Who is Steve Nash?
FORMER NBA player and head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, Steve Nash, has been criticized for the abrupt end to the team's 2022 season.
He is expected to continue coaching the team despite the loss after encountering obstacles due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Who is Steve Nash?
Steve Nash was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1974 where he lived for two years before his parents immigrated to Canada to avoid raising their children amidst the apartheid.
He comes from a family of sports enthusiasts.
His father, John, played semi-professional soccer, his mom, Jean, played netball, his sister, Joann, played a variety of sports in college, and his brother, Martin, was a professional soccer player.
Nash was drawn to basketball and received a scholarship to Santa Clara University where he helped the Broncos secure three NCAA tournaments.
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After graduation, Nash was picked by the Phoenix Suns as a 15th pick in the first round of the 1996 NBA draft.
In 2000, he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks and four years later he returned to the Phoenix Suns and moved to the Los Angeles Lakers where he finished his career.
He retired from the NBA in 2015.
Nash started his coaching career with the Brooklyn Nets for the 2020-2021 season and had to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccine mandates, and illness among his players.
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“I've been exposed to so many things that coaches aren't necessarily exposed to in their first four or five months on the job and when it happens in quick succession you have to find out what your mindset is, how you're going to approach these things,” Nash told the NBA in June 2021.
It came to a point where Nash made the decision to only look forward rather than worry about what could happen in that season.
He told the outlet he had to decide: “Are you going to create a ton of stress and anxiety or are you going to accept and kind of mobilize the troops?
"Quickly, I learned there's not a lot of point in overstressing and creating nerves and anxiety. We just keep rolling and I think that helped inform our team.”
In his spare time, Nash formed the Steve Nash Foundation which is "dedicated to assisting underserved children in their health, personal development, education and enjoyment of life," according to the foundation's website.
What happened in Steve Nash's second season of coaching?
There was speculation if Nash would be fired from the head coach position with the Brooklyn Nets.
However, Covid-19-related issues may have played a role in the team's dismal performance for the 2021-2022 season.
A primary roadblock to success was the absence of point guard Kyrie Irving.
Irving's refusal to get the Covid-19 vaccine barred him from playing with the Brooklyn Nets after former-Mayor Bill de Blasio implemented a vaccine mandate in New York City.
Irving was not permitted to be a part-time player for out-of-town games but Nash said he refused to think about where the team would have been if Irving had gotten the vaccine.
"I don't think about it," Nash told ESPN. "That's not realistic. It's not a worthy exercise. We deal with what's in front of us. We deal in reality. And our reality is the one we're facing and if you don't face that reality with honesty and presence you're not going to get anywhere."
The outlet reported that Irving has stood by his decision to not get vaccinated.
Nash continued to address the difficulties he faced in his first two years coaching the team and is facing the challenge to move forward.
"We just haven't had any continuity for the two seasons," Nash said.
"That's our challenge, and we've got to embrace that. And see what reward there is in embracing that challenge and trying to overcome."
Why did Steve Nash retire from the NBA?
Nash announced he was retiring from the NBA in March 2015 at 41 years old, ending his 14-year career.
He had been absent from the Los Angeles Lakers games for the entirety of the 2014-2015 season after suffering nerve damage in his back.
"I heard someone once say there comes a day when they tell us all that we can't play anymore.
"We're not good enough. Surplus to requirements. Too slow, maybe. When you're a teenager with outsized dreams and a growing obsession, and someone tells you this ain't gonna last forever, it's scary. I never forgot it," Nash wrote in The Players Tribune at the time.
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“The greatest gift has been to be completely immersed in my passion and striving for something I loved so much — visualizing a ladder, climbing up to my heroes. The obsession became my best friend. I talked to her, cherished her, fought with her, and got knocked on my ass by her.
And that is what I’m most thankful for in my career. In my entire life, in some ways."
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