Why two years with the Suns?
Why stay with the Suns when you guys were basically
cooling down as a squad,
they're not the number one team in the west,
why stay two more years with the team?
What do I do next summer if I don't resign?
First of all I love option A... I love Phoenix,
I love my teammates, I love the fans,
the city all that stuff,
it's a home for us.
Um... Option B is to wait and play it out.
Who knows?
Okay, I'm gonna make this call now if that's all right guys.
Hello?
Hey John, it's Steve Nash.
I met him in Dallas, I never got a... holy shit,
this is Owen Wilson feeling from Steve.
I don't know, he's just one of those guys
that's very easygoing guys.
He's completely unique,
there's no other professional athlete like him.
And he's tough, he breaks his nose,
he keeps going.
You know what I mean.
Gets his tooth knocked out, he keeps going.
My tooth got knocked in half!
See ya.
He does his job,
he doesn't do it with a lot of fanfare.
You get a sense that he was probably the same kid
as when he was growing up in Canada.
It's not even so much the way he chooses to invest his time
and his resources outside of basketball that's inspiring,
and it is, but it's that he takes nothing for granted.
You demonstrate the best of our sport,
Steve Nash... NBA most valuable player.
I think we live in such a fast-paced society these days
where we take on so much that it's important to be engaged
and continually challenge yourself and learn and grow
and... you know?
Try to make the most of each day.
Yeah, it turned out well, thankfully.
Little bit yeah,
not a lot of sleep the last couple of nights.
[alarm bell]
But it's hard you know, like I have to keep like a sleep log
and uh... you know, 'cause it holds you accountable
and it makes it a priority,
'cause you know what's at stake.
You know there's some times and days
where I don't wanna leave the house
but there's a lot of times where I just,
I don't wanna answer the phone...
like I don't have the energy you know,
to make a two second phone call, you know?
Hopefully my... friends and family understand
that sometimes I'm in another world.
Lost.
You ever hear the myth of Sisyphus?
This king, he cheats death,
tries to hide from Zeus.
Zeus of course has none of it,
so he banishes the king to an island with nothing
but a mountain in the middle
and giant boulders scattered as far as the eye can see.
The punishment is that he has to roll a huge boulder
up to the top of the mountain.
But Zeus makes it so steep,
Sisyphus is destined to fail each time,
having to start over and over and over again for eternity.
What's the moral of the story?
Don't mess with Zeus, I guess.
Steve Nash!
[cheering]
Do you think that it's possible that you could build
a championship team around Steve at his age
or is it inevitable that there might have to be
a parting of the ways?
I'd trade him.
I love Steve Nash,
it's an honour and a pleasure to watch him but see...
I would trade Steve Nash?
Yes, I would.
There's no way in the next three years
that if you trade Steve Nash you're gonna be a good team.
There's no way.
They're not a good team now!
I don't think you have to give guys lifetime contracts.
He was a very determined child, you know...
he got an idea in his head and he'd work
and work and work at it.
Whether it be schoolwork, which was not as keen
as his athletic endeavors.
He started with soccer pretty much from when we could walk,
so Dad played and from the age of 5 or 6
we then went into everything.
We all went to junior high school together
and we all thought that we'd kind of move on
to Mount Doug together and win a provincial title
and early on, you know, we had a coach there that kind of
tried to break Steve down a little and uh...
ended up having him transfer schools.
You know the story is
that Steve had his heart set on division one basketball
and Mount Doug felt
that that was not a realistic goal at that time.
Being the personality he is and the way he is,
he just wanted to get better and better.
Whether it be on defense or dribbling or shooting,
he just worked so hard at his deficiencies.
He was unbelievably talented,
we knew he was better than everyone
but we didn't know what else was out there.
I thought there was gonna be quite a few schools coming.
To get on the letter writing campaign,
slowly it was no, no, no.
There's this unbelievable talent you know,
who might not get a ride down there anywhere.
Yeah, I read that somewhere.
I don't really believe it, like I just kinda don't believe it.
I mean look at all those players
that have played in the past year.
It took the last game of the season for someone
to sit down and look at it.
We had got some handheld video from his high school program,
you know it was kind of bouncing around so to speak.
The head coach from Santa Clara flew up to the tournament
from Vancouver to watch the argonaut.
And uh, Dick turns around and was laughing.
I said what are you laughing at?
Well this kid makes people fall over.
About 30 seconds into his game I said uh oh...
this is something special and I started looking around to see
if there were any other coaches there,
I was hoping that I was the only one looking at him.
Though Nash's high school hoop credentials were impressive,
he was not heavily recruited at all.
The kid from Victoria BC
who came to this small private school in northern California,
with little reputation but big aspirations.
We practice every day, we lift weights every day,
well not every day but almost every day,
we probably bounce a ball to class or something.
I don't think he knew what to expect
when he went down to Santa Clara,
it was just all new for him, it's a new style of basketball.
Again, all the guys are bigger, stronger, faster.
I don't know if he was ready for it.
Steve came to me and we sat down and talked,
and he said, "I don't know if I can play college basketball".
When he got to practices he was, uh...
he was struggling and uh...
that was the first time in his life in any sport,
I had heard him question himself.
The coach expected a lot from him.
I think his job was to be the enforcer.
You know, slamming on chairs and uh,
breaking my wrist and yelling and screaming...
I was probably a little bit on the deranged uh, side.
I just kept fighting and he kept yelling and you know,
I had my spirit broken momentarily.
He yelled at me and cussed me out every day.
It was a building process and uh, yes
we can be a little bit too aggressive as coaches...
but at the same time,
we don't want you to short-change yourself.
It didn't take the caring side out of him
but it kind of hardened him to be you know,
this is the real world.
In a lot of ways I was fortunate to have that.
You know, at the time you resent it
because you think it's unnecessary.
But uh, why not?
It made me tougher.
Keep your hands up!
You'd better have your eyes wide open!
As the days went on, and the... and the weeks
and the months went on, he became more aware of the fact
that he had the chance to be
a real significant player in the program.
This is Steve Nash.
Great pass!
We had seen Steve uh, I believe it was his senior year,
first round, second round...
first game he was spectacular.
The Maryland game in the tournament
was a major turning point
in regards to where he might fit in at the next level.
We were concerned, drastically concerned,
going into that game about full court pressure.
Uh, he had zero problems with it,
I mean he had more assists, more scores...
he beat you with a bounce,
he beat you with a pass, like a surgeon.
The second game they got Nash up against Kansas
and went from having a spectacular game,
to a game he really struggled,
and he struggled more than anything
because Jacques Vaughn just got into him.
Defensively he had a tough time keeping up with the speed
and it did cast some doubt as to whether or not
Steve had the necessary physical tools to compete
at that level all the time.
That was it, no more college,
no more living together, uh... no more playing together,
no more NCA tournaments.
It was really difficult.
I'd finished the workouts and I was flying home
after my exams to Victoria...
You never really know but everyone said it,
the teams had told me themselves,
"we're gonna take you", and... it was uh... such a you know,
culmination of so many hours and hours
and trials and tribulations and failures and successes...
You know, I remember sitting on the plane
and I just started crying.
A lot of guys had been told since they're 13, 14 years old
that there gonna be in the NBA,
whereas I was told I was not gonna be in the NBA.
He didn't uh, grow up in the aura that sometimes
surrounds junior high athletes, high school athletes
and the collegial athletes.
He's been dubbed, "the chosen one".
You could see a LeBron phenomenon grow and grow.
Could LeBron James...
LeBron James...
LeBron James is the best high school basketball player I have ever seen.
You know, they have been told since the age of 12,
hey you're gonna be the next Jordan,
you are unbelievable.
My college coaches you know,
'cause to them a small white guy from Canada,
even though I had the dream to do it,
they were kinda like... right...
No matter how down he got he just had that perseverance
and that will to get better.
Whenever my spirit was broken it was only momentarily,
'cause I always picked myself back up and say,
"I gotta fight through this".
And it would just make me, I had no other choice
but to go earlier to practice and stay later,
and to go back at night.
He just worked on his ball handling so much,
he became so good with a ball,
uh and then I think the next year he set a different goal,
he was gonna become a better defender.
And then the next year he set a different one
where he'd be a better shooter
and he just worked on those different parts of his game.
You know, if I'm gonna stick it out,
I'm sticking it out for a reason.
I'm not just gonna stick it out just to be here.
To get to where he got to is uh, very, very impressive.
Hey guys, how you doing?
Bang goes the drum!
Are those the new ones?
Yeah.
Wow, the Phil Bailey goggles.
When he came out in '96, he was...
I'd never heard of him
and I'm sure some of the guys in class didn't either.
You know, Iverson and you know, Marbury, any of those guys.
I was having this sort of general meeting
with Robert Downey Jr., and sitting next to us,
one of the guys I recognized out of the corner of my eye
was Baron Davis.
And being a big fan of Ron Howard I was like,
"Damn, Steve!
That's Ron Howard over there!".
I shook Steve Nash's hand
but I didn't put Steve and Nash together,
and what I saw was kind of a thin guy,
kind of gaunt, sort of long hair down here...
and I immediately thought, oh... you know,
my partner Bryan's a pretty cool guy,
this must be one of his skateboarding buddies
or a surfer or something.
You know who was very excited to meet Steve?
Was my mother, my mother actually loved Steve, like...
you know, kept talking because he came over
and visited our house and my mother was just talking about,
"he seems like he could maybe run for office".
He's not a celebrity, he doesn't want to be a celebrity.
Now, he's one of the most recognizable athletes
on the planet
and he could be a huge star off the court...
it's just not his style.
So I sat down with him, made this great presentation,
and you know I really think we can do some special things
and he said, "it's really interesting,
thanks for putting so much time into this".
And he reaches down into his backpack
and he pulls out this book
called "No Logo", and he said, "I just read this book...
I" really don't want to be a marketing guy,
"it's really not my thing.
"I don't like fame, I wanna be a private guy".
So I was like, hmm... back to the drawing board, you know?
Call the boss you know, Bill... our most marketable guy
doesn't really wanna be an icon, you know...
For me you know, I think one of my natural traits
is to try to make everyone happy and that's something that I...
that you've gotta be careful of, especially in my position.
Where you meet so many people, you're around so many people,
uh... you can't be everything to everyone
and you definitely can't...
uh, you know beat yourself up if you're not.
I also felt a little bit uncomfortable uh,
as a spokesperson.
I felt like you could be disingenuous.
He struggles at two separate things.
You know, doing... doing good, his foundation, his charity,
his giving back, his basketball leagues...
then there's the other side which is the, okay...
there's the commercial side of that,
he should be doing endorsements.
What I got him to try to think about is every dollar
that you can bring in that way,
that dollar doesn't have to go to fancy cars,
which is not his style anyways,
that dollar can go to doing good.
So he... instead of seeing him as two separate things...
oh gosh, I don't really like to do that, I like to do this...
well if you do this and that is successful,
well that can fuel that.
The lights went on on that to tie those two together.
He's gone about his stature and utilizing his fame
in a very unique way.
Trying to arrange for Steve to,
to meet with the secretary of education
um, on a project that we're working on
and with the president on the same project...
I got an email back... I mean, on the day he received it
and it turns out he's a huge fan of Steve's.
We had a great time while he was here, uh...
we shot a few baskets, I think he made more than I did
although he did pass me for an assist as I was leaving.
He takes the shot and misses and Steve's like,
"you can't leave on a miss".
So the president's out on the three point line,
Steve like... passes to him, nothing but net.
President's like, "that's how I roll", and like... walks out.
He, I think is a student of the game and he's tough,
he works hard, does his job...
and then once he's off the court,
he brings that same sort of no nonsense attitude
but also that same humility and uh, interest in other people
to the work he does with the foundation
and the work he does in his communities.
[Cheering]
Steve Nash foundation is something
that Steve and his family created as a means
to increase access to critical needs resources in health and education
to underserved populations of kids.
And it has a ripple effect
because I think as a consequence of Steve's great work,
there are probably a lot of other NBA players and athletes
who realize their position to make a difference,
if they're wiling to put in the time and the effort.
Early of 2007 he come to me first, he said, "Hey Yao,
I'm interested about having a charity game in Beijing, China
and help with some of the kids?"
First of all, I felt it was a bit embarrassing
because I'm from there and a Canadian come to me
and say we'll help people out there,
that made me feel a bit embarrassing.
They put this together in a very short period of time
and raised a lot of money for the kids.
[Cheering]
Let's go down to the podium and the Phoenix Suns pick
with the commissioner, David Stern.
With the 15th pick in the 1996 NBA draft,
the Phoenix Suns select Steve Nash
from the University of Santa Clara.
[applause]
I didn't play my first year,
uh... played behind Kevin Johnson and Jason Kidd
and worked my butt off that summer.
It still took me time to build up that confidence
that I was as good as anybody else.
Steve actually said to me that he feels like the most
insecure basketball player until warm-up starts.
So when he's going into a game,
he's not sure of what he's capable of.
But once he warms up and gets a few shots up,
he's like okay... this is how I play.
I actually played 20 plus minutes a game my second year
with those guys in the lineup,
which afforded me the opportunity to go to Dallas.
There was a lot of growing pains in Dallas,
the first two years in particular.
I got to Dallas a year before he did
and so I was the beat writer in those days,
covering the team for the Dallas morning news,
and kinda had a front row seat for this ride he's gone on.
I mean, I remember how it was at the beginning.
My first time meeting him was at the press conference,
I had just got drafted and they flew me over to Dallas
to make the decision whether to come back
'cause I wasn't quite sure...
and Steve, was traded for on draft day too
so we had our press conference together and he walked in...
I remember he had his brown roots showing for like,
a half an inch and then the rest of the hair was blond,
bleach blond.
So... I thought this guy's a little weird.
Steve got a big contract from the Mavs,
but it wasn't like a max contract.
I wanna say it was 5, 6 years for 33 million...
I mean, it wasn't crazy, crazy money.
Steve comes in, a lot of expectations
and he didn't deliver right away.
The head coach Don Nelson had just uh,
you know kinda toted him as the next John Stockton,
which is you know... that's a lot of pressure on a young kid.
Um, to this day I'm not sure why Steve became the scapegoat,
and the thing nobody really remembers
or nobody really talks about...
Steve played that first year with a broken back.
Which they, he didn't even realize
the full extent of the injury.
Steve has a congenital back condition
that's called spondylolisthesis,
which is essentially where one vertebrae slips forward
on the other and it certainly is debilitating
for a lot of people with daily activities.
He'd come down early in the season,
he'd got undercut and went down on his back.
It you know, it was just a bad situation.
You'd lost mobility and you're new in the league
and nobody's going to give you a break anyway.
He was the one that the fans, that first year,
really turned on and I'll never forget the game
that they played against Houston.
We played Charles Barkley and the Houston Rockets,
it was packed.
The fans in Dallas were uh... you know,
used to a last place team and the whole arena booed me
every time I touched the ball.
And all of a sudden, oh he missed another shot
and I heard boos and for me that was tough.
I was like, "wow, this is our own place".
He shot something like 0 for 8 in the first half
and I remember even Barkley after the game was just shocked
at how Steve was treated by the fans that day.
It's a strange dynamic, you know?
To realize uh, a dream where's it been so glorified,
you know it's on TV, it's romanticized on TV everyday
and so once you get there it's like all of a sudden
you're into this fantasy world.
But, you know, you quickly learn that it's not as uh, glory...
glamorous as it could be.
This is embarrassing.
Fans are booing!
I actually remember him giving me a call after that game
and saying, you know... uh, I don't know what's going on,
they were booing tonight.
You know, just feeling rage.
I was home alone watching the game and I felt really bad.
How could they boo my boy?
When you step into that arena, you'd better understand
that that's what it's all about.
It's all about winning.
The reality of life in being in a highly paid sport,
you're expected to perform,
and not tomorrow or the next day.
I think Nash was really banged up more that year
than anybody realized it.
I mean, anybody else would've probably said,
I can't play at this level,
every time I move I'm hurting...
but you know, he got on with it.
You know a lot of people would say,
what a horrible experience...
but, you know, looking back it was a great experience.
You know it really motivated me and it built
a lot of toughness and thick skin.
Luckily for the Mavs, he was strong enough
to deal with all that,
'cause really it didn't even click the next year.
What really changed was when he went to the 2000 Olympics
and put a Canadian team that had nobody else you've ever heard of
except Todd MacCulloch on his back,
one game within the medal round...
he came back from that,
that's when he came back
and he was a different player after that.
History making comeback!
So when the Mavs became this you know,
consistent 50 win team...
you know, this was really their town in those days.
We had some fun times.
I love having fun, I love being a clown and so does he, so...
we had a ball and we had some fun nights.
Two guys who will definitely be partying tonight
are two of our Maverick all-stars,
Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki,
especially Steve Nash
because tonight he is celebrating
his 29th year of existence.
I'm showing him hopefully a good time tonight
and we actually went out a little bit last night and uh,
just making this day special for him.
The all-star game's a huge thrill and an honour
and to have my birthday here just gives us
extra incentive to celebrate.
When they first came out there,
they printed them in the Dallas morning news
and in our home newspaper in Dallas saying,
look what Steve and Dirk do when they don't play.
Most of the players that come into this league
usually are very adept at playing the sport of basketball
but are not that evolved in terms of dealing with
the publicity that comes with it,
the notoriety that comes with it,
the fame that comes with it
and the scrutiny that comes with it.
Nobody's perfect and everybody loves to have fun
once in a while and I think some people actually thought
it was funny and then some people actually thought
you know, we're role models, we shouldn't do stuff like that.
You know, I think you can get very unhappy and uncomfortable
with who you are if you go down that slippery slope of celebrity.
And we live in a really interesting time,
I call it the age of transparency...
whoever you are is going to be revealed.
If you're Mel Gibson or you're Tiger Woods,
whoever you are, your story is gonna end up being told.
The old experiment they said
was that you put a group of lobsters,
a bunch of lobsters in a pail
and if one lobster is crawling out of the pail,
another lobster will pull it back down.
So I think there's some satisfaction that people have
to see some of these gods pulled down to a lesser level.
There's just a proliferation of media outlets
and everybody's looking for a story.
Plaxico Burress could face
up to seven years in prison if convicted
on the felony charge of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.
So they have to understand that a lot of the media
are waiting to see them at their weakest moment.
Every situation that they're in,
gives them an opportunity to make a decision
and that decision could go a lot of different ways.
Ben Roethlissberger,
the quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers,
has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman
early Friday morning at a club in Georgia.
For me I always try to have an open mind
and try to learn from others and observe as much as I can
and I was fortunate enough to kinda, kinda make my way
through all those different challenges and obstacles.
But it is difficult for young people I think a lot of times
in that position of you know, the weight of expectations
and a lot of people in your ear, to deal with that.
I think I was lucky, though.
Fame can lead to people feeling that certain rules don't apply to them,
it makes them vulnerable to a perspective of,
"I'm something special".
Antoine Walker, he had a $110 million basketball contract...
he is now broke, he owes credit cards $4 million,
he also wrote 10 bad cheques in Las Vegas
amounting up to $1 million.
But these guys wear signs,
especially a guy like Antoine Walker,
saying 'steal money from me'.
A bunch of young guys get a lot of money,
they don't know what to do with it or how to handle themselves
in the spotlight with all this money for the first time
and they're gonna make very public mistakes.
The same would happen I think if you took McDonald's
and gave you know, all those young employees
a bunch of money, they would still make
a bunch of very public mistakes.
You're gonna have a percentage of the population
that has their shoes in,
our players have their shoes in.
We do the best we can to help them get up
when they get knocked down.
Whenever there's a bad thing that happens, you know,
if Magic Johnson announces he's HIV positive,
the reputation of the NBA and it's players
in some shape or form, takes a hit.
If Ron Artest thinks it's a good idea to run up into the stands
to have a discussion with a fan,
then the pundits will be spending the weekend
on talk radio and talk TV talking about the thugs
and the punks.
So, yes we have issues and then here comes Steve Nash.
I'm sure there are other players like him
but when I think of him,
it's somebody who is quieter, less self-centered
although you can't be to where he's gotten to
if you don't have an ego and a drive
and he's come to understand what the contributions are
that someone in his position can make.
Oh my God!
I'm so excited!
Yuan dan kuai le...
Okay, you guys ready?
Yuan dan kuai le, China!
What's up everybody in China?
Happy New Year!
I wish I could be out there
but the weather's beautiful here in Phoenix
so I'm going for a skate on my day off.
I wanna thank all you guys for following me on my page,
hopefully the Suns will have a great end of the season
and uh... we'll be in the play-offs.
Can't-sit-still-it t- -is, is uh...
the condition that Steve's had
for a long time, ever since I've known him.
I think he just, he really doesn't see the point.
Our phones are now our computers
so I'm email, text, call...
I can get a lot of work done.
I could tell him that he's doing way too much,
I don't think at this point he'd listen to me
'cause he's really enjoying what he's doing,
but I do think he finds it overwhelming.
You know I probably take on too much.
My whole week was gonna be busy,
Thursday I had to fly to Vancouver
to run the relay with the Olympic torch
meanwhile keeping it under wraps that I was selected
as one of the torch runners for the opening ceremonies on Friday.
I had to be taken to an undisclosed spot
where I was prepped for the relay at 1:00.
[Cheering]
Hello.
How does it feel for a hometown boy to carry this torch?
It feels amazing, you know I really want to make sure
everyone knows I get to represent
all of the people in Canada
who didn't get a chance to do this.
Brandon's told you about Poco?
So me and Baron Davis
started a digital marketing company.
We'll manage players' online brands...
Facebook, Twitter, Flickr YouTube pages,
whatever they wanna have...
I definitely have a team in place
so they're just running things by me...
I have this overall vision...
On Saturday morning I left Vancouver early
so I'd be in Texas for all-star weekend by early afternoon,
where I would face jam session, the west practice
and media scrums.
And now we've got the Steve Nash, Darren Williams
championship for the skills challenge.
His first time was 35 seconds.
He's getting less than that this time.
Go, go, go... there he is!
29.9!
Yeah, how about that one?
On Sunday I arrived at a sold out Cowboy stadium,
which set a record of 108,000 fans
for the 2010 all-star game.
I knew I had 24 hours to catch up with friends
and play some of the NBA's best before I hopped on another flight
to meet up with my teammates.
Check that screen out.
Wow!
That will give you a headache.
[Cheering]
My fellow citizens,
at this hour American and coalition forces
are in the early stages of military operations
to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world
from grave danger.
*
Today was media day at the NBA all-star weekend,
and while some players used the time to mingle and shoot pictures,
Steve Nash used this opportunity as a platform
to promote peace.
I think that not only would it be unfair to go to war
with Iraq but I think it would cause...
terrible repercussions back here and our lives would be changed
and altered and we'd lose I think a lot of the freedoms
and safeties that we know now.
Everybody's saying he doesn't support the troops.
He was saying let's explore why we're putting the troops
in this situation.
You know that's the problem with the media,
there were no troops there to support at the time,
it was all about politics.
You know we talked about, we wouldn't go to war
unless we found weapons of mass destruction
which wasn't the case,
we talked about we wouldn't go to war
unless the United Nations agreed to it which wasn't the case,
you know we talked about going to war
because we wanted to fight Al Qaeda...
which wasn't the case.
You know I got grilled by some,
some right-wingers um... for about three weeks.
Every day after practice.
I don't know that Steve Nash is a geo-political expert.
They were just worked up into a fervor!
You know, they have an opportunity a lot of times
on that venue to speak up but uh...
I don't know, a lot of times I haven't agreed with
some of our people out in Hollywood.
Well with Iraq... it would devastate that country
that has been through incredible devastation already.
When an athlete or you know an entertainment person takes a stand,
they're gonna you know, kind of piss off you know,
a big percentage of people...
and those people are sort of probably like,
look I just wanna you know, watch you play basketball
and enjoy that, enjoy your talent,
and I don't wanna be challenged with anything
when I'm at the basketball game.
You know they just wanted to paint me as this commie,
communist red, you know...
I think he wanted to make a statement
with that... with that anti-war T-shirt,
'cause the thing is... he's not afraid
to go out on a limb like that, he really doesn't care.
But it was really a statement to save peoples' lives.
*
Well it's inevitable, there will be changes.
Every year, every team makes changes.
Hopefully another year it may be better,
but if you bring in some other guys
maybe that will make it better,
I mean I don't... I definitely don't have the answers.
Dirk Nowitzki will almost certainly be back next season,
but they may not bring back his best friend
Steve Nash.
Do you use him as a sign and trade
and try to get that big time player?
I think Cuban and Steve,
there started out with some hesitation on Cuban's part
because he inherited Nash.
I thought they undervalued him and in fairness to them,
you know Steve had had a few injuries prior to that,
and I thought that they thought he was a risk at that point
and I understand that.
So if another team looks at you differently
and feels that you have the ability to play,
which Phoenix obviously saw that...
That's when I first had the discussion
about Kobe versus Nash.
We kept saying, we're going after Kobe,
we're going after Kobe for everyone's um...
you know, pleasure
but we were in the meantime on a plane, flying to Dallas
to go get him the first day that we could.
We came at him with such force and such interest
and sincerity more than anything else,
not to mention a pretty big contract offer.
Mark Cuban went into that negotiation saying,
I'm gonna give Steve four years, 36 million,
that's as far as I'm gonna go.
The Suns come in all guns blazing, six years, $66 million
I mean, that's a $30 million difference.
The Suns basically told Steve,
you gotta take it or leave it now, this is it.
This offer is on the table right now,
if you don't take it we're moving on.
Steve did somehow manage to get on the phone and go back to the Mavs
and say, look... this is what they're offering me,
I can't say the specific number
but it's crazy money and Mark just decided
he couldn't go into that ballpark with Steve.
It was very emotional,
I remember being in the car with Steve
when we came to the realization that it was time to go.
He, he just... he couldn't come to terms with it.
He came out of the meeting and he was actually,
I was the first guy that he called.
The first advice that I gave him, I was like hey, you know
you have a family to look after and, you know,
obviously we'd love to keep you here,
we'd love you to finish your career in Dallas
but you know if the money's
way, way better somewhere else then you gotta go on,
you gotta move on.
I think he was hurt by the fact that Mark Cuban
didn't want him.
I think it was very difficult for Stephen to think
you're part of a family and then to find out you're not,
you're expendable.
At the time I thought nice guy
but doesn't know much about basketball.
Steve Nash really has hurt Dallas,
no matter what anybody thinks,
Dirk and all them guys are gonna feel
not having Steve Nash.
Steve Nash is leaving Dallas for good this weekend
but not before he tells his side of the story.
Nash tells CBS-11 Sports Mark Cuban's initial offer to him
was nowhere near the five years, 50 million Cuban writes about
on his web blog.
Nash told us quote,
"I felt all along Cuban didn't want me back,
"he's lying about their offer".
I was fine with him deciding to go in a new direction
but the way he kinda spun it, that frustrated me.
Steve Nash, basketball player...
a man barely alive.
We did all kinds of creative things that summer,
like I said it was sort of this, this basketball laboratory
that we created.
We have the capability to make
the world's first recycled man...
teve Nash will be that man.
How can we keep you healthy, how can we prevent injuries
and how does that link up with your performance um...
frustration sometimes, or limitations?
Better than he was before.
Better... stronger... faster.
I think the whole league was trying to figure out
what in the world this science project was doing.
I worked out twice a day, five days a week,
once on Saturdays.
We basically broke down his basketball specific moves
and looked at it from sort of a biomechanical
and neuromuscular standpoint.
I think the key to Steve is that he's such a cognitive,
cerebral athlete that he first has to understand that
this is the right thing and once he gains that trust
then he is literally willing to run through walls.
Once he got here Mike hired me as an assistant coach,
he talked about the way we were gonna play.
I was as skeptical as anyone, I said...
I don't know if you can play that way in the NBA.
He said with the way Steve Nash is,
we can play this way and we can be really successful.
There's no way of explaining how he could throw the ball
to people you don't even know where the fuck they are
without looking so I said that he has mirrors
all over the place.
So you have guys in the stands
and that's how he could be looking here
and know exactly where this guy is, this guy is, this guy...
yeah, he's like a magician on the court.
The thing is, he's a throwback.
He brought back the way basketball should be played.
You look at you know, when Bird was playing,
when Magic was playing...
You know, the thing that they always tried to do
is make their guys better
by sharing the spotlight with them.
This is the way the game should be played.
Everyone is very excited that basketball is played
in other ways, which is you don't need much of a size.
But he's just a hard worker, everybody knows that.
He's one of the most dynamic players
in the history of the league.
The ability to create so much offense
without being the dominant athlete on the floor
in terms of sheer physical force.
You had a great year, great statistics,
but your teammates had a great year
because of you and your team won it's division.
Steve Nash, NBA most valuable player.
[Cheering]
The Boston Celtics are once again the World Champions!
I just have a question for you,
say basketball comes to an end at some point
and, you know, you never know how some people are like...
it's gonna come to an end.
But, what do you wanna do?
He's like, I wanna make movies.
You know a transition into uh...
film, television, media... it's challenging for anyone.
Meathawk is my production company
I started with my cousin,
he's been making films for a while
and it's a great outlet for me to do something
and learn something outside of basketball.
Steve came to me and he said yeah so some of my teammates
want to get involved in you know
some of those skits.
I said well, you know, you've got loads of time,
you know down time...
you're flying from A to B you're on the coach,
as long as it doesn't interfere with the you know,
your preparation for the game, why not use that time?
* All night long!
* All night...
* All night long!
* All night!
When I'm with my friends and family that's all we do
is laugh and jump around, so the natural thing for us to do
when we're trying to make something
or try to create something is try to be funny, so...
We'd love to do something on anything
but, you know, comedy was one obvious one
that you know, we have fun doing and...
it just, I think it's some way
to not take ourselves too seriously.
Would I say that that type of concept would fly
in his fitness clubs or his vitamin company
or some of our other businesses... no.
And he knows that, I think you know with Meathawk
it is a creative outlet and, and uh...
you know he definitely pushes the envelope.
All right, nice presentation.
I like how you got Chicago down a notch,
you got Boston way down there, that's good.
But never... put Phoenix next to LA!
It's kind of a funny name, isn't it?
I'm just saying it, Steve Nash.
It's a little bit like, kind of like an action hero.
It's a cool sounding name!
Steve Nash...
Steve actually, he probably doesn't even know this,
but he screwed up a whole storyline for me.
Because what I wanted to do with Kevin Dillon's character
Johnny Drama, Dos Equis was going to offer
to make him the least interesting man in the world
and then all of a sudden Nash comes out with this commercial.
e is 100 per cent Canadian, as are his tuxedos.
He can only give 100 per cent,
the other 10 per cent he donates to orphans.
Steve Nash is... the most ridiculous man in the world.
I've grappled with Steve's sense of humour since a young age.
I'm mortified by it.
I've done some commercials for vitamin water, Nike
and we're kind of finding a little success.
You spend so many hours by yourself shooting,
a lot of stuff goes through your mind.
The passion and the appreciation for the finer points of soccer
easily translated into basketball.
If you wanna be good, you gotta practice.
He's like yeah, Nike paid me $30,000 for it.
I paused and I said, you just gave away
a $300,000 spot for $30,000
Dude, do you just realize what you just did?
You just made a bad business move.
You're gonna go do an internship.
You're gonna get up every day,
during the summer in New York, no special treatment...
you go into Deutsch Agency and you sit behind a desk
and you take whatever they ask you to do
and he went to school for us.
He got a badge and everything like that,
he was coming in.
You know, you saw a lot of quizzical looks just like...
is that Steve fuckin' Nash down the hall?
When he won those two MVP's,
people started paying attention to the guy,
wanting to get to know the guy
behind the pretty passes and the hardware.
At that point, you know, doors started opening for him.
Getting every celebrity is different,
from me running into someone on the street
to me calling Mark and saying, do you know this guy?
To you know, Steve Nash.
The sad legacy of my life is that I wanted to be Steve Nash,
that was like my goal to play like Nash
and I've always loved watching Steve, so...
he came down to the set, he was totally shocked
'cause he didn't know what he was walking into.
He was like, I love the show...
God, if there was ever an opportunity
for me to be on it or whatever...
I'm like, you wanna be on it? You're on it!
How about tomorrow?
Hey Ashley!
It's me, again...
Listen I'm freaking about a little bit,
I just don't under...
understand where you went.
Would you call me please?
Eric?
Fuck off!
I think my girlfriend just told me to fuck off.
Ouch, bro.
Hi, your parking.
Murray, always a pleasure.
Indeed.
Eric, good luck with your girl.
Thanks buddy.
My oldest daughter Bryce is you know,
religious about watching Iconoclasts, loves the show.
And so I was flattered when I heard you know
that they wanted me to do an episode
but I was really swamped.
I knew I would be filming The Dilemma, you know...
tense days and nights of shooting...
But I said, who are they gonna pair me up with?
And Louisa said, Steve Nash and I said, make room!
Make room in the schedule, I can't miss that.
I've come to spend the day with the great Ron Howard.
If I go to the basket like that he's probably gonna catch me,
but if I can go here and put it off the backboard,
he can't get it.
Hi, Steve.
Nice to meet you.
Dan Hanley, uh...
Nice to meet you.
Hi, Steve.
What have we got here?
Beautiful look.
You're really good!
Thanks.
I saw the thing that they did on Terry Fox.
I didn't know the story at all
so I hadn't really gotten to it and finally I kind of turn it on and um...
one night and it was, I couldn't believe you know,
how powerful the story was.
I guess everybody knows the story in Canada
and knows about Terry Fox,
but I'd never heard of it...
and so seeing it and in the way that you know, they directed it...
it was just one of the, one of like...
honestly the most powerful things I'd ever seen.
Where you're like,
just trying like not to sob out loud.
[Applause]
I had an opportunity to not re-sign in Phoenix last summer,
a lot of people thought I should've tried to go
to a contender and my feeling was
I love my teammates and I'd felt we started something
and although we'd had a really negative year,
the year before this past season,
I felt like we could come together
and really do something special.
This team is a very good half court defensive team.
They do the best job of anyone in the league I think
as far as weak side rotations and things like that.
The personality of the Trailblazers is that
they're not gonna quit, and we have to understand that
and we have to play the entire 48 minutes.
We talked about, establishing early
and trying to get the crowd out of the game.
They've got such great fans here in Portland.
You're out!
Steve Nash sucks!
Arthur Miller is gonna bag you down on the pavement
and score 32 on you!
One, two, three, Suns!
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Phoenix Suns.
[Cheering]
The Phoenix win in this series sets up a match up
of playoff rivals.
It was hard to be a rival with Steve
because he's so nice, you know.
And I'm always most of the time I'm on the winning end.
great season for Steve Nash comes to an end.
I think he was just toying with him,
he just wanted to see could he play with one eye.
But still, you better get it.
From every angle--
--and he has great vision here.
Unbelievable.
And I was happy for him, I was happy for him
because, you know, we beat him so many times that you know,
he finally beat us so it was one team that I was okay
to beat us you know, it was the Phoenix Suns with Steve,
so it was okay.
[Grunting]
I don't think many people would've predicted
we would out-perform you know the Spurs, the Mavericks,
you know... Orlando, Cleveland...
you know we ended up in the final four.
I really wish him the best but if you don't have a chip,
you ain't nothing.
You need a ring.
Then we can talk.
To be honest with you,
he's not going to get a ring on the west coast.
As long as Kobe's over there, he's not.
You know, I had our guys extremely locked in
on this series.
We weren't thinking about beating Boston,
we were thinking about beating Phoenix
just because of the history that we've had.
I mean they've you know, knocked my team out twice.
You know, so there was no way I was gonna overlook them
and come all the way this way just to fall short
to the Suns again.
LA baby, La La land.
* Star spangled banner yet wave... *
* For the land of the free,
* and the home of the brave. *
Four of 18 in the regular season against the Lakers.
Tonight he's already 0 for 3,
he's not been able to knock the shot down.
Nash lost his balance.
Nash...
Wow, what a tough shot!
Brilliant! He blinded his vision...
Bryant behind the back, Bryant...
Yes!
Great pocket pass.
does it with his left hand think actually better
than his right.
And now we've got a foul on Derek Fisher.
And these are things we did not see in games 1 and 2.
I was at game 5 in LA, and it was something else.
It was really a position that nobody thought the Lakers,
the mighty Lakers, could be in.
All right, let's go!
One, Two, Three, Suns!!!!
Here's the Phoenix Suns, a team that is under manned,
a team with question marks surrounding their center,
a team that should... should be distracted,
and they're in a game that they had no business being in.
I remember us changing a couple things
from game 4 to game 5,
you know defense we made a couple adjustments.
The rebound picked up by Bryant, pegs it down...
The problem that you have with him is his ability
to shoot the ball.
Nash... yes!
What a tough shot, off the wrong foot...
That puts us in a bind on how to defend those pick and rolls,
'cause he stops behind you he shoots the 3.
Yet another strong game...
Steve Nash for 3!
You don't wanna give him any good looks,
and you play that and now you have Stoudemire rolling.
Stoudemire with the stuff!
You have Steve getting into the paint and creating situations.
And the foul!
Is he the fastest guy?
No, but he's fast.
Here comes Nash, Stoudemire...
Oh, what a play!
Right down to the end of the shot clock!
Is he the quickest? No, but he's quick.
Steve Nash, 27 points!
You know what I mean? Is he the tallest?
No, but he's tall enough.
No sense on going on size and length,
that does not matter!
Steve Nash again in the face of Gasol, 29 for Nash!
The final sequence was out of this world.
Ron Artest who cannot shoot from 3,
or at least not as well as pretty much everyone else
on that court for the Lakers launches two 3's, misses.
Why would he take the shot?
It was uh... you know, it was just silly.
He's now one of eight.
That's exactly what the Phoenix Suns wanted him to do...
So walking back into the time out,
kind of had to collect myself and get his mind focused
on the next play.
The Suns have a chance to tie the game.
There was a couple of rebounds they got on that play
and it was just kind of a scrambled situation.
[cheering]
And then Jason steps up and drops a bomb,
I think it was off the glass too.
...For the tie and... Yes!
He makes it home!
Three opportunities...
The crowd at this point is going nuts,
I mean there's so much tension in the building
and a very un-Staple Center kind of vibe.
You could hear, you know... a pin drop.
You know, it's just one of those things where it's...
not again.
'Cause that's how we wound up losing the series
against Phoenix a couple years before
with Tim Thomas.
In a similar situation, Tim Thomas maxed out on three.
...And Nash for the tie.
...for the rebound.
Tim Thomas with the fake for the tie!
You know, it cost us the ball game in the playoff series.
You kind of feel that feeling where it's like, oh man...
here we go again!
You cannot let him touch that ball,
I mean whatever you do, you cannot let him get his hands
on that basketball.
I knew how they were gonna play it.
I got myself open and I wanted to take a shot,
I think Steve was in front of me
so I felt like I just elevated over the top of him.
Both teams are over the foul limit.
Then Grant Hill's outstretched arm
kind of threw me off a little bit
and changed the trajectory on the shot.
It comes up short!
[Cheering]
So it was short but Ron kept on playing;
he redeemed himself.
[cheering[
The Suns were that close... a Ron Artest buzzer beater
from knocking on the NBA finals door.
When I get in a zone in a game,
it tends to slow down and the basket feels like it's huge,
obviously and you know everything you throw up
is gonna go in.
And you seek those moments out,
you try to find those moments and um...
they're very evasive though.
I walked off the court and I couldn't help but think about
all the things that hadn't gone my way
and that was tough.
At the same time you know,
I don't believe in like feeling sorry for yourself
or a defeatist mentality
and feel like you know, everything's against me...
But in that moment I was like, you gotta be kidding me.
That's sports, that's life.
You know, we uh...
you know, we play the game for those moments
and sometimes you're on the wrong end of them.
That's life.
You stay in the moment and you stay in the journey,
I know it sounds cliché and I don't wanna pretend to be Zen or anything,
it's just the truth.
I think you really gotta... especially when you're my age
it's just a pleasure to get to this point
and to have a chance and next year I think
we're gonna have another steep hill to climb to get back here
but we can do it if we really work hard.
I guess if I had to ask myself questions,
they wouldn't be easy ones probably.
They'd be things that I know I'd have a hard time answering.
What are your insecurities?
What are you scared of?
What can't you do?
What makes you think you can be a filmmaker?
You know, I think mine are probably just the same
as everyone else, you know.
I wish I was a little better looking,
I wish I was a little taller,
I wish I could jump a little higher.
You know, but overall I think I've got a pretty healthy
sense of humour about you know, your self-image
and what that means.
You know, I don't know...
You know sometimes I guess the hardest things
are living with yourself,
you know living inside your own head.
The self-loathing and the self-congratulation,
you know those are constant things in my life,
well constant in that they pop up regularly,
that those are the things you have to, you know, bat away.
People will look back at Steve
as one of the greatest players of all time, and two time MVP.
My suspicions is that he'll be in the hall of fame
but, you know, I think you're measured
not just by your skills or your fame or your wealth,
but by your character and I think by that standard
he's going to do very well.
I don't know that I feel more comfortable
in New York than Victoria.
You know, they both feel like home
and they both offer a lot of different things.
So I'm happy in both places
and New York certainly feels like home now.
You know more than meeting my wife here,
we just come back here every summer.
You know we have a lot of great memories here
and friends, places that we like to go.
As random as that is I never would've really predicted that,
it's just the way that it's worked out.
I've already failed one marriage so it's,
it takes its toll but I think that sometimes you know...
relationships are difficult regardless of your job.
You try to atone for your mistakes and learn and grow
and I feel that's very you know, thematic of life.
If you enjoy it, it's to try to uh... get better.
For me the hardest thing is just trying to make sure
the kids are fine.
If that is true then, then it's okay.
Shooting is also something that you know,
practicing can be a little bit meditative you know,
'cause it gets you away from everything else,
you forget about everything else.
And sometimes you're thinking about other things
when you're shooting but it's still,
it's good for you, you know.
It's good for you to let your mind go
and not have to be you know,
in a regimented place or time always, so...
[Cheering]
(News reports): Now the other huge news this week,
Steve Nash is joining the Lakers.
Another big story tonight...
Shocking the NBA world...
re in Phoenix are pretty ups
Steve Nash is going to the Lakers.
I can guarantee you there will be some people burning
some Nash jerseys in the street tonight.
I'm pretty disappointed.
It's gonna be a little disappointing seeing him
in a Lakers uniform.
So at this time I'd like to welcome two-time MVP,
a thorn in the Lakers' side for most of this decade,
happy to see him wearing purple and gold...
Steve Nash.
Wow, this is a day I never foresaw in my life.
But you know just an incredible opportunity for me.
Take us through the process Steve, behind the scenes.
How did the whole thing go down?
First and foremost you know, when the Suns decided
to go in a new direction you know
I was obviously looking for a new home.
I mean Mitch called my agent shortly after midnight,
on the 1st and you know I'm guessing,
but I think the first thing he said was I know
that we've had some battles in the playoffs
and I hear Steve wouldn't wanna play for the Lakers,
and my agent, being an agent said,
no that's not true, that's all media speculation.
You know, the idea frankly to be close
to my son and my daughters who will be in Phoenix
was my number on priority.
I know everybody's probably read a little bit about
how this came to be and if you look at the opportunity we have
with the players on this roster
and the organization's commitment to winning...
you know, this is gonna be a really exciting chapter
in my career.
I'm very proud to be here tonight
and very proud to be hosting a dinner with Magic,
for you here tonight.
To be back in a position to win again
is a phenomenal feeling.
I'm really proud to be a Laker today.
Laker Nation is excited and I'm excited man,
so congratulations.
Now I can really pass the torch to a real point guard!
Yeah!
[applause]
Welcome to LA, Mr. Nash.
Yo, what up Steve?
It's big Snoop Dogg, welcome to the LA Lakers.
Steve, welcome to LA.
[Grunting]
You know, a lot of people see the boulder up the hill,
the repetition as a curse,
an eternity of work for no end result.
This isn't totally wrong but if you really think about it,
each time up the hill he must get a little stronger,
a little smarter, 'til eventually,
after an eternity, he succeeds.
So yeah, I imagine him to be happy.
Okay, see ya Steve.
See ya, buddy!