Man Crush #1: Steve Nash

Best known as: Point Guard for the Phoenix Suns

I love basketball.

And, before you go dismissing this statement as my usual overwrought hyperbole, know that I strongly believe that 'love' is a very overused and under-appreciated word.  Heck, I've probably used it more than I should already over the course of this silly Man Crush Countdown.  But, I assure you, even knowing that with each use the word is devalued a little bit more, I stand by this statement wholeheartedly:

I love basketball.

There has been no greater source of joy or frustration in my life.  I've tried - and failed - many times to put my love of basketball into words.  And long ago I concluded that it just simply cannot be done.  There's no tangible thing that I can say to make someone understand how great the game truly is.  You either 'get it' or you don't.  You either love it or you don't.

And I do.

Although, I will admit, not as much as I used to.  From 1995 to 2000 you could easily describe my feelings toward basketball as a borderline obsession.  And I couldn't argue.  It was.  I would spend every chance I got playing.  After school, during school, evenings, weekends, holidays.  You name it.  Even at school dances (when school dances were a choice between attending the dance or doing work in the classroom, of course you'd choose the dance, but we'd spend the entire time pulling down balloons and playing basketball with them on the hoops that had been folded against the wall).

If the gym was open to play in during lunch hour, I didn't eat, would head straight to the gym, play for as long as I could, leaving just enough time to grab my books and get to my next class.  This would leave me having to then try to find time to scarf down my lunch between periods, and, since the time it took to shower after playing was 5 minutes that could be better spent on the court, I'm sure I looked like a sweaty mess and stunk something fierce for the remainder of the day as well.  Needless to say, the ladies loved me.

But I didn't care.  I could make up for the lost time with the ladies once I got to the NBA.  Which, while I didn't really consider this as a possibility, I also didn't not consider it a possibility.  What can I say? I was young and naïve.

That's not to say my world came crashing down the day I realized that I did not (and never would) have what it took to play at a higher level, but I still remember the moment of this realization very vividly.  It was at the 1997 NBA Hoop It Up 3 on 3 Tournament.  Each year they would have a guest come out, and usually it was a player in the NBA.  This particular year it was a young man named Steve Nash.  Now at this point in time I could tell you almost anything about the NBA.  History.  Stats.  Rosters.  You name it.  So I knew who Steve Nash was, but I didn't know who Steve Nash was.  Yet.

All you really need to know about my Nash love is this: not only did I create the above clip, but in spite of it's inherently creepy nature, it still brings a smile to my face every time I listen to it.

All I really knew was that he was  one of the three Canadian players in the league at the time (along with Rick Fox and three-time NBA World Champion Bill Wennington) and that he was the third string point guard on the Phoenix Suns (behind Jason Kidd and Kevin Johnson).  As such, I kind of assumed he wasn't very good.  Granted Jason Kidd was one of the best young point guards in the world at the time, and Kevin Johnson was still winding down his brilliant career, but I thought that if you were the back up to the back up you couldn't have been that great.

And then I sat down to watch his skills clinic…

Leo Rautins was on the microphone, breaking it down about the many faucets of the game, and Steve simply tried to demonstrate whatever the given topic happened to be.  The dribbling was crisp and pure, sure, but my jaw wasn't on the floor or anything… until they started talking about shooting.  And, just so you know, I say this without exaggeration: I don't think he missed a single shot during the entire demonstration.  3's, free throws, jump shots, it didn't matter.  Every shot he took went in.  I had never seen anything like it before in my life.  It was in that 10 minute stretch, as my mouth sat agape with disbelief that I knew I would never play in the NBA.  If the third best point guard on a marginal playoff team was that good, then I would never stand a chance.

But aside from pulling my head out of the clouds, it was also the moment that Steve Nash was officially 'on my radar'.  Shortly afterward he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks, and my excitement grew, as they already featured one of my favourite players in the league at the time - Michael Finley.  And although Steve's production went up now that he had a starting job, he still hadn't done much to elevate himself above the legions of good players in the league.  And then came the 2000 Sidney Olympics.  With maybe the exception of Manu Ginobili in 2004*, I have never bore witness to a performance like the one Nash put on that summer.  The heart, passion and flat out ability that he displayed during that unexpected run was unbelievable.  By the time the tears had dried from his eyes after that heart-wrenching post-loss interview, he had earned a new fan for life.

Sure, Hakeem Olajuwon made this list on basketball abilities alone, so it stands to reason that Nash could as well.  But Number 1?  There must be more to it than that.  I mean, he wasn't even born in Canada, so it's not entirely a patriotic thing - although he's been here since he was 18 months old, so he's still a true Canadian in my eyes.  No, in the end it comes down to him just being an honestly good person, and a fun lovin' and funny dude.  But maybe most importantly of all, in a league where the superstars are brash and cocky, he is not.  Instead he's modest to a fault.  Genuinely humble.

And you won't find too many other humble 2-time League MVP's.

Proof of Awesomeness:

*Obviously the Nash performance is closer to my heart as it was for Team Canada, but I did almost buy a Ginobili Argentina jersey after watching him during 2004.  I still think the Nash performance was better, but it gets swept a little under the rug in the annuls of Olympic History as they failed to advance past the quarterfinals whereas Ginobili won gold, and it was the first time that anyone besides the USA had done so since allowing NBA players to compete in 1992.  Which was a pretty big deal.

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