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Trying to solve the Nash equation
MVP season a product of numerous variables
Paola Boivin
The Arizona Republic
May. 22, 2005 12:00 AM
In the sci-fi world it's called hypertime, a state of molecular acceleration that makes the rest of the world appear to stand still while a single object continues moving.
In the NBA world it's called Nashtime, a state of point guard acceleration that allows the Suns standout to see the game unfold in slow motion. It explains the no-look assists, the last-second bounce passes, the off-balance three-point fadeaways with time expiring.
It's 48, 34 and 39 playoff points, respectively. advertisement
It's ESPN analyst Greg Anthony saying Friday night that he wished he could change his MVP vote.
It's the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference finals for the first time since 1993.
"I think his soccer background has something to do with it, but I definitely think some of it is innate," said former NBA guard Steve Kerr, a Suns minority owner and consultant. "Larry Bird had it, and I'm pretty sure he wasn't playing soccer in French Lick."
"He had it in high school," said Ian Hyde-Lay, Nash's basketball coach at St. Michaels University School in Victoria, British Columbia. "He was always two steps, three steps ahead of what was happening on the court."
Nash is the Bobby Fischer of the NBA, a point guard who anticipates his opponents' moves and goes in for the kill. It's why in an evolving league with bigger and stronger point guards, the 6-foot-3, 195-pound Nash was better than all of them this season. It's why a player who TV analyst Bill Walton calls the most "unathletic in the NBA," is athletic enough to carry home the MVP trophy.
"I kind of just think it's the way I am," Nash said. "It's an ability to be aware of what's going on around you, and I think some people are just aware more continuously than others. You're kind of able to keep a running dialogue of what's happening around you rather than it being fragmented and segmental."
Is Nash as astute off the court?
"Oh, I don't know. I don't think so," he said. "I wouldn't want to make some sort of legend out of it."
With Nash, it's hard to not take paths of mythical proportions. Rarely a game goes by that the 31-year-old doesn't inspire disbelief. Several times during the Western Conference semifinals, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban raised his hands in the air and looked toward Nash as if to say, "I surrender to my free-agency stupidity."
What makes Nash's ball-handling skills unique is a convergence of traits that range from innate talent to an unparalleled work ethic. His vision, his soccer background and his relationship with teammates also play a role.
The soccer theory
On his first birthday, Nash received a soccer ball as a present. Nash's father, John, played for a semiprofessional league in England before moving to Johannesburg, South Africa, where a better-paying team was courting him. The family soon relocated to Canada because Nash's parents didn't want their son exposed to a culture of apartheid.
A love for soccer moved with the family.
Although Nash excelled in a variety of sports in high school, the year he was both his school's chess tournament champion and soccer MVP best foreshadowed what was to come.
"I've always thought soccer was a good explanation of who is he as a basketball player," said brother, Martin, 29, a professional soccer player in Canada. "Soccer is not a sport where you can be an individual. The role he played in soccer, playmaker, basically the point guard, is kind of the role he played in every sport, from rugby to lacrosse to hockey."
Steve Nash said people tell him that he "looks like a soccer player playing basketball."
"I'm not sure how it's manifested itself, but it certainly had an impact on me," he said.
The vision theory
Many top professional athletes have excelled because of superior vision. Although stories that he could read the label of a spinning phonograph record weren't true, Ted Williams' 20-10 vision helped him become one of baseball's greatest hitters, not to mention a decorated Navy fighter pilot.
Tiger Woods, who has undergone Lasik eye surgery, credits his vision, which he says is 20-15, with giving him an edge.
During the past decade, vision training has become one of the hottest trends in professional sports. Lawrence Lampert, an optometrist who specializes in sports vision training in Boca Raton, Fla., said excelling in this area can be inherent or learned, but it's always beneficial.
"In basketball, the great gift is to have great peripheral vision," he said. "It's faking a pass to one person and then passing it to someone else, someone else who another person without great vision might not see."
Nash is unsure why he has the gift, he just knows he has it. It's on display when he's penetrating the defense and suddenly kicks out a pass to someone in three-point range that a defender doesn't have time to cover. Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson often are beneficiaries.
Athletes who integrate their peripheral (side) vision with their center vision thrive, Lampert said. It's why Nash sees the court so well and what helps him determine whether to drive the lane or pass.
"Three, four years ago I was in Dallas, and I'm watching him over and over go down the floor with this amazing awareness, presence of mind and excitement," Kerr said. "I go up to him after the game and tell him, 'You're my favorite player in the league to watch.' I mean, it was kind of embarrassing. I was still playing at the time."
The body theory
It's not simply about the decisions Nash makes on the court. It's about when he makes those decisions.
The bounce pass to Amaré Stoudemire, the off-balance dish to Richardson, often come at the last second. Vision and intelligence play a part, but body control makes it happen, and this season Nash is in the best shape of his career.
He credits a program designed by Vancouver physiotherapist Rick Celebrini that is training tied to practical basketball moves. For more than a month last summer, the two met five or six times a week for five hours a day.
"Honestly, I'm kind of embarrassed to be implicated in this," Celebrini said. "I can honestly say that in the 13 years I've been doing this, and that includes all the Olympic athletes I've trained, I've never met a person more committed to his sport than he is."
Nash and Celebrini focused on the core - the muscles associated with the torso - and how they relate to basketball.
"The idea was to give him the physical tools that would let things flow on the court, and allow his mind to be able to react without having the potential inhibitor effects of the body that can't take you there," he said.
The result: Nash demonstrates great body control to make those shots that leave fans shaking their head.
"For me, it's the fadeaway that he shoots when he's down in the lane," Kerr said. "Nothing is open and then all of a sudden he spins and shoots a high arcing fadeaway that's so drastic you can't believe it.
"When you have to improvise like that, body control is difficult for anybody. But he has amazing balance and awareness, even when he looks out of control."
The trust theory
Nash's magic on the court comes from the trust he has in his teammates to be in the right spots and his teammates' trust in him to make the right decisions. It's a synergy with its roots in strong team chemistry.
Nash has seen first-hand how poor chemistry can slow a team. He hoped for something different in Phoenix. It's why he often spoke Spanish and watched televised soccer with Leandro Barbosa early on. It's why a month before training camp began, General Manager Bryan Colangelo spotted Nash in the Suns gym. Richardson showed up a week later and the team had a head start on learning about each other.
"He was always that way," Hyde-Lay said. "There were a number of times in school that a play would go wrong, and he'd be the first to put his hand up and say, 'That's my fault,' even when it wasn't.
"He's very in tune with his team. He knows which guys need a gentle stroke, which guys need a kick in the butt. He's very accomplished at getting everyone to work together."
That helps explain why the Suns, down 16 points in the third quarter Friday night, never self-destructed. Nash set a tone of poise and positive energy, and the rest of the team responded.
"When you get to the level these players are, when you've dominated your whole life, it would be easy for any player to become a ball hog," Martin Nash said. "Steve has never been interested in that. He's always been unselfish, always a team player."
Davey, Nash's coach at Santa Clara, said, "I've always believed that at any level Steve played, he could take a team to new heights."
Who knew those heights included the Western Conference finals?
