5 memorable Steve Nash moments
Watching Steve Nash play basketball was seeing poetry in motion. It was 48 minutes of euphoria few players have ever been able to deliver.
It's not easy to sum up in a handful of highlights a career that included more than 17,000 points, 10,000 assists and 38,000 minutes over the span of 18 years and 1,200 games. But with the basketball world awash in Nash nostalgia, here are our five most memorable Steve Nash moments.
Pick a pass
There are countless YouTube videos to sift through featuring hundreds of ridiculous passes from Nash, and it's hard to pinpoint one assist out of 10,335. This one to Amar'e Stoudemire perfectly demonstrates the joy, creativity and improvisation with which Nash ran an offense.
Peak Nash at his finest.
2005 Western Conference semifinals vs. Mavericks
It wasn't bad enough for the Mavericks that Nash led the Suns to a league-best 62 wins and took home MVP honors in his first season in Phoenix. Nash then absolutely eviscerated his former team when it mattered most, in the postseason.
Nash averaged 30.3 points, 12 assists, 6.5 rebounds and one steal over the six-game, second-round series, which the Suns won. But it was his final three games of the series that will go down in history.
In Game 4, Nash scored a career-high 48 points on 71 percent (20-of-28) shooting in a losing effort, as Dallas evened the series.
In Game 5, Nash posted a 34-point, 13-rebound, 12-assist triple-double to move the Suns within a win of the Western Conference finals.
Then in Game 6, with Dallas just moments away from forcing a Game 7, Nash hit a game-tying three with 5.7 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime. By the time the final buzzer sounded, Nash had poured in 39 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds to finish off the Mavs.
23 assists vs. Lakers in playoffs
Just as Nash's career-high scoring game came in the postseason, so did his career-high assist game.
With the Suns up 2-1 on the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2007 Western Conference quarterfinals, Nash exploded for 23 dimes in a 113-100 win at Staples Center. Phoenix finished off L.A. a few nights later back home.
Bloody nose vs. Spurs
Nash's game was all about beauty and finesse, but you'd be hard pressed to find a tougher player.
One of Nash's most memorable moments came in a Game 1 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the 2007 West semis, when he played through a disfigured, bloody nose en route to 31 points and eight assists on 61 percent (11-of-18) shooting.
2010 playoff run
The Suns' championship window was supposed to have closed by the time the 2009-10 season rolled around, but Nash had other ideas.
Nash led the league with 11 assists per game that year, chipped in with 16.5 points and recorded his unprecedented fourth 50-40-90 shooting season - no one else has more than two such seasons - to lead the Suns to 54 wins and the West's third seed.
Then in the postseason, a 36-year-old Nash averaged 17.8 points and 10.1 assists to help carry the Suns past the Portland Trail Blazers, Spurs - with one eye practically swollen shut - and all the way to Game 6 of the Western Conference finals against the heavily favored Lakers, against whom he continued to play after casually rearranging his broken nose.