Phoenix Suns: Steve Nash Earns His Rightful Place In Ring Of Honor

Nash The Teammate

Though some will try to diminish Nash’s accomplishments because of his lack of a title, in the end, M-V-Steve’s basketball legacy is not unlike his nose: battered and broken in the pursuit of a championship that never came, but ultimately, belonging to one of the game’s all-time winners.

Based on the numbers he compiled and how he helped make those Suns teams historically great, Nash’s place in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is unquestionable — something Colangelo, the Hall of Fame’s chairman, reassured Nash of during his speech. But for a team-oriented leader, that lack of a title is something that will always haunt Nash on some level.

"“Losing burns, but you roll the dice and you play for everything and you lose and it burns forever, but that’s what makes the game great,” he said in his pregame presser. “Not everyone can win. We weren’t able to win and that’s life, but that’s what makes it beautiful. If everyone got the chance to win, what would winning mean? “I don’t really think of it in those terms, but I do take some pride in the fact that people wanted to emulate the way that we played. I think there’s nothing more gratifying for me than the respect and acceptance of your peers, the players, coaches and fans that have wanted to see that style of basketball or to emulate the way that we played. That’s the sincerest form of flattery and that means a lot.”"

When it was time to address the crowd, however, the two-time MVP didn’t talk about how he was one of the greatest players to never win a championship. He didn’t remind them that his Seven Seconds Or Less teams revolutionized professional basketball. He didn’t mention how he played through broken noses, swollen eyes and countless other adversities in heroic playoff battles that enshrined him among the team’s all-time greats.

Instead, Nash continued to be the teammate he’d always been throughout his playing career, putting everyone ahead of himself. He thanked his parents, acknowledging what his father taught him about being a good teammate and being a good person, as well as how his mother taught him to be tough and how he “could never puss out on anything” because of her.

He thanked his head coaches, Alvin Gentry and Mike D’Antoni. He acknowledged owner Robert Sarver, Jerry Colangelo, Bryan Colangelo, Steve Kerr and the rest of the front office executives who either took a chance on him in the 1996 NBA Draft or played a part in his long and fruitful career in Phoenix.

He gave credit to the people behind the scenes, like the public relations staff and the trainers who helped extend his prime well into his late 30s. But rather than vaguely referring to them as a collection of people, Steve rattled off individual names that 99 percent of the fans in attendance had never even heard before.

For those familiar with the kind of person Nash is, his ongoing tribute to everyone but himself wasn’t surprising by any means.

Next: Nash's Lasting Legacy