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One of several photos that run with Nash's retirement letter.
Steve Nash remains injured and never played for the Lakers this season, and now that his expiring contract can't help the team in trade talks, he confirmed his retirement. He leaves basketball as the most accurate free throw shooter of all time, and with the third-most assists in league history. Nash, 41, played 19 years and twice was voted the NBA's most valuable player.
Nash took to the Players Tribune website Saturday to say goodbye in a first-person post called Life After Basketball. Excerpt:
I heard someone once say there comes a day when they tell us all that we can’t play anymore. We’re not good enough. Surplus to requirements. Too slow, maybe. When you’re a teenager with outsized dreams and a growing obsession, and someone tells you this ain’t gonna last forever, it’s scary. I never forgot it.
So what did I do? Stayed obsessed. Set goals. Worked. Dreamed. Schemed. Pushed myself beyond what was normal or expected. I looked at my hero, Isiah Thomas, and thought to myself, “OK, I’m nowhere near the player he is but if I get better every day for 5 or 10 years, why can’t I be as good as him?”… The obsession became my best friend. I talked to her, cherished her, fought with her and got knocked on my ass by her.[skip]
When I signed with the Lakers, 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. In my second game here, I broke my leg and nothing was the same.
Last spring, when I returned to the court, I was given a standing ovation at Staples Center. It was a dark time in my career and that gesture will be one of my best memories. There’s been a lot of negativity online, but in my nearly three years in L.A., I’ve never met anyone who didn’t show me anything but love and support for my efforts.
Nash thanks by name a lot of people in his career and life, including his children and his girlfriend Brittany. He has high praise for Mike D'Antoni, his coach with the Suns and (briefly) the Lakers. "Mike D’Antoni changed the game of basketball. There’s not many people you can say that about. No wonder I had my best years playing for him. His intelligence guided him to never over-coach, complicate or hide behind the game’s traditions. He deserves a championship."
The prime minister of Canada congratulated Nash on Twitter.
There has never been a better Canadian basketball player than @SteveNash. Congratulations on an incredible career. pic.twitter.com/x1cqZ8YPM3
— Stephen Harper (@pmharper) March 21, 2015