Steve Nash: Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent - What the Suns!? Episode 3

I'm back with another episode of "What the Suns!?" where we track and collect every and anything we can about what our Phoenix Suns players are doing during the off-season and especially now during the lockout!  In today's episode we're going to dive into the hectic and fluid meanderings of Steve Nash - the face of the franchise.

Steve is a basketball god.  He's omniscient on the court having led the league in assists for the past two years even at age 53, he's omnipotent in the pick and roll and from basically anywhere on the court when his pelvic instability isn't flaring up - and the fool is omnipresent on and off the court.  HE'S EVERYWHERE.  I doubt Steve sleeps.  One minute he's in New York hosting some charity event, the next he's playing basketball at a local street park in Phoenix, and then all of sudden he's having the Mayor of Winnipeg hand him a key to the city and then later that night he's running in a speedo on the beach in San Diego.  Although that last part might be a fabrication of imagination the general point is true.  Steve is a busy man.

What the Steve Nash!?

So let's take a look at the things he's been doing - I've broken it down like usual.  We'll take a look at what he's doing for basketball, for charity and for fun or whatever else.   But since there is so much info on Steve, it's going to be more of a link dump.  Enjoy.

WHAT THE BASKETBALL!?:

• Nursing his Injury - Steve doesn't usually play a lot of basketball in the off-season, if any at all. Granted, there is no doubt he stays in shape - he just doesn't do the young guy Jared Dudley thing and participate in intense pick-ups and basketball drills everyday.    This year he's especially avoided basketball since he's still been nursing his awesome 'pelvic instability' injury, yeah did you all forget about his groin problems?  Such a weird injury.  Though he has said himself - he has just arrived at a point where he can now train and play basketball everyday without catering to the weak flesh. On Canadian radio station Steve said of his physical training and mental preparation, "I don’t have the frame of mind that we’re going to go back to work late or in December or whatever. And at my age, I’ve decided for the last five or six years that I don’t take time off, because I feel like it’s a dangerous territory to enter when you get older. So I stay in shape, I don’t play a lot of basketball, this summer I’ve been doing a lot of rehabbing an injury. And I feel great so I’m definitely getting into that space where I want to go to camp October 1st. That may or may not happen, but that’s my frame of mind." [ Canada Radio ]
  
• Not Playing for Canadian National team - It seems like every year the Canadians are surprised and then angry because Nash doesn't play for the national team... it's not like he's played for them in the last 3 years.  Or 5 years.  Or 7 years.  Here's what Nash said in response to those who were critical of him, " "Well I appreciated the passion some people on Twitter had for the program. They want to see the program do well, so they were disappointed I didn’t play; and I wanted to tell them why I didn’t play. It’s simple. A lot of people said ‘oh, well he doesn’t deserve a pass.’ Absolutely not, I don’t deserve a pass. I’m not above that. I made a really tough decision seven years ago to retire from the National Team, Mark Cuban didn’t re-sign me because he thought I was about to combust and my career would be over any day now. I was carrying injuries through every season, I was carrying injuries every summer with the National Team and doing it year after year for the better part of 13 years since I was 16, 17 years old, and something had to give. I thought, ‘I’m 30 years old, do I want to continue playing year round and my career could possibly be over in a year or two, or my value be gone? Or do I want to make a decision and try to play as long as I can?’ That’s the decision I made, and at the time people said ‘thanks for your 13 years of service busting your butt around the world with a bad back. The National Team was the greatest experience of my career. This summer, the truth is I couldn’t have played anyway rehabbing my pelvic instability, but to be fair, it really wasn’t even on my radar because I had retired so long ago. And I have only gotten to the stage now where I could start training basketball-wise everyday." [Canada Radio]  ADDITIONALLY - Steve said, "At some point, I’ll definitely be part of the program, I’m not sure what capacity yet and I’m not sure when, but this is my country and this is my program. I spent 13 years as part of it, and I’d like to be a bigger part of it, in a bigger role at some point, when the time is right … not just so that we can make Olympic Games, but so we can get kids playing the sport and learning and growing and participating and improving their lifestyle." [ The Globe and Mail ]
  
• Nash on the Lockout- "Bla bla bla I hope we can negotiate" blblalballblub
• Nash Calls out Sarver... Sort of - Just check out 7footer's post or the regional blurb. [ SBNAZ - BSotS ] 
• Nash Crossed-over by Justin Bieber  - Obviously he's not playing any defense this off-season.  Or ever.  I tease.  But seriously.  [ Coro ]
• Nash Organized Informal Workouts with Teammates - Earlier this September a group of players including Dudley, Warrick, Childress, Lawal and Frye were ringed together by Nash in San Diego to get some shots up and play some pick-up games. [ Coro ]

WHAT THE CHARITY!?:

• Showdown in Chinatown - on June 24th, Nash's annual soccer charity event was a hit.  As usual. I'm sure they raised a ton of funds which will benefit Steve's Educare program and the Claudio Reyna Foundation, which supports underprivileged youth through education and sports. [ Recap ]
  
• Educare Arizona - New facility opened in AZ and a new school year starts for Nash's early development schools all around the nation.  Steve also announced a new 'mobile giving campaign' for Educare.  You might have seen him tweeting about it this summer.  It's an easy way for people to get involved with his Educare program by simply text messaging a number and a donation is added to the donor's phone bill. [ Educare ]
• Steve Gets a Key to Winnipeg - Mayor Sam Katz handed Steve the key, recognizing 'Two-Time' "for his commitment to improving circumstances and creating opportunities for children living in poverty, or with illness, abuse or neglect." [ cbcsports.ca ]
  
• Nash Received the St. Boniface Hospital Foundation's 2011 International Award - basically for all the amazing things that his foundation (The Steve Nash Foundation) does.  Take a look, you'd be surprised (or maybe you wouldn't) at all the things charity-wise he's involved in. [ St.Boniface Hospital ] Before receiving the award, Nash held a clinic about health and nutrition for athlete's at the University of Manitoba. [ source ]
  

WHAT THE BUSINESS!?:

"I really want to set myself up so I have options in fields that I’m passionate about for when I'm not playing basketball anymore"  - Steve's got a ton of endorsement work that he does... but he's been busy this summer growing his own babies.

• Liquid Nutrition - Steve Nash opened the Toronto Market in honor of the launch of his new company Liquid Nutrition which is basically a healthy smoothie company.  Think an even healthier... Jamba Juice?  Something like that.  Peep this video - [ TMX Opening ]
  
• Steve Nash Fitness World & Sports Clubs - Nash is definitely keeping himself busy with promos and marketing crap for his health spas.  Take a look if you're really interested. [ Website ] 

WHAT THE FUN & MISCELLANEOUS!?:

• If you live under a rock and you haven't heard - Nash has a girlfriend who travels with him just about everywhere. Her name is Brittany Richardson.  I won't follow her on twitter so I don't know much about her except that she's young, pretty good looking, and probably parrots any and everything the wise Steve tells her. [ More Details on the GF ]
  

On an extremely slanted side note... not sure what to make of this as a Phoenix Suns fan - women are tricky things my young friends of the Bright Side, and you experienced guys know what I'm talking about.  He's recently divorced... and this girl is something like 15 years younger than Steve, as a Bro, I say "nice".  As a fan worried about his team I say, this could be bad news. Maybe you don't know where I'm going with this so let me be blunt.  Where is Steve at emotionally.  I'm not talking about what he shows us, I'm talking about in his head, the underbelly of human existence, the dark depths of introspection. 

Am I the only one who's noticed that since his divorce Steve has been a bit more of a loose canon and a party animal?  I mean in his post-game interviews last season there were times where he was more open and blunt with his feelings than we've grown accustomed to over the years.  It's usually been a mellow Nash with a low monotonous cookie-cutter middle-of-the road response.  More often that in the past we saw Nash viciously jawing at officials and demonstratively expressing his disgust with calls.  Then we've got tweets about "Sunglasses and Advil.  Last night was mad real." and about him hitting the club and whatnot. I wouldn't think twice about him living it up and partying all night if it weren't for a few things.  1) it's Steve Nash. 2) He's 37 years old with a bad back and some crazy thing called pelvic instability. Oh and P.S. - he's the best player on our team at 37 years old with a bad back and groinal problems.  WTF. 

I'm starting to wonder how that whole groin thing actually came about... but anyways, this rant is a lot longer than I originally intended so lets end it at that.  I've got a crooked eye on you Brittany.  I don't know how you correlate exactly to anything I've written in this paragraph but I'm hoping that sour smell I'm faintly smelling is just Boris Diaw eating a cold Taco Bell Chalupa that he found under the couch...

• Are you Nash enough? Vitamin Water contest video - somebody's going to win the prize of being in the next quirky Vitamin Water commercial with your boy Derek Nashlander. [Coro - Business Journal]
• Thoughts on Vancouver Riots - Earlier in the summer when the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup Finals in game 7, peeps started rioting in Vancouver.  Here are his thoughts on that, "Yeah, obviously the series was disappointing, but at the same time, the guys played great, they brought a lot of excitement to the city and just couldn’t quite turn the corner in the Finals. But the rioting thing was just a crazy situation. Vancouver is one of the most beautiful, peaceful cities in the world, and then all of a sudden, every time we lose the Stanley Cup Finals we turn into monsters. But it’s not Canucks fans, it’s opportunists that put on a Canucks jersey and go downtown and take it as an opportunity to get out their frustrations or whatever they’re expressing. But Vancouver is still a great city, it was a disappointing moment but we’ll rebound from it. And I think the Canucks will be great again this year so we’re looking forward to it." [Canada Radio]
  
• Hope Solo Takes down Steve in FIFA 12 - He's sort of like a Gorilla and Leopard.  That's all you need to know. Or you can watch the video if you fell in love with Hope Solo during the women's World Cup run.  [ SBNation ]
• With Shaq's retirement earlier this year, Hardwood Paroxysm dubs Steve Nash the Funniest Player in the NBA [ HP-Funniest ].
• Steve Practices with the Whitecaps - Steve does a lot of things off the court, and if he hadn't played professional basketball he'd probably have played professional soccer, but since he can't play professional soccer because he plays professional basketball he owns a professional soccer team so at least he can pretend like he plays professional soccer. "It was a lot of fun, for me it's a great opportunity not just to get a kick-around with the guys, but to get to know them a little bit. As a fan it's fun to meet them and know them. As an owner it's fun to get the temperature of the club and how the guys' spirits are." [ cbcsports.ca ]
• Steve Goes to an ASU Game - Steve was spotted at the ASU v. Mizzou game a few weeks ago. [azsports] 
• Nash Went to a Nas Concert - Most people go to a club or a bar mitzvah to get their groove on and dance.  Nash gets on stage with Nas.  I'm pretty sure he was on stage with Lady Gaga earlier in the year too.. but I'm not sure if he was dancing then... or getting danced on. [Lean like a Cholo Nash] 
• He Traveled - Like the vast majority of rich folk Steve took to the world for some vacation time this summer, traveling to Paris, Italy, China, the moon and the center of the earth.  Meanwhile Eutychus went to Jerome AZ for his 3 day vacation. Like a BAWSE.  By the way, if you ever go to Jerome, you really only need maybe 1.5 days to see and do everything there is to do there.

THE GOOD TWEETS

Here's a few of my hand-picked favorites. 

Alright, well that's about all the Nash news I can handle because I'm starting to feel like a creepy stalker.  If after reading this you are still craving more news about what Nash has been up to, please seek psychiatric help immediately. 

Stay Tuned for the next episode of What the Suns!? - coming soon.  Or whenever I feel like writing it.  #Lockout

P.S. - this picture has to do with the poll question. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.