30 players who define each NBA franchise
By Adam McGee
#13. player. 66. . PG. Phoenix Suns 1996-98, 2004-12. Steve Nash
Honorable Mentions: Charles Barkley, Kevin Johnson, Amar’e Stoudemire
Steve Nash helped to revolutionize the NBA during his second spell with the Phoenix Suns. Partnered with coach Mike D’Antoni, Nash and the Suns shook up the landscape of the league by tearing up stale offensive strategies with thanks to their high octane “seven seconds or less” offense.
Nash’s exceptional play, which saw him named as MVP on a couple of occasions, helped to put the Suns on the map as a regular contender for the first time since the early 1990s. He allowed them to compete in a fashion that they hadn’t done since the time of Charles Barkley.
Under Nash’s stewardship, Phoenix reached three Conference Finals. Unfortunately they never managed to get over that final hump, and on two of those three occasions the team they lost to went on to raise the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
His first objective is keeping everyone else in the game. – Michael Finley
Nash leads the Suns in all-time assists, which should come as no surprise. If you want a true measure of how great Nash was for the Suns, consider that he averaged over 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from deep and 90 percent from the line during his time with the franchise. That’s a mythical 50-40-90 average for a combined ten seasons. It doesn’t get much better than that.
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