by Paul Coro - Jul. 7, 2012 07:44 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Steve Nash has been booed, bloodied, body-checked and bid adieu as a Phoenix Sun.
Just about all of the other 5 million minutes on Planet Orange were bliss.
Nash and the Suns have been as symbiotic as bees and flowers for the past eight years. Nash breathed new life into a withering franchise in 2004, and the Suns blossomed with him in a mutually beneficial way.
Charles Barkley gregariously took the Suns to a popularity peak in 1993. Paul Westphal played and coached them to the NBA Finals. Walter Davis scored more than any Suns player. Dick Van Arsdale is the Original Sun. Kevin Johnson, Dan Majerle and Tom Chambers teamed to transform them.
But none of them gave Suns fans and the NBA what Nash did in rebranding himself and the game with a style and level so engaging that he became a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player and made the Suns a second favorite team for the nation.
"He has to be maybe considered the greatest Sun of all time," said Rex Chapman, a Valley resident who was one of Nash's first Suns teammates in 1996 and later a Suns executive who lured Nash back to Phoenix in 2004. "Phoenix loves the guy. It's hard to be in one city and play for one team for a decade. He's always said and did the right thing. I don't know if anyone could have represented them on and off the floor better."
Everything about Nash was revered, from implausible no-look or one-hand passes to every signature shot delivered off either hand or foot.
You knew when he cut his hair. You became numb to finger licks between dribbles. You might have cried with him after Western Conference finals exits.
For two stints and 10 years, Nash was the determined, smiling face of the Suns and never let the franchise fall on its face, despite deteriorating talent. Once a run of three conference finals trips in six years turned into back-to-back non-playoff seasons, the Suns took Nash's contract expiration as a time to sever ties. It prompted last week's parting -- a once-unfathomable sign-and-trade deal to the Los Angeles Lakers that Nash requested to remain close to his three children in the Valley and for title contention.
"It was the most successful time of my career personally and as a team," Nash, 38, said. "My kids were born there. It's still going to be home for part of the year. Those are the defining years of my career."
The prodigal Sun now will practice on Nash Street in El Segundo, Calif., but without his hallmark No.13, retired by the Lakers for Wilt Chamberlain. He joins forces with long-time enemy Kobe Bryant, a 1996 draft classmate who the Suns gave up on chasing in 2004 free agency before turning to Nash.
"He meant everything," Nash's former Suns coach, Mike D'Antoni, said. "He was the face of the Suns for eight years. The years he had were phenomenal for the NBA. He's been a great ambassador to the sport.
"Things go on. But those eight years, it doesn't get any better than that, even off the floor in what he did for the community."
Fans booed when the Suns drafted Nash in 1996 with the 15th pick, just two after Bryant. He played off the bench for two years before being traded to Dallas, but his impression had been made.
"During training camp his rookie year, we're practicing and Steve is picking up K.J. and bothering him full-court because he was up under his feet," Chapman said. "K.J. finally tripped and stumbled. He picked the ball up and threw it at Steve. Steve caught the ball and threw it right back at K.J. and got up in his face. K.J. backed away. After that, I promise K.J. didn't practice anymore, and it showed me there was something more to Steve than met the eye."
After more initial boos in Dallas, Nash found fitness and flair. He was chosen to two All-Star Games in six Dallas seasons, but Mavericks owner Mark Cuban flinched on matching Phoenix's six-year, $65.6million offer in 2004, fearing his relentless style would break him down in his 30s.
"If you can be yourself, you're on the way," Nash said when introduced in Phoenix.
The Suns went from 29 wins to 62 wins in Nash's first season back for the third-best turnaround in NBA history and averaged 55 wins over six seasons. Nash went from 2004 All-Star snub in Dallas to 2005 and 2006 league MVP in Phoenix.
"It's a good thing I played soccer and not basketball or you never would've won that," his brother, Martin, told him, exemplifying how his family gave him dry wit and humility.
Nash and D'Antoni paired up with a wide-open, quick-striking, free-shooting style that made for beautiful basketball. It was throwback and innovation that was mimicked even last season in San Antonio, once the antithesis of Phoenix's ways.
Nash defied age, a chronic back condition and a lesser supporting cast to lead the NBA in assists in 2011 and become an All-Star this year at age 38. The sunset of his Phoenix career told of his greatness in a different way than the first six years of iconic moments, like posting a 48-point game and a monster triple-double in consecutive 2005 playoff games against Dallas or eliminating San Antonio in 2010 by making a 3-pointer with a swollen-shut eye.
"Regardless of whether I could've asked for a trade and been in the playoffs, it was a pleasure to be a Sun and to try to battle to get them in the playoffs," Nash said. "It was still my team and I was happy to be there. I loved my coaches and teammates."
Nash's grand years were marred by his role as a NBA pinata, with bleeder moments and the devastating Robert Horry playoff hip-check that sent him into the scorer's table and Amar'e Stoudemire and Boris Diaw to costly suspensions in 2007.
"I believe with every fiber of my being that they win a title without the Horry hip-check," Chapman said.
Phoenix shared pride with his home country, where Nash received the Order of Canada. His ultimate honor came when he helped light the 2010 Olympic cauldron in Vancouver. A day later, he won the NBA All-Star Skills Competition.
"But it makes it OK when you win a resume builder like this," an exhausted Nash said with endearing humor that came out more when he entered filmmaking for documentaries, commercials and goofy team videos.
Suns fans had been prepping, even asking, for Nash's departure for two years. Some wanted Nash to have a title chance elsewhere. Some wanted the Suns to rebuild. But in his final home game in April, Suns fans did not want to let him go, chanting, "We want Nash," in a mixed message for a curtain call and a new contract.
"It's too bad, but it's got to end sometime," D'Antoni said. "Phoenix will survive. They'll go on. You should celebrate what he did. It was great for the city, the state and for basketball."
Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby had been calling Nash "the sun, the moon and the stars" to Phoenix.
The sun set. The moon eclipsed. The stars flickered out.
"They were great years, mostly because of the people -- all the great teammates and training staff," Nash said. "I always think of (equipment manager) Jay (Gaspar) as part of the training staff even though he's never taped an ankle. He rebounded for me before every game. It's going to be weird not having that every game on the practice court. (Athletic trainers) Aaron Nelson, Tom Maystadt, Erik Phillips and Mike Elliott all had a huge impact on me. Alvin (Gentry) and Mike D'Antoni had a great impact on my life and mean the world to me. I'll always take away the positives more than the negatives. I'm not bitter at all. In the end, I understand what they're trying to do. I applaud them more than fault them."
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