No one knows this more than NBA players. They know when a high-touted player is overrated, and they know when their backup is headed for stardom.
After all, in tight quarters, players are pushing their fellow teammates every day. Some guys break, while others rise to the occasion.
So it wasn’t surprising that when the deal that brought Goran Dragic to Phoenix was completed, the Suns staff received a text from the club’s previous point guard: Steve Nash. [Read more...]
A rumor spread on Twitter Wednesday that it was Back to the Future day. People had the right idea, but the wrong date on the calendar. Thursday, at least in Phoenix, was truly back to the future for your Suns. Before my fellow internet nerds correct me, yes, I realize the actual day that Marty McFly fast forwards to is October 26, 2015, but on June 28, 2012 the Suns took a page from the past while looking toward the future.
That’s because, on that night in New Jersey’s Prudential Center (something that isn’t usually the normal for the NBA Draft), they selected a 6-3 guard who was known for his passing with a mid-first-round draft pick, despite already having an all-time franchise point guard. It’s something they did in 1996, too. [Read more...]
This may seem odd as an employee of the Phoenix Suns, but I’m hoping fans boo the team’s 2012 draft pick and it’s not because I have some sick desire to lose my job.
Before you bring out the straight jacket and treat me like I’m Charlie Sheen after a bender, hear me out.
Over the years, Suns fans booing a draft pick has been a pretty good barometer of future success. As in, when we boo, the player tends to far exceed our expectations. It’s kind of like the Bizarro version of Superman. [Read more...]
Films debuting during the summer months is nothing new. For years movie goers have come to expect the best titles and brightest stars to come out and shine in theaters from May to August. This summer though, fans get to see one of their favorite stars debuting in a different medium.
That star is the Phoenix Suns’ all-everything point guard Steve Nash who is giving his unique take on this summer’s blockbuster movies and blockbusters — the movies not the defunct video rental chain — from summers past. The all-star, along with the new YouTube channel “The NOC TV,” shot and distributed the unique takes for a series called Nash, Camera, Action. [Read more...]
Those who have underestimated Steve Nash on the court have learned a valuable lesson over the years, and, as Forbes points out, he shouldn’t be taken too lightly off the court and in the boardroom, either.
First, in an online story published on Wednesday and in what will be another version for the June 4 edition of the magazine, Kurt Badenhausen – the publication’s deputy editor in charge of sports business – breaks down Nash’s success in the business world. [Read more...]
Steve Nash knew he was going to the public’s focal point this season when it came to coverage of the Phoenix Suns during the 2011-12 season.
So game-in and game-out, the 16-year NBA veteran stood before the media to give his straight-forward, polite and informative take on the game as the leader of his team. [Read more...]
There is no doubting how much the experience of playing for the Canadian national team in the 2000 Olympics meant to Steve Nash.
That is part of the reason why the point guard has agreed to an administrative role with the club, as general manager for Canada Basketball. His selection to the post was made official Tuesday at the Air Canada Centre. [Read more...]
Dustin Watson doesn’t subscribe to the theory that talking about a streak will end it, at least not with the run he’s currently on.
Members of the Suns might feel otherwise once they hear the details of Watson’s impact on the outcome of their games – athletes are a superstitious bunch, you know – but the illustrator has full confidence in the ability his Free Throw covers have had recently.
The threat that a little superstition poses doesn’t affect his confidence in the least. [Read more...]
It’s not only the eye test that the Phoenix Suns are passing right now, after the team has won four of its last five and continued to rise through the Western Conference standings.
The Suns also improved their playoff chances over that stretch according to analytical surveys, as Slamonline.com pointed out in its most recent NERD Rankings. Based off an analytical “platform that uses algorithmic modeling to better understand sports,” – and other such language that barely makes sense – the NERD Rankings place Phoenix as the 19th-best NBA team. [Read more...]
There was one event that was talked about more than any other this weekend. It wasn’t the NCAA Elite Eight. 90 degree heat or even the return of Don Draper’s raging libido (although it finished a close second). The thing that made many grown men and women around the country transform into high school girls at a Katy Perry concert was the premiere of the film The Hunger Games.
For those of you who haven’t read the book because your idea of heavy reading is getting through a full Grantland article or cracking open a magazine — present company included — both the book and the film are about a post-apocalyptic America separated into 12 districts. Every year each district is represented by one individual in a televised fight to the death. The concept is interesting to say the least, although not completely original. It is similar to the 1980’s movie Running Man and Stephen King’s 1970’s novel The Long Walk.
But what if the idea were put into a sports context. Cue your inner Eminem… Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity to save your life who would you ask to capture it or let it slip away? [Read more...]
