Watch Steve Nash Learn He’s a Candidate for Stretch Provision for Lakers

Steve Nash's time with the Los Angeles Lakers has been all too replete with humbling moments. There was the collision with Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard that fractured his left fibula on Halloween 2012. That injury, initially expected to keep Nash out for two to four weeks, cost him close to two months, "thanks" to resulting nerve damage that's derailed the future Hall of Famer's once-promising tenure in Purple and Gold.

Nash's most recent wake-up call? The realization that the Lakers might cut him after the 2013-14 season and spread out his salary over the next three years using what's known, under the current collective bargaining agreement, as the "stretch provision."

Grantland caught Nash's rude awakening on camera for Episode 2, entitled "Stretched," of The Finish Line, the site's latest "Hockumentary." That moment came on Jan. 3, when Nash was asked by a reporter about the stretch provision, only to discover that he knew nothing of the term, let alone what it meant.

What follows is a portrait—at once sobering and hopeful—of one of the greatest and most fun-to-watch players in NBA history coming to terms with his physical condition at the age of 40. Nash is contemplating what it means for his and the Lakers' future and resolving to work harder than ever before to make sure that his illustrious career ends not with a depressing whimper, but with a triumphant final act.

 

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