Thanks to reader TexSUN for pointing out this article on ESPN. It appears that Steve Nash will not be playing in Seattle on Wednesday and will also sit out during the Skills Competition and All-Star game.
I'm perfectly fine with this and have two thoughts:
- If it's a real injury, I definitely don't want him aggravating anything during a stupid All-Star game that doesn't matter.
- If it's an injury that is bothersome and Steve is using this as an excuse to get out of participating and sticking it to the NBA for trying to force him to participate, I'm fine with that as well. If a guy wants to take a little bit of time off and spend it with his family, that's fine. It's definitely not going to affect my decision to watch or not watch the All-Star game just because Steve isn't going to participate in a 5 minute competition. Besides, he'd kill Bryant, James and Wade in the competition anyway. So what's the use of him participating? It's a no-win situation for him. If he wins, he was supposed to win. If he loses, then one of those guys can gloat and say they should be MVP because they're better than him at a skills competition.