The Nash files are long and well archived. So we won't give him the Jameer Nelson treatment. You know who he is. He know what he does. You know the 2 MVPs and game changing, um, steez. You know the stats. A refresher: Nearly 19 points in his second MVP season and nearly 16 in 08-09; tops in assists for three years, although he dipped below 10 per last season; he's been shooting over .500 from the field and over .430 from three since he got to Phoenix; he led the league in true shooting percentage in 05-06 and 06-07 and actually had his highest PER in the year after his second MVP. Draw your own conclusions.
More stuff you know. You know he's Canadian. But did you know he was born in South Africa? He's quite the international man of intrigue, and we've seen him play soccer across the globe. You know the commercials and the sense of humor. You know he actually came up with the idea behind Shaq's "Shaq vs." show. You missed that one? Now you know. So, those are the essentials. What about this ranking?
Steve Nash, originally uploaded by efphoto.
Or perhaps it's not so ineffable. Nash extended with the Suns, instead of looking to join the 2010 free agent class and follow rumors and Mike D'Antoni to New York. I would say it's great karma for guys like Nash and Grant Hill to stick with the Suns despite the sinking ship feel they gave off last year, but it's probably more than that. Perhaps with Shaq gone, that sinking feeling will be gone this year. The team is familiar with each other and with coach Alvin Gentry. They run through Nash, they know how that works, so it really did behoove the Suns and Nash to remain faithful to each other.
