Steve Nash is ready to get back into the NBA — as a broadcaster

Article content

LOS ANGELES — With ample time to process the abrupt end of his Brooklyn Nets coaching tenure, Steve Nash has made peace with the unfulfilled championship expectations and messy trade request sagas that led to his firing just seven games into the 2022-23 NBA season.

The two-time league MVP, who coached Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden to the doorstep of the 2021 Eastern Conference finals, saw his superstar-laden team begin to unravel the following season. Nash’s Nets will be remembered for their near miss – Durant’s toe was on the three-point line when he made a shot that could have eliminated the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks – as well as persistent injuries to his key players and Irving’s many off-court controversies. As Harden, Irving and Durant pushed their way out of Brooklyn one by one, Nash decompressed from the whirlwind by returning to a quieter life as a father.

“I learned about my communication skills and leadership [in Brooklyn],” Nash said. “Our greatest strengths are often our greatest weaknesses. It was disappointing. We had a three-star salary cap structure, and our three guys played 16 games [together] in over two years. That makes it really hard to analyze purely, but it was just a sensational experience for me. Coaching has never been more difficult, time-consuming and complicated. I really enjoyed the coaching, but it wasn’t something I had really planned on doing. I was asked to come and help. I’m glad I did, but I’m really excited now to have a little more normalcy.”

The 51-year-old Canadian, who retired in 2014 after an 18-year Hall of Fame playing career and opted against pursuing other coaching jobs after the Nets fired him, is now ready for a third act: a career in media. Next season, he will provide in-game and studio analysis for Amazon’s Prime Video as the streaming service steps in as an official NBA broadcast partner. Nash will work alongside his former Dallas Mavericks teammate Dirk Nowitzki, former Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade and WNBA legend Candace Parker. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Former players dominate the NBA’s media landscape, from the tough love and wisecracks provided by “Inside the NBA’s” Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal, to the hot takes from ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins and podcasters such as Gilbert Arenas and Patrick Beverley. As a former point guard who led the NBA in assists five times and was named to its 75th anniversary team, Nash sees himself spreading the gospel about a league he said he believes has never been deeper in talent.

“A huge part of me wanting to take part in this is to share with other people who are thoughtful about the game,” said Nash, who also co-hosts the “Mind the Game” podcast with Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James. “There’s a lot of chatter around the state of the NBA. These playoffs have debunked a lot of that by having incredible ratings so far. My north star will always be authenticity. I come hat in hand, trying to develop my skills at articulating what I see and making the game more illuminated and exciting for fans. That’s the goal: To find my voice, be authentic and share my passion for the game, and how much I think of the current game and its players.”

Following lengthy negotiations, the NBA reached an 11-year agreement with Amazon last year to broadcast 66 regular season games per season, the play-in tournament, multiple rounds of the NBA Cup and multiple rounds of the playoffs beginning in the 2025-26 season. The league also reached separate agreements with ESPN and NBC, parting ways with TNT after more than 30 years.

As part of its “NBA on Prime” presentation, Prime Video will air a new studio show from Los Angeles. Prime Video executive Jared Stacy said in a statement that the service targeted analysts, including Nash, with “elite basketball résumés, a love for the game that is infectious and a passion for teaching and growing the game.”

Nash views himself as an evangelist – he sings the praises of Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, his “favorite player,” and the Boston Celtics, his championship pick – and said he hopes to introduce viewers to the finer points of NBA life on the court and behind the scenes. As a player, he led the “Seven Seconds or Less” Phoenix Suns, whose fast-and-loose style helped set the stage for the modern game. As a coach, Nash said he learned more about the inner workings of an organization, including how front offices put together a roster, how performance teams manage players’ bodies and how coaching staffs use analytics and video analysis to prepare for opponents.

Like any basketball obsessive, though, Nash sees room for improvement with the product. The NBA’s review system for flagrant fouls is the biggest pet peeve of a gutsy floor general who famously played through ailments such as a swollen eye and a twisted nose.

“Sometimes we overdo it with the physical play and reviews,” Nash said. “I don’t want to say it’s a little soft, but we overreact to plays and that can end up escalating things [rather than] creating boundaries. [The reviews] almost cause more drama rather than just taking the ball out and keep playing. Sometimes in the playoffs, guys are playing with emotion. We want physicality, we want combativeness, and I want to see guys play a little more rather than going over to the monitor and checking for flagrant fouls, unsportsmanlike fouls and all that stuff every chance we can. [Physical play] comes with the territory. It’s part of the trade. Let’s not overreact.”

Nash and Nowitzki, who played together in Dallas from 1998 to 2004, have remained close in retirement. While nothing can replicate the rapport of TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” which will continue to appear on ESPN and ABC next season, Nash’s wry humor and Nowitzki’s lightheartedness should make them a natural pairing in the studio. In Nash’s view, chemistry will be at the heart of their success, just as it was a determining factor for his Nets, who never quite came together, and James’s Lakers, who traded for Luka Doncic in February and suffered a first-round exit against the Minnesota Timberwolves last week.

“The playoffs are often won with resilience and having common experiences,” Nash said. “When you go in a dark hole and are down 2-1 in Minnesota and things aren’t going well, it’s really important that you can look at your teammate and you’ve been there before together so no words need to be said. Having common experiences isn’t something you can cheat.”