Just when you thought the Raptors, Knicks, or Mavericks were the frontrunners to land Steve Nash this offseason, the LA Lakers once again sneak in and steal one of the available marquee players in the league.
Apparently, Kobe Bryant has been tirelessly lobbying his old rival Steve Nash behind the scenes to join the championship ready Lakers for the last few weeks. His major point for Nash was that the Lakers only major weakness is at the point guard position given that Bynum, Gasol, and Bryant are three of the biggest stars in the league at their respective positions. But with that talent, comes conflict given that there is only one ball and many personalities. Who better to bring it all together than Steve Nash? If anyone can do it, he has proven many times in his career that keeping people happy is his forte.
But for Nash, the championship hopes are only secondary to his main motivation for agreeing to sign in LA, his primary focus being his family:
They used the trade exception they received from last year’s Lamar Odom deal with the Dallas Mavericks.
“He’s ecstatic,” said Billy Duffy, Nash’s agent. “He gets to be close to his children.”
The Suns will get the Lakers’ 2013 and ’15 first-round draft picks and their 2014 and ’15 second-round selections. The Lakers also paid the Suns $3 million to facilitate the trade.
Phoenix radio station KTAR 620 first broke the news of the Suns’ sign-and-trade agreement with the Lakers.
The New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors and Dallas Mavericks had all tried to sign Nash, but he turned down more money – three years and nearly $36 million from the Raptors – for an opportunity to chase a title with Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, and to be closer to his children. Nash is divorced with two daughters and a son.
“His intention, as related to the Suns, was if he left that they would get value, that he would have the ability as his career was winding down to come to a competitive situation,” Duffy said. “But his most important aspect was his ability to be close to his children. He’s an hour from his children. I’ve never seen him happier because of that fact alone.”
Duffy said Nash briefly considered retiring at the end of last season.
“Everything in his mind was predicated on his children,” Duffy said. “It put me in an interesting situation because I knew that dynamic. It wasn’t about the most money. He turned down a lot of money and aspects of other deals for the well being of his family.” [Spears on Yahoo!]
So the big question becomes, can Kobe Bryant succeed in a system where the point guard has the ball in his hands 80% of the time? Kobe has dominated the ball his entire career so it will be interesting to see if he can evolve for the good of the team and let Nash be Nash and run the offense to perfection as he has done time and time again as the floor general…thoughts?
