The Career of Steve Nash

The NBA has created many unlikely stars from many different backgrounds over the years, including the underdog Welshman Steve Nash. From humble beginnings, Nash has been on a long journey to become the millionaire pro NBA super star and coach he is known as today.

There is a wealth of sporting talent in the NBA and placing wagers on their results is done by many fans of the game. To place bets on players and teams in upcoming games, check out the latest NBA odds online, at DraftKings.

While basketball isn’t such a huge sport in the United Kingdom, a few UK players have found fame in the NBA, including Joel Freeland, Luol Deng and Steve Bucknall. However, today we focus on a great player of Welsh heritage – Steve Nash.

What is Steve Nash’s background and how did he become so successful in the world of NBA?

Steve Nash’s early beginning

Born in 1974 in Johannesburg, South Africa, to Welsh and British parents, the NBA wasn’t initially an obvious career choice for the player. Steve’s mother Jean Hall grew up in Swansea Bay where her father was a police officer.

Nash’s family moved their life to Canada when he was still an infant due to troubles in the wake of the apartheid. He comes from a line of great sportsmen with his father being a professional soccer player.

While he showed a great interest and early talent in sport, basketball was not initially on Steve’s radar as his focus was on soccer. In fact, he did not take up basketball until he was in his teenage years.

Nash was accepted into Santa Clara in 1992 with a scholarship and that is where his basketball career began to take off. The player helped lead the Broncos to a WCC tournament victory, he also won against rivals Arizona in the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament. He stunned spectators when scoring six free throws in the final moments of the game.

With two Conference Player of the Year titles under his belt, Nash began his professional career in the 1996 NBA, selected 15th by Phoenix Suns in the draft.

Professional career highlights

Steve Nash’s NBA playing career extended from 1996 until his retirement in 2015, during this time he achieved a great number of wins, he is an eight time all star and two time MVP. In total, Nash scored 17,387 points and ranked number one for his free throw record of 90.4 percent.

These are just a some of the highs the player accomplished over the years:

2006 – Named an NBA All-Star starter for the first time

In February 2006 when playing for the Suns, Nash was finally named NBA All-Star starter for the first time in his decade of playing. He finished second in the Western Conference behind the late NBA star Kobe Bryant.

This was his fourth all star appearance following appearances in 2002, 2003 and 2005. At the time, he was the first NBA player to average 19 points and 11 assists in one season since Magic Johnson in the early 1990s.

The all star game was played in Houston Texas on the 19th February. LeBron James led the Eastern conference to victory with a close 122 – 120 win.

2006 – Won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award for a second straight year

LeBron may have won the All-star game but Steve Nash beat him by a comfortable margin to the NBA Most Valuable Player award the same year. This made Nash the ninth player in NBA history to win the trophy in consecutive years.

2014 – Ranks third all-time for assists following five-assist performance against the Houston Rockets

With a grand total of 10,335 total assists in his career, Steve Nash left with the third all time record behind John Stockton and Jason Kidd. There were seven occasions where the player finished with a double digit average.

It was a game in 2014 against the Houston Rockets where Nash attained five assists and surpassed Mark Jackson, putting him in fourth place.

Steve Nash retirement

Nash joined the Lakers in 2012 and continued to play for them until his retirement in 2015. Despite having offers on the table from the Cavaliers and the Dallas Mavericks. This was due to health concerns and recent injury. He joined the Brooklyn Nets as Head Coach in 2022 and after two and half years decided to step down from the role.