Nash, Steve

NASH, Steve, basketball player (b 7 Feb 1974, Johannesburg, S Africa). The most successful BASKETBALL player to come out of BC, he led ST MICHAELS UNIV SCHOOL in VICTORIA to the 1992 BC boys' AAA basketball championship where he won MVP honours. Playing at the Univ of Santa Clara in California he became its all-time leader in assists while leading the team to 3 appearances in the NCAA tournament. In 1996 he was picked by the Phoenix Suns 15th overall in the NBA draft, the highest position for a Canadian before the turn of the century. After 2 seasons with the Suns he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks for the 1999 season. In 2002 he became the first Canadian to win a place on an NBA all-star team. He first played for the Canadian national team in 1993, and in 1999 he led the team to an unexpected berth in the 2000 Olympics. Nash rejoined Phoenix for the 2004–05 season and led the Suns to the best record in the NBA. He was named the league's most valuable player, the first time a Canadian had won the award and only the second time a non-American won MVP honours. Just to prove it was no fluke, Nash repeated as league MVP in 2006, becoming only the ninth player in NBA history to win the honour in back-to-back seasons. He spent his last three years in the league with the Los Angeles Lakers but back problems limited his playing time. An eight-time NBA all-star, he retired in 2014 after 19 seasons and two years later was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame. He ranks third in league history in number of assists (10,335) and first in free-throw percentage (90.4). In 2012 he became general manager of Canada's national men's basketball team. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018 and two years later began a new phase of his storied career when he was named head coach of the NBA Brooklyn Nets.
by Patrick Francis