Guess what, Suns fans. Steve Nash has once again told the national media what they don't want to hear. He will be defying all their wishes and remaining with the poor, humble, unfortunate Phoenix Suns destined to wander the final months of this contract in desert self-exile.
Somehow folks don't seem to understand how a guy could be willing to stay in Phoenix when he had other choices like Los Angeles (!) or Miami (!) or New York (!).
Of course, he doesn't really have those options because trades are much more easy to talk about in abstract than to pull off in reality, but never mind that.
Their confusion is kind of amusing really. But Gary Payton did it! But LeBron did it! But Chris Paul did it! But Dwight Howard is doing it!
How can Steve Nash NOT DO IT!!
It must be because he's Canadian!
Writer, please....
Here's what Nash told Mr. J.A. Adande of ESPN while in Lala land this week:
No trade noise from Nash - TrueHoop Blog - ESPN
"I’m not oblivious to [the chance of] playing on a contender," Nash said. "But at the same time, especially in the position I’m in right now, I feel a sense of loyalty to my team. To go and ask for a trade, it’s not like I’m going to say, ‘Trade me to...’ He made a circling motion with his finger, as if he were about to land it on a destination..."I think they are in slightly different scenarios," Nash said. "Mine’s a different scenario at this stage in my career. I don’t want to jeopardize or turn my back on my teammates for that limited…let’s say, unknown."
Maybe Steve understands something they don't. Maybe Steve knows that there's really nowhere else he could go where he'd be allowed to play the game the way he loves to play it.
Do you think Nash in Miami would be running the offense like he does here? Do you think Kobe would just turn over the reins to Nash? Do you think Nash could even beat out Jeremy Lin for a starting spot on the Knicks if there was even a way for New York to trade contracts they don't have to make the salaries work under the CBA?
Anyway, this horse is well beaten so let's move on to another pet peeve of mine as represented by this statement from Adande:
If he asked out after giving eight great years to a Phoenix Suns franchise that has repeatedly made fiscal obligations a priority over championship aspirations, could anyone blame him? [emphasis added]
This is such a 1%'er way to look at the world. Consider that...
- From 2006-2011 the Suns had the 12th-highest team salary with an average of $69,097,467 per year
- The gap between the Suns in 12th and the Celtics in 4th on that list is "only" $6,318,913 per year
- The gap between what the Suns spent and what the top-spending Mavs spent was $23,777,855 per year (!) in pure salary and roughly double that when you include luxury tax.
- In other words, half the league was within a window of $65m to $75m per year and the Suns were right in the middle of that middle
- There were other contending teams like the Jazz, Bulls and Pistons that were well below the Suns in spending and yet they're not called "cheap"
Did the Suns make moves during the Nash era to save money that cost the team wins? Sure.
The Kurt Thomas salary dump in 2007 (which saved $16m and cost two first round draft picks) comes to mind. Selling picks, of course, will never be forgotten. But that money was used on payroll for other players. Then there's the Marion trade for Shaq that saved cost the Suns about $10m extra.
In a perfect world, the Suns would be in a huge market like New York or L.A. or have an uber-wealthy owner like Mark Cuban or Paul Allen but that's just not how life turned out. If you are a fan of rich teams, you should support rich teams, but the Suns are not "cheap" just because they're not rich.
So, did the Suns make "fiscal obligations" a "priority over championship aspirations"?
Only to the degree they had to operate within the same framework as 27 other teams not named the Mavericks, Lakers, or Knicks.
And just perhaps, a guy like Steve Nash understands all this better than certain media members in large east and west coast markets who can't get why Nash wouldn't want to "trade up" and play with the 1%'ers.
Maybe a guy like Steve Nash understands that in the grand scheme of his life, competing with people he loves and enjoying the challenge of the fight is more important than a piece of jewelry that he doesn't need to validate his existence.
We like to think that winning is everything for a true competitor but just maybe the competition itself is actually more fulfilling. The journey may be more important than the destination, especially when the destination has such little real meaning in comparison to the lives of 99% of the people on this planet.
There was a time when we applauded loyalty and humility in our athletes instead of making fun of them. If that's old school than so be it....NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!!
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