September 5, 2008 - Dr. Dime

I’ve always known Canadian player Steve Nash, the point guard of the Phoenix Suns, to be one of the ‘good guys’ of the NBA. He is an ambassador for hard working, over-achieving players across the globe who have a dream and won’t give up reaching for it. He’s a symbol of hard work and dedication = success. Nobody is perfect, I know that, we all know that.  But there are some players in the NBA that are obvious public relations nightmares, such as the Ron Artest’s, Stephon Marbury’s, Latrell Spreewell’s, etc.  The Phoenix Suns have the luxury of having a leader like Steve Nash, who is on the other end of that spectrum. It sort of reminds me of the concept behind M. Night Shyamalan’s movie Unbreakable with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson.  If every trait of a person is considered against a spectrum, if the world had a ’strongest man’ it would also have to have ‘the weakest man’. If the world had the ‘tallest man’ there would have to be somewhere the ’shortest man’.  Well to put Nash’s kindness and ability to be a good role model for children into perspective, then Nash is the NBA’s ‘greatest role model’ and the Ron Artest’s might be considered the ‘worst role model’.

While he may be seen as somewhat quiet, kind hearted, and nice, don’t ever mistake those traits for meaning Steve Nash isn’t competitive. Nash will rip your heart out on the basketball court to win. This guy has ice water in his veins, and will kill your spirit in the blink of an eye, or in most cases the release of a no-look dime or knock down trey at the buzzer. In watching the following press conference of Nash as the spokesperson for the Suns in announcing the Phoenix Suns arena will be moving to a solar power system as part of their plans to go ‘Green’, I couldn’t help but see his competitive nature shine through in his comments. He talks about “challenging” the other NBA organizations to go solar and to take advantage of technology to try and lesson the carbon footprint we make for the next generation. He talks about having some sort of environmental competition, and how he’s proud of Kerr and the Suns organization for being the leaders in the NBA in this area.

This season Nash will be looking to be unbreakable as doubts arise about his age and its effect on his game.  He will also undoubtebly be looking to show that nice guys don’t always finish last.  Nash, O’Neal, and Stoudemire probably have 1 or 2 years max to prove they can be the best in the NBA.  The Suns may be trying to lessen their carbon footprint, but this season they will be trying to leave a big footprint in the NBA history books with a title.