Steve Nash's Final Ride Shows NBA Titles Are Not All That Matter
Rings aren't everything.
Just ask the 40-year-old Steve Nash.
Championships have long been used to measure collective and individual NBA greatness. They represent, by definition, the ultimate form of distinction, and the impact they have on player and team legacies is enormous.
Over time, they have diminished in significance to the extent that they're not deathblows to reputations. Advanced analytics—along with other forms of commendations—have allowed the basketball world at large to view and evaluate players and teams through more expansive scopes.
And yet championship clout is still treasured more than any other accomplishment.
LeBron James won't be given a fully fair shake against Michael Jordan if he doesn't match his championship count. Tim Duncan needed that fifth ring to be routinely recognized as his generation's greatest star. Certain championship purists will still take Bill Russell over Jordan.
Think of the way ringless present-day stars are looked at as well. Neither Kevin Durant nor Chris Paul will be remembered as fondly if their careers end without hardware. Sustained production, scoring titles and MVP awards still only go so far.
Hence the importance of Nash's last hurrah.
Ringless Ending
Dogged by injuries, and with only one year left on his contract, the Los Angeles Lakers point guard is aware that he's swiftly approaching the end.
"I think this is my last season," he said of next year during an interview with Sport TV, per SB Nation. "But I still love to play, practice and work on my game. I'm going to spend hopefully many many years living this life without basketball. It'll be nice to play one more year."
When Nash hangs up his jersey for good next spring after 19 years of service, he'll leave a dime-dropping legend and a former MVP who never parlayed his historical dominance into title attainment.
There is no championship for the Lakers to win next season, no matter how optimistic they seem or how far they think Kobe Bryant can carry them at 36 years old. It's just not in the cards. Declaring Nash's championship window closed, then, is less perfunctory presumption, more invariable fact.
Focus will inevitably shift to Nash's bare fingers once he's gone, the nakedness a reminder that, as good as he was, he isn't a winner. That void—glaring as ever—will be used to allay his notoriety, never discrediting what he's done but relentlessly underscoring what he hasn't.
His absence of a championship has already been identified as points of issue.
Back in 2010, when Nash was pushing his Phoenix Suns toward the Western Conference Finals, ESPN.com's J.A. Adande discussed the various stains people smeared across the point guard's resume as a result of his championship shortcomings:
"There were many who believed that the record was solely a product of former Phoenix Suns coach Mike D'Antoni's "Seven Seconds Or Less" offense. Or that after D'Antoni left and the pace slowed down, Nash had been exposed as nothing more than an average point guard. ...
Then there are those who say Nash's two trophies tainted the award, that he didn't make enough of an impact, didn't play enough defense, didn't deserve twice as many MVP trophies as Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal ever won, or two more than John Stockton, Gary Payton and Jason Kidd ever got a chance to hold.
"
Each accusation, then and now, is as ridiculous as the next.
Will Nash retire an NBA champion?
No.
Does that matter?
Not to the degree some will say it does.
Feats Accomplished
Next season isn't about lamenting Nash's failure to win a title or even reach the NBA Finals. It's not even about mourning his mortality-marred time with the Lakers.
For Nash, the 2014-15 crusade is one last chance to play, one last opportunity to see if his body can withstand the ruthless rigors regular-season basketball offers.
It's an attempt at ending his career on a higher note than he's carried since leaving Phoenix.
Regardless of the outcome, though, nothing and no one can detract from what he's already done.
Nash will retire having handed out the third-most assists in NBA history, behind only Jason Kidd and John Stockton. It's a position he will hold for some time. More than 2,000 assists separate him and the closest active player (Andre Miller).
Often identified as a deferring phenom, Nash has also established himself as one of the NBA's most efficient offensive players.
Ever.
Only two players have shot at least 50 percent from the floor overall, 40 percent from three-point range and 90 percent from the free-throw line more than once: Nash and Larry Bird. Nash is the only player to have done it more than twice (four times).
Incredible still, of the 232 players who have attempted at least 10,000 shots through their careers, Nash ranks fourth in effective field-goal percentage (55.6)—which takes into account the difference between two-pointers and three-pointers—trailing only Charles Barkley, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O'Neal. It's also worth noting he's the only guard to finish in the top seven.
Few players have been more important to team success since Nash entered the league as well. He ranks in the top 10 of win shares since his rookie season. Despite his "lack" of playoff success, he also ranks in the top 20 of postseason win shares since then.
Those are the things Nash should be remembered for as he pushes through 2014-15 and trots off into retirement. Not the Larry O'Brien Trophy he doesn't have but the two Maurice Podoloff Trophies he does.
He should be cherished for the 10,000-plus assists he's dished. The 1,600-plus three-pointers (12th all time) he's drained. The pick-and-roll revolution he helped lead. The six top-12 offenses in NBA history he's quarterbacked.
The games he's actually won.
Invaluable Reminder
Above all else, Nash's forthcoming swan song is further promotion of what most should already know: NBA success is not defined by rings alone.
Wrote NBC Sports' Kurt Helin in August 2013:
"There is no more ridiculous or annoying argument in sports than “count the ringzzzzz.” Yes Kobe Bryant fans, I’m looking at you.
Basketball remains a team sport—Bill Russell was a great player but he has 11 rings because he was on a great team. We’ve mythologized Michael Jordan into a superhuman player (and he was no doubt one of the all-time greats) but forget the first year he ditched the Bulls to play baseball they won 55 games without him. He lifted that team up, but he didn’t win six rings alone. Karl Malone and John Stockton deserve more credit than some give them just because of the ring thing. This list goes on and on and on.
"
Soon to be included on the list Helin references is Nash.
Playing for nothing other than himself, love of the game and, yes, money, he's the latest in what's a never-ending line of all-time greats who couldn't reach their profession's pinnacle. He's not the first, and he most certainly won't be the last.
In lieu of his last chance to win, Nash's final season should be seen as an opportunity for anyone and everyone who will be subject to the same unjust scrutiny.
Let his ending be a comforting symbol for those potentially Hall of Fame-bound superstars who, despite still having time on their side, could follow in Nash's and Barkely's and John Stockton's and Karl Malone's and Elgin Baylor's and Patrick Ewing's footsteps. Let it be a reminder to players such as Stephen Curry, Carmelo Anthony, Durant and Paul who, for now, find themselves under similar duress.
Find meaning in Nash's goodbye, recognizing this final farewell for what it actually is: another invaluable sendoff that cautions against using championships alone to define career worth.
*Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference unless otherwise cited.
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