Steve Nash retires

[Songbird]

2-time NBA Player of the Year deserves his own thread.



A single hip-check changed the course of history and fortunes of many.

Would love to have seen him win a few rings.

 

[da man]

Before anyone starts a Hall of Famer? thread, yes.

 

[Gomer]

It was so bizarre to see some Canadian media calling him the country's greatest athlete yesterday. And then going the extra mile to say, yes, that includes Gretzky.

Steve Nash isn't even the best athlete in his sport. Sure, he's inspired a ton of kids to play and you can argue he's done more for the sport here than Gretzky did for hockey in the U.S. But he's not even in the top 20 best basketball players of all-time.

Hall of Fame? Definitely. Though I'm ridiculously biased.

 

[mpcincal]

I wish things could have worked out better in his Lakers' stint, but much respect for a great career and, yes, eventual enshrinement into the Hall.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

It was so bizarre to see some Canadian media calling him the country's greatest athlete yesterday. And then going the extra mile to say, yes, that includes Gretzky.

Steve Nash isn't even the best athlete in his sport. Sure, he's inspired a ton of kids to play and you can argue he's done more for the sport here than Gretzky did for hockey in the U.S. But he's not even in the top 20 best basketball players of all-time.

Hall of Fame? Definitely. Though I'm ridiculously biased.

The Canadian media has a very short memory. Don't they remember that Iron Mike Sharpe was Canada's greatest athlete?

 

[Riptide]

The Canadian media has a very short memory. Don't they remember that Iron Mike Sharpe was Canada's greatest athlete?

No, no, no. Surely it was Rusty Staub!

 

[93Devil]

 

[Gomer]

I was trying to post an image of the Rougeau Brothers. Trust me, it would've been hilarious.

 

[Iron_chet]

The Canadian media has a very short memory. Don't they remember that Iron Mike Sharpe was Canada's greatest athlete?

Don't be a j-brone

Canada's greatest athlete.

 

[dooley_womack1]

Steve Nash didn't come close to doing more for the NBA than Gretzky did for the NHL. Did Nash fuel a league's expansion?

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

I'm glad some dip****s who decided to compare Nash to The Great One have overshadowed the end of Nash's great career.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Steve Nash didn't come close to doing more for the NBA than Gretzky did for the NHL. Did Nash fuel a league's expansion?

I read this earlier and it puts a bit more nuance on it: Nash, like Gretzky, transcended Canadian sport - Sportsnet.ca

Who had the more difficult task? Gretzky trying to sell hockey to Californians? Or Nash trying to figure out how to dominate the NBA from Victoria, B.C.?

In pure terms? Of course Gretzky was a greater player in relation to hockey than Nash was to basketball. I don't think anyone would suggest otherwise.

 

[MisterCreosote]

Nash is solidly in the second tier of great NBA point guards - on par with, say, Isiah Thomas and Clyde Frazier, but a step below Magic, Stockton, Kidd and Oscar.

And, he's got at least a few years left as the greatest Canadian basketball player ever, before falling to second behind Andrew Wiggins.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

Nash is solidly in the second tier of great NBA point guards - on par with, say, Isiah Thomas and Clyde Frazier, but a step below Magic, Stockton, Kidd and Oscar.

And, he's got at least a few years left as the greatest Canadian basketball player ever, before falling to second behind Andrew Wiggins.

I would argue with the notion that Nash was better than Isiah.

 

[dooley_womack1]

OK, so Duncan has to be greater than Nash for dominating the NBA from the Virgin Islands.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

Nash is solidly in the second tier of great NBA point guards - on par with, say, Isiah Thomas and Clyde Frazier, but a step below Magic, Stockton, Kidd and Oscar.

And, he's got at least a few years left as the greatest Canadian basketball player ever, before falling to second behind Andrew Wiggins.

Just re-read, saw you said on par with Thomas... I would probably still put Thomas in the top tier and put Nash right at the top of that second tier.

 

[The Big Ragu]

OK, so Duncan has to be greater than Nash for dominating the NBA from the Virgin Islands.

Well, that's either obtuse or argumentative for the sake of an argument. The point again wasn't that Nash was a better basketball player than Gretzky was a hockey player.

Tim Duncan has nothing to do with it. But feel free to start a thread about Duncan's place relative to Horace Clarke on the list of all-time Virgin Island athletes. It will probably generate much less conversation.

Again, the only reason it is any sort of a conversation with Gretzky vs. Nash is that hockey is a Canadian game. Basketball isn't. Gretzky put hockey on the map for a lot more Americans. Nash took something very American and added a bit of Canada to it.

 

[JC]

Steve Nash didn't come close to doing more for the NBA than Gretzky did for the NHL. Did Nash fuel a league's expansion?

No, but I think the the comparison is what Nash did for basketball in Canada to what Gretzky did for hockey. The better player is obviously not up for debate.

 

[dooley_womack1]

I'll avoid the rabbit hole and touch on JC's point. What precisely has he done for basketball in Canada? I believe there'd be a Toronto Raptors whether there was a Steve Nash or not. Whether there'd have been a Vancouver Grizzlies without him is moot because there is indeed no Vancouver Grizzlies. Has there been a flood of Canadians on NBA rosters? Not as far as I know. If there has been a boom in ratings that can be largely attributed to him, I would concede that as an impact.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Not getting the idea of Nash not being on par with Isiah, or in fact significantly better. Nash is a two-time MVP and Isiah never sniffed that. By the time the Pistons got great, I don't know if Isiah was even in the top 10 among guards. Very efficient and the linchpin of that team obviously, but not as great a player as suggested.