Los Angeles Lakers fans hate Steve Nash. If only they’d known from the beginning how much the 41 year-old future Hall-of-Famer has sacrificed to give the Buss Family’s team a chance to improve.
Nash’s career is over – that’s been obvious ever since it became apparent nerve damage to his back would keep him from playing in 2014-2015. But he’s yet to officially announce retirement, leading hordes of Lakers followers to believe he’s simply keeping quiet to earn a final paycheck he doesn’t deserve.
But surprise! It turns out Nash put off official retirement for reasons that fly in the face of such ridiculous thinking – to give Los Angeles the chance to get something in return for his contract via potential trade.
Here’s Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report:
Nash was ready to call it a career before the season.
[…]
The Lakers asked Nash not to announce anything, according to team sources. They hoped they could trade Nash’s $9.7 million salary, not only an expiring contract but also a giant coupon for another club to take and immediately save real dollars via insurance, to get a building block for the Lakers’ future.
Fully aware how little he has given the Lakers since arriving in 2012, Nash agreed to do them a solid. He would put off his official retirement announcement and remain a member of the Lakers this season in name only.
Put away the Southern California equivalent of pitchforks, Lakers fans. Nash isn’t the greedy old-timer you make him out to be, and actually indirectly agreed to facing such scrutiny as a result of agreeing to Los Angeles’ request.
Think about it: Nash deserves a swan song from the NBA, and would have received one if he’d announced retirement prior to the season. Instead, he’s fallen out of the public’s eyes entirely save for those that see him as a gaping drain on the Lakers.
Nash knowingly took a major PR hit in efforts to help Mitch Kupchak and company rebound from his forgettable time wearing purple-and-gold. He certainly wasn’t forced to make such a selfless decision, and it’s fair to say most athletes – or humans, actually – would have balked at Los Angeles’ idea. But Nash did it anyway, living up to his longstanding reputation as one of the league’s true good guys in the process.
Just call it the final assist of a brilliant career marked by so many mesmerizing ones. Except this time, we aren’t afforded the process to comprehend it.
