Nash has thought about being traded, but had no intentions of asking out
Mar 29, 2012, 9:39 PM | Updated: 10:44 pm
Steve Nash never had any intentions of asking to be
traded, though that does not mean he hasn’t thought about
the possibility.
A free agent at the end of this season, Nash may
ultimately choose to leave Phoenix, his NBA home for the
last eight years. But that’s for the future, if it happens
at all.
A guest on The B.S. Report on ESPN.com, Nash told host Bill Simmons that while he’s
thought about what it would be like to not be a Sun
anymore, he never planned on asking to be dealt.
“For the last year I’ve thought about it a little bit,”
Nash said of whether it would be best for both the team
and player to move on from each other. “Regardless of
whether it’s better for them or for me, and all the
different combinations…of course I’d love to be on a team
right now that has a chance to be in the Finals, but at
the same time it’s not like that; you can’t just go to the
front office and say ‘put me on a team that’s playing in
the Finals.’
“You open up a whole can of worms and say ‘yeah, ok, I
want to get traded to a contender,’ and now it’s gone
beyond – now everyone knows you’ve asked, and where do you
go?”
When put that way, it’s little wonder why Nash decided to
stay put, at least for the remainder of this season.
“I didn’t feel like I wanted to take a step like that, not
only because of the unknown, but also because of what I
would say or do to my teammates and the fans,” Nash said.
“We’ve had a lot of great times in Phoenix and I didn’t
want to overlook all that for them to put it in the mixer
and see what comes out on the other side, which could have
been anything.”
So instead of seeing what it could be, Nash decided to
stick with what he knows, which is that he’s on a 25-26
Suns team that is fighting just to make the playoffs.