns GM for part of Nash’s time and took elements of the Suns’ system in winning three NBA titles. He thanked and congratulated Nash with a message on Twitter.
“You are going to crush it in Brooklyn!” Kerr wrote.
The Nets said they would have a Zoom news conference next week to introduce Nash, the franchise’s 23rd coach and the second Hall of Fame point guard without head coaching experience they’ve hired since moving to Brooklyn in 2012.
Jason Kidd went right from a player to their coach in 2013, leading the Nets to the second round of the playoffs in his lone season before leaving to coach the Bucks.
Nash is third in NBA history with 10,335 assists and the 2005 and 2006 MVP, one of only 10 players to win it in back-to-back years. The Suns made the Western Conference finals in both seasons, playing a style that critics sneered at as the Suns put up what at the time were the three highest single-season 3-point totals in league history.
“It’s a blessing, definitely an honor. I put a lot of work in. This journey has been rough but in the end it’s all paying off.”
— Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, who was named NBA rookie of the year after receiving 99 of 100 first-place votes