Steve Nash brought Canada to the NBA
League MVP in consecutive years, he didn’t start basketball until age 12
The most successful basketball player to come out of B.C. was among the most modest in that preening peacock cage, the National Basketball Association. Yet he’s now more famous than James Naismith, the Canadian who invented the game played by 450 million people worldwide. All basketball requires is a ball and two baskets — an ideal sport for developing countries. At the pinnacle, of course, is the $5.2-billion-a-year business behemoth, the NBA, where stars can earn $50 million or more.
Born in South Africa in 1974, the son of a professional soccer player, Nash’s family moved to Regina 18 months later, then Victoria. He played rugby and soccer. He didn’t even try basketball until he was 12. He loved it. He decided that he would work like Wayne Gretzky to become the best in a world of giants. Twenty years later, an agile, intelligent strategist with a deadly shot and explosive speed driving from his position at point guard, he was chosen the NBA’s most valuable player in back-to-back years, only the eighth player to ever be so honoured.
He attended Mt. Douglas Senior Secondary in Saanich, but his grades slid and his parents moved him to the private St. Michael’s University School, where he led the basketball team to its first provincial championship in 1992. He was that tournament’s most valuable player. Only one American coach showed interest, so he went to the University of Santa Clara in California. He was that team’s all-time leader in assists and led it to three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances.
In 1996, he was drafted 15th overall by the Phoenix Suns, soon traded to the Dallas Mavericks, returned to the Suns as a free agent at the age of 30, and blew the doors off. League MVP his first two seasons back with the Suns, by the time he joined the Los Angeles Lakers in the twilight of his career, he had been a league all-star eight times. His assists rank him third all-time among NBA playmakers.
Nash retired in 2015. He is now an NBA sports executive, established the Steve Nash Foundation to bring sports to underprivileged children, and is a part-owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps. But his biggest accomplishment was to awaken American coaches to Canadian talent. In the 50 years before Nash, only 19 Canadians had ever played an NBA game. Over the last five years, more than 30 have.