A salute to Steve Nash, only the 5th to reach 10,000 assists

Steve Nash: Mr. Nice Guy.

“He’s deranged for the game. It’s contagious. When I had Steve, I had 12 gym rats.” said Dick Davey Santa Clara’s coach when Nash played there.

He’s deranged all right:

They say that sports is life with the volume turned up. That simple saying captures so much about sports in a few words, you can extrapolate volumes of meaning from it. One page from those volumes would read that sports allow us to see a person’s character. You try to read people, the aura emanating from them. It’s not easy to read that page, it’s a low murmur of a buzz.

Bring that page, that person inside the four lines of a basketball court and the murmur grows into a bellow. Sports being life with the volume turned up, someone who may be a hard read outside is an open book on the hardwood. You don’t even have to open the book, the volume is turned up so high the book turns into a audio-book and starts reading itself. That’s how high the volume is in sports.

Steve Nash is incredibly apt at reading the floor. And he himself is a real easy read. Magic Johnson said that “A basket makes one player happy, an assist makes two players happy.” Some of the best playmakers are those who revel in getting their teammates involved. Not out of a “after you please sir” mentality where they are being altruistic and thinking more about others at the expense of themselves.

They don’t take the back seat personally, they realize that you can only be a playmaker if the defense respects you as an offensive threat and pays you attention at the expense of your teammates. They are generous with the rock because they realize the importance of spreading the floor and getting their teammates involved.

You can’t appreciate others without having empathy, and you can’t be a playmaker unless you take joy in getting your teammates easy baskets. Not to say that playmakers can’t be serial killers, it takes all kinds to float the boat, but knowing that someone is a great playmaker should safely predispose you to judging them a little favourably.

However, the ‘playmaker’ quality doesn’t necessarily translate to ‘nice guy’, just look at Rajon Rondo for that matter. Not to say he’s a tad bit obnoxious, but the man has been bumping refs as if he’s listening to ‘I like to move it! Move it!’ and is timing his court moves accordingly.

Deron Williams is a playmaker and he’s in a race with Dwight Howard to see which of them can get more coaches fired. I’ll give you another observation, which tells you that Steve Nash is a nice guy. He is the all-time leader among current players in high fives doled out. I’m guessing him to be the all time leader based on this study conducted by Jess the Intern:

Over 200 high fives in one game. I don’t think anyone keeps track of this stat but it’s safe to assume from this sample that Nash is probably the all-time leader per games played, if not leader among current players. For more concrete indication of his character, go ask his former teammates what they think of him. They’ll tell you that he’s the best teammate they’ve ever had. How he’s so well liked that even if he joined the Lakers his likability will trump the evilness of the Lakers and won’t alienate anyone.

Former teammate Josh Childress said “I know we all want him back, but this situation is unique. Steve is such an integral … he is the Suns. The city loves him, the world loves him. He has to do what’s best for him. I think people will respect that because of the type of guy he is and the type of high character guy he is.”

Nash with the Phoenix Suns where he made a name for himself.

The type of guy Nash is is more than just a super teammate and a great guy. Forget high fives, here’s a telling stat which tells us the position of Steve Nash in the record books. Today vs the Houston Rockets Steve Nash logged his 10,000th career assist. Right now, these are the NBA‘s top 5 assist leaders

1. John Stockton –15,806
2. Jason Kidd –11,969
3 . Mark Jackson — 10,334
4. Magic Johnson — 10,141
5. Steve Nash — 10,005

Oscar Robinson retired with 9,887 assists and likely would have hit 10,000 if the NBA schedule had been 82 games for his entire career. That is some rare company. On joining them, Nash said “To have one scholarship offer and to play in the NBA as long as I have and to be on a list with people like Magic Johnson is beyond my wildest dreams. I grew up watching Magic on TV and idolizing him, so to be right there with him on that list is incredibly special, humbling and a tribute to the opportunity to play with a lot of great players over my career.”

This season hasn’t been too kind to Nash. He missed 24 games due to a broken left fibula suffered in the Lakers’ second game of the season. In nine games this season, he has averaged 10.2 points and 8.8 assists. His field goal % has been 52.9 percent. Over the course of his career, he’s averaged 49.1% from the field, 42.8% from three and 90.4% from the line.

Individually he may be getting it done but the team isn’t really clicking too well. Dwight Howard has just said, “We have to play like we like each other. Even if we don’t want to be friends off the court, we have to respect each other. Those guys on the Clippers team, they really enjoy each other off the court and it shows. It really starts off the court. You have to have that relationship and that chemistry off the court for it to really blossom off the court.”

This is the kind of thing Steve does off the court:

There’s no secret that Dwight is obliquely referring to Kobe Bryant and his cold shoulder ways. The man is probably the most aloof teammate in the NBA. Just ask Smush Parker, Kobe said to him that we don’t have to talk, that he needs to earn his stripes in the league before he can be worthy of addressing Kobe. This is like a script of a buddy cop movie, pairing two of the most polar personalities in the league together in Nash and Bryant.

Bryant and Nash: Sorting our their differences?

People hoped that Nash could be the savior, the cure all of this ailing Laker franchise. But injuries have limited him thus far and the team’s dysfunction may be too deep for him alone to root out. As he attains the hallowed milestone of 10,000 career assists, lets take a step back from all the dysfunctional Lakers and appreciate what this man has been doing for all his career. Today Nash finished with 16 points and 10 assists. To celebrate the milestone the NBA has put out a video.

Top 10 career assists of Steve Nash:

They say you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Who’s they?

There is still hope. Right now the Lakers are being judged on their losing record. But they have one of the all-time greats who became what he is now while playing with the Phoenix Suns. There is always hope if you have one of the five top assist man and an all round good teammate on your team.

Hopefully Steve can cap this season off with a ring with the Lakers. But that remains to be seen. Right now lets just take a step back and appreciate what this man means to basketball.