EL SEGUNDO – Nineteen years into a Hall of Fame career, and five months after he last donned a Lakers uniform, Steve Nash officially announced his retirement Saturday in a letter posted to The Player’s Tribune.
“I will likely never play basketball again,” Nash wrote. “It’s bittersweet. I already miss the game deeply, but I’m also really excited to learn to do something else.”
A two-time MVP with the Phoenix Suns, Nash, 41, appeared in just 65 games in three seasons after signing a $27.9 deal with the Lakers in 2012. His time in Los Angeles will likely be an afterthought for one of the greatest point guards in the history of the game, like Willie Mays with the New York Mets.
“When I signed with the Lakers,” Nash wrote, “I had big dreams of lifting the fans up and lighting this city on fire. I turned down more lucrative offers to come to L.A. because I wanted to be in the ‘fire,’ and play for high risk and high reward in my last NBA chapter.”
Two years after the Lakers experiment of a Nash-Kobe Bryant-Dwight Howard nucleus fell flat, the point guard’s retirement was hardly a surprise. He had only recently surfaced around the Lakers – to periodically train rookie Jordan Clarkson – after stepping away in October due to recurring back issues.
But his announcement cued a stream of tributes from coaches, teammates and basketball’s online universe.
“He was a modern-day Bob Cousy,” Lakers coach Byron Scott said. “He brought the small man back into the game. He was able to dominate the game with his passing ability and his unselfishness.”
Nash’s final assist came April 8, 2014, against the Houston Rockets, and moved him past Mark Jackson into third on the NBA’s career assists list with 10,335. He is behind only John Stockton (15,806) and Jason Kidd (12,091).
Along with former Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni, who coached the Suns during Nash’s MVP years, Nash is credited with guiding basketball to fast-paced, perimeter-oriented style of play.
“He was making passes people couldn’t see,” Clarkson said. “That’s what made him so fantastic, and then the way he shoots the ball and scores as well. He affected the game in a lot of ways.”
Nash will be remembered as Canada’s greatest basketball export, an unexpected legacy for a sinewy small-college point guard who did not make an All-Star game until his sixth season in the league.
“From growing up in Vancouver,” said Lakers center Robert Sacre, a fellow native of British Columbia, “he’s always been that guy that Canadians have always looked up to. … He’s been everybody’s idol and hero. It’s kind of sad to see it coming to the end.”
Despite the fond memories shared Saturday, Nash was oft-ridiculed during his Lakers tenure. He was frequently injured, and even this season collected $9.7 million in salary despite not appearing in a regular season game.
“Obviously it’s been difficult,” said Sacre, one of Nash’s closest friends on the Lakers roster, “especially when you want to play and everyone’s calling you a coward, calling you names and all of these things. He’s held his head up high and he knows he’s had a great career.”
Scott agreed that any criticism of Nash, who continues to live in Manhattan Beach, is misplaced.
“Fans also have to look at the fact that the guy did everything possible to get on the court,” Scott said. “I don’t think they take that into consideration … It didn’t work out. But take a look at everything he’s done over his career and judge him that way, not by what ended up happening here.”
Nash appeared in two preseason games this season, and played well enough that some around the team began to imagine what a healthy Nash could mean.
“I knew his leadership and being around some of the young guys like Jordan Clarkson would rub off on those guys, as well,” Scott said. “I was hoping he could play for us. But I was really hoping his influence on being on the court and being around would really help these guys as well.”
Near the end of his letter, Nash wrote that it was directed at “kids everywhere who have no idea what the future holds or how to take charge of their place in it.”
“When I think of my career,” he wrote, “I can’t help but think of the kid with his ball, falling in love. That’s still what I identify with and did so throughout my entire story.”
