At age 40, Steve Nash is entering the final year of his contract with the Los Angeles Lakers and in all likelihood, his last season of basketball. This isn’t how he wanted it to end. Not with a dark cloud as the closing refrain.
Is there a way to rewrite the ending? Yes, although it may not be an obvious hero moment. Nash—a two-time league MVP, five-time assists leader and eight-time All-Star—probably won’t capture that most important and elusive title—an NBA championship. But redemption can show itself in different forms.
First, there is the matter of health. Nash is finally back to a state of physical well-being that has eluded him for nearly two years. Per NBA.com and Lakers team trainer Gary Vitti:
All my conversations with (Nash) are that he has absolutely no neural issue at this point. He's playing full-tilt, unrestricted soccer. He's doing all the corrective injury and performance exercises he's supposed to be doing, and right now he's 100 percent healthy.
How did it all come to this—a closing chapter that seems so stigmatized?
Nash was still an effective player during his final years with the Phoenix Suns but he wasn’t a part of their forward-looking rebuild. In July of 2012, an opportunity presented itself to finish things out in Los Angeles. It would mean being closer to his children, geographically, and it would also mean making a difference on a basketball level.
A month later, Dwight Howard was traded to the Lakers and the two players became forever linked and identified by a doomed experiment.
Two games into the regular season, Nash fractured his leg when he collided with Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers. It didn’t seem like such a big deal at the time.
After the Lakers’ fifth game, they had yet to collect a win. Mike Brown was fired and Phil Jackson was consid...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
