Steve Nash News

"Despite rampant speculation that Mike D'Antoni is headed to Chicago or New York, Suns star point guard Steve Nash expects his coach to be back on the Suns' bench next season. Beyond that, the two-time NBA MVP had little to say about the Suns' ongoing coaching saga during a charity appearance on Friday. "This is the last thing I'm going to say about our coaching situation: Mike's my coach," Nash said. "So I expect to see Mike back here next year. "

"Suns co-captains Amaré Stoudemire and Steve Nash were named to the All-NBA second team today. Stoudemire, who was a first team All-NBA center last year, received the most first-team votes (30 of 127 voters tabbed him as a first-teamer) of any second-team selection. He was voted in as the second team's center, the position he played until Phoenix traded for Shaquille O'Neal in February. Stoudemire was also a second-team pick in 2005. Nash had been an All-NBA first team selection in the past three seasons, including two Most Valuable Player years. "

"The Suns turned to their two-time Most Valuable Player in the closing minutes of Game 5 Tuesday. For one of the few times in his career, Steve Nash didn’t respond."

"It was that kind of night for the two-time MVP. Pretty much, it was that kind of season. No one adjusted more than the Suns' engine over the last two months. The Shaquille O'Neal trade forced him to decelerate, directing offense in the half-court, his improvisation limited."

"Steve Nash said he felt like an outsider during Game 3, which is kind of like a comedian feeling out of sorts inside a comedy club. The basketball court is Nash's stage. On Friday he didn't perform."

"Assuming the Phoenix Suns don't become the first team in NBA history to recover from a 3-0 playoff series deficit and go on to win the NBA championship, Steve Nash has an important decision to make. His career now can go one of two ways."

"Typically, Earth Day does not hold much significance in the NBA player's life. Steve Nash is not the typical NBA player."

" Steve Nash will be the victim again, and that's not all bad. He's good at it. He's the unlucky No. 13 who endured the bloody nose, the Bowen knee and the Horry hip-check."

"Steve Nash was feeling much better Monday. The flu bug that had dehydrated him and sapped his energy for the better part of four days was finally beaten back. And while he didn’t spend the night downing Mexican food along the Riverwalk, solid food was once again his friend."

"What does it do for the series to have faced San Antonio so often in recent years? "When you play someone so much, the familiarity makes the games stickier. It makes every possession more valuable because each team knows exactly what's going to happen. The playoffs become a little bit more of a tug of war because of that.""

"It’s been 10 days since Steve Nash missed all six of his shots in the fourth quarter to cap a 4-for-17 shooting day as the Suns gave back a 13-point lead and lost to Dallas."

"Steve Nash said he was fine Friday. In fact, he felt better than he had all week."

"After Steve Nash went 0 for 6 in the fourth quarter Sunday and 4 for 17 overall in the Suns' 105-98 loss to Dallas, teammate Boris Diaw said the Suns could not be too dismayed."

"Suns guard Steve Nash, ever aggressive at heart, was resigned to turning conservative with his game last month. He was going from running the Suns' transition game to a different game of transition, adapting to a new offense when Shaquille O'Neal was on the floor."

"Nobody knows a Most Valuable Player like an MVP. "I pass the torch to STAT," two-time MVP winner Steve Nash said, referring to teammate Amaré Stoudemire. "He's deserving.""

"Other than a trip to the NBA Finals, the Suns don't have much new to give their fans. They had to get creative to surprise the home crowd with a new thrill Monday night. Phoenix made its greatest comeback for victory at home in franchise history, rallying from a 22-point deficit to rock US Airways Center with a rollicking rally and a 132-117 victory against Denver."

"But Nash is a man of many talents and wide-ranging interests. His latest off-the-court tour de force is a Nike commercial that isn't really a commercial but rather an artful 81-second summation of a day in his life while visiting New York. Only at the end does the trademark Nike swoosh appear."

"Steve Nash sat down and reviewed every clip of the film. He talked proudly of the details and decisions in his art. If it were a look at his playmaking for the Suns, Nash would be reticent in self-reflection. But Nash glows about his filmmaking, the art that will fill his creative void when he retires from basketball. It is the passion he secretly tapped in making a Nike commercial that hit youtube.com and became a viral sensation with more than 450,000 views on three entries."

"The shooter often overshadows the shot. That's how it goes with Steve Nash's game. You have his passing, his decision-making, his leadership. Before you know it, those moments when he comes down in transition - looking, looking - only to pull up and bury a 3-pointer before the defense settles, somehow get lost. It's OK."

"The Suns' resident Most Valuable Player Award winners, point guard Steve Nash and center Shaquille O'Neal, sound like newlyweds talking of their bliss and bright futures. The offensive marriage is growing with each game, as Nash looks particularly more comfortable with how to function his game around a presence such as O'Neal."

"Mere feet away, a much-smaller Steve Nash is sinking jump shots from just inside the arc. The Suns' superstar point guard may be the closest player to O'Neal, but fails to recognize his newest teammate's free-throw epiphany -- too focused on his own current streak, which hit 11 consecutive jumpers before a teammate's shot deflected Nash's ball off target."

"Suns point guard Steve Nash always has subscribed to the idea that there is no reward in basketball without risk. He could tolerate his turnovers in that regard, especially as a perennial assists leader. But his turnover rate has been the worst of his career for a month."

"The knowing nods were the byproduct of what has been a long wait in Sunsland. Finally, almost four years later, Mavs types admitted waving buh-bye to Steve Nash was a colossal mistake. In terms of mea culpas, trading for J-Kidd was a doozy."

"The Suns played as advertised, but the Western Conference could not live up to its billing. The mighty West, dominant and deep all season, succumbed to the East's star power in Sunday's NBA All-Star Game with the help of an old West friend."

"Tim Duncan came to know Steve Nash well during the Texas-size battles San Antonio and Dallas shared to start this decade, when Nash was a sometimes All-Star for the Mavericks with anytime back issues."

"Suns guard Steve Nash had his most difficult All-Star moment Saturday night at New Orleans Arena. Finishing last in the 3-point shooting contest was compounded by being handed a microphone and asked to read an NBA Cares promotion and Dr. John introduction off a skipping teleprompter with fuzzy words."

"Nash's crews went to New Orleans' Holy Cross neighborhood, one that is representative of the images of families on their homes' rooftops waiting for rescue because the water crested at 12 feet on Lizardi Street."

"Buddies Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki don't get much time to hang together anymore. Even when the Suns and Mavericks play, the teams are in and out and the two are lucky to have a night to share when they are not limited to a postgame chat like Thursday."

"Steve Nash, the Suns' two-time NBA MVP, had his highest regulation scoring output in the past six years, totaling 37 points to fuel a come-from-behind, 114-105 victory."

"Nash not only went for 37 points — his second-highest regular-season scoring game ever — he scored or assisted on the last 16 Phoenix points as the Suns rallied from a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit to slalom past the Bucks 114-105 at a Bradley Center surrounded by snowdrifts."

" That's because the Phoenix Suns have a point guard named Steve Nash, who when he wasn't scoring 15 of his season-high 37 points was dishing out four of his 10 assists as the Suns rallied in the fourth quarter for a 114-105 victory at the Bradley Center."

"Like much of the NBA world, the Minnesota Timberwolves were not quite sure what to do about Suns guard Steve Nash entering Friday night's game, a 115-95 Phoenix win, at US Airways Center."

"Aaron Nelson, the Suns head athletic trainer, said Friday guard Steve Nash's flu symptoms have improved, and the club is hopeful he'll be able to play Saturday night when the Milwaukee Bucks visit US Airways Center."

"Nobody is having as much fun - and so be it, Suns guard Steve Nash says. That happens when you win as much as this era of Suns, who could beat Seattle at home Thursday night for their 200th victory since Nash's 2004 return to Phoenix."

"On Thursday, Nash was named one of the 2007 recipients of The Order of Canada – the country’s highest civilian honor. He was selected not just for his fame, but for his many humanitarian efforts through his Steve Nash Foundation and the Canadian school system"

"It was a good day for Steve Nash. The Suns won a game the way he sort of likes to play once in a while - grinding out a 94-88 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers at US Airways Center on Friday night. He learned earlier in the day that he has been awarded the Order of Canada, the highest honor in his country and on the level of being knighted in England. "

"A better recent indicator of wins and losses has been the Suns' play without guard Steve Nash on the floor. Phoenix cannot maintain the flow it has with Nash, but it can control the depth of the drop-off."

"'What frustrates me is we don't play hard all the time,' Suns guard Steve Nash said before Phoenix played San Antonio on Monday night."

"But what gets lost are the simpler things, such as his performance from the foul line, where Nash provides his team an advantage in close games, situations that are likely to surface during a rugged three-game trip that starts tonight in New Orleans."

"But Nash felt better Wednesday, crediting a pregame treatment session with trainer Aaron Nelson for loosening the affected areas and leaving all of his weapons available. Nash made 10 of 12 shots from the floor and looked more free and fluid both from long range and driving to the basket."

"The Mavs win 66 games to go to the playoffs as the top seed. They steamroll the Don Nelson-led Warriors and beat the Spurs in five games in the conference finals. They manhandle Cleveland in the Finals for their first title. Nowitzki is fourth and Nash fifth in MVP voting."

"Such is life when you are playing two-time MVP Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns, a rare team that manages to balance entertainment with brutal efficiency. The Wizards found that out the hard way as the Suns opened the third quarter with a 13-6 run and never looked back en route to a 122-107 victory at Verizon Center."

"Steve Nash was back in the motherland Tuesday and other than Edmonton — where superstar Sidney Crosby visited for the first time — all of Canada was talking about his decision to bypass the national team and its Olympic aspirations to focus his time and energy on winning an NBA title in Phoenix."

"When the Phoenix Suns took over the visitors' locker room at the Air Canada Centre last night, they scattered no end of gadgets about their stalls. There were iPods and cell phones and email doohickeys. But in Steve Nash's corner, there was but one hand-held device: a hair dryer."

" It's not a question of wanting to play for Canada, Steve Nash says. It's a question of whether his 33-year-old body can withstand an 82-game NBA season and then ask the same of his body a year later with little or no rest in between. "

" Preparing for Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns is never easy, but doing so with one of your floor generals ailing only makes things tougher. Now take your top two big men out of the equation and you begin to understand the Raptors' predicament. "

"Somewhere out there, some self-proclaimed NBA geniuses are no doubt claiming they knew all along that Steve Nash was going to be a great player, an odds-defying MVP who would carve out one of the most unusual careers in league history."

"In what should come as no surprise to anyone, Steve Nash has again suggested he won't play for Canada even if the national basketball team qualifies for next year's Olympics."

"Steve Nash has said -- yet again -- that he probably won't play for Canada's men's basketball team next summer, even if it qualifies for the Beijing Olympics."

"By taking on Stephon Marbury and Penny Hardaway and sending Phoenix a series of expiring contracts, starting with the largest belonging to Antonio McDyess, Thomas enabled the Suns to get under the salary cap so they could rebuild their team around Nash. Once Mavs owner Mark Cuban decided he was not going to give his then 30-year-old playmaker a huge new contract, over the objections of his coach, Don Nelson, the Suns had their man and were on their way to elite status."