Steve Nash is Corny

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Few players I’ve ever seen make “corny” work like Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns. A buddy of mine played against him in college when Steve was at the University of Santa Clara. I believe the words he used to describe Nash were, “Relentless, competitive and accurate. He just wouldn’t stop.”

Adding more to his game and his team is how this unassuming, soccer loving Canadian point guard became arguably the best guard in the NBA the last five years. Nash knows he’s not the most naturally gifted athlete but he’s skilled through repetition – the kind of routine practice that usually separates even the elite players.

Nash makes it clear to the young premier point guards at his camp that one day you’ll square off against someone as good or better than you. It’s at that point that you better be able to trust your previous commitment to improvement. When a game comes down to who makes the least amount of mistakes, so many athletes are exposed by a failure to rehearse game movement in game locations at game speed. In other words, the level of practice is far less rigorous than that of the test – the game.

I like Steve Nash despite his uniform (I hate the Suns). I have great respect because he competes against the man in the mirror everyday. He knows full well that he plays a sport dominated by one ethnic group. He’s not in that group. He doesn’t care. And while a two-time Most Valuable Player Award recipient, the truth is that white basketball players often have to work twice as hard to earn credentials in the upper echelon of hoop. He’s proof that “Skills pay them bills, son.” Honing a craft is a lost art and we do well to recapture the gumption needed to press toward perfection through the most consistent and competitive rehearsals we can configure. At all times we’re either in need of refinement or in need of helping another refine. I vote to reinstate the Steve Nash boot camp mentality effective immediately.