Read How Colangelo & Raptors Attempt at "Wooing" Nash

[Miekenstien]

I just had a thought about this. For Nash to be moved to tears whilst watching highlights of his career, along with the voiceover by The Great One probably ultimately drove him towards the Lakers. Watching those highlights and realizing there was one important thing missing from his career (a championship), and then hearing the voice of a champion.

BC may have inadvertently drove him away from the Toronto Raptors (but in the nicest possible way).

ha or maybe when canada jesus was talking to him he felt he needed to expand the sports popularity in california.

[ebrian]

I just had a thought about this. For Nash to be moved to tears whilst watching highlights of his career, along with the voiceover by The Great One probably ultimately drove him towards the Lakers. Watching those highlights and realizing there was one important thing missing from his career (a championship), and then hearing the voice of a champion.

BC may have inadvertently drove him away from the Toronto Raptors (but in the nicest possible way).

[Paradigm Shift]

4th in 76

I remember sitting in line for over 7 hours in the summer of '76 attempting to buy tickets for a double header with the top four ranked teams: USSR, USA, Yugoslavia and Canada. We never did get the tickets but had a great time sitting in line chatting with everyone, many but not all from the US.

How's that for going off topic?

[Puffer]

...Nash,may have some money now, but who's to say how it turns out 10 years from now.

When he can probably only command a salary of $3 million a year. :-)

[Raptorsss]

Remember, Nash is planning for a film production career, post NBA, so money does matter. Also, look at curt schilling reportedly he spent his whole fortune on his video game company, only for it to go under. Nash,may have some money now, but who's to say how it turns out 10 years from now.

[mcHAPPY]

Rumours abound as well that Steve was having an affair too. Who can say what really happened, and what difference does it make. The oiriginal point was Steve spends his summers in NY. If family is as important has he says, then obviously his kids visit him there. Or the whole family thing is BS, and it's spin doctoring to not make him look bad and diminish his "brand".

This thread seems to have deviated from it's original intent.

BC took his best shot, let's move on.

I very much agree with your last sentence.

Regarding the summer and NY thing, if rumour of wife and Steve split time in the summer it is possible she has a NY place as well or they go 2-3 weeks a stretch each. Coming from a broken family, I spent a lot of time in the summer with my father who lived a 3 hour plane ride from my mother.

One last thing to remember: we are not talking about average people with average means. Nash sending his kids back to PHX first class once or twice a week is not a big expenditure for him. 45 minutes to an hour flight is the equivalent time many travel - one way - just to go to work.

Oh yeah, and I still very much agree with your last sentence!

[CalgaryRapsFan]

Rumours abound as well that Steve was having an affair too. Who can say what really happened, and what difference does it make. The oiriginal point was Steve spends his summers in NY. If family is as important has he says, then obviously his kids visit him there. Or the whole family thing is BS, and it's spin doctoring to not make him look bad and diminish his "brand".

This thread seems to have deviated from it's original intent.

BC took his best shot, let's move on.

Agreed. The Raps went all out to sign him and he chose to sign elsewhere. It's no longer a Raptors story. Who cares about the why behind the decision?

[Katman]

Rumours abound as well that Steve was having an affair too. Who can say what really happened, and what difference does it make. The oiriginal point was Steve spends his summers in NY. If family is as important has he says, then obviously his kids visit him there. Or the whole family thing is BS, and it's spin doctoring to not make him look bad and diminish his "brand".

This thread seems to have deviated from it's original intent.

BC took his best shot, let's move on.

[OTFP]

You are aware that the toddler is not Steve's baby, right? Rumour is it's Jason Richardson's, and the reason for the divorce.

1
Hmmm this baby doesn't look mixed:
http://www.terezowens.com/steve-nash...fe-and-matteo/
Looks like Nash to me.

2
Hmmmm he has twin daughters who are 7 or 8 by now.

3
Hmmmm Steve was smooching some 22 year old for several months while wifey was pregnant.

[Katman]

If being near his kids is so important, why does he spend his summers in NY? Does he have custody during the summer?

Edit: I highly doubt he has summer-long custody of the toddler.

You are aware that the toddler is not Steve's baby, right? Rumour is it's Jason Richardson's, and the reason for the divorce.

[Puffer]

6th in 88
4th in 84
4th in 76

Yeah it had been a while, but after a 4-1 pool record (great), blowing the quarterfinal game vs France and failing to get to the game that would have just given them a shot at a bronze isn't my definition of a "fairy-tale run". It's an implosion.

I guess the key stats would be what was their rank in '92 and '96? and how did their finish in 2000 compare to those? did they out perform expectations in 2000? I think they did.

[OTFP]

Well, I heard it. And Canada's fairy tale run for the Olympics had them playing a game that would have put them in the bronze medal contest if they had won. Considering the last time the Canadian National Basketball team had a shot at a medal, I would say that is pretty good. I think they were ranked 12th or 13th in the world at the time.

6th in 88
4th in 84
4th in 76

Yeah it had been a while, but after a 4-1 pool record (great), blowing the quarterfinal game vs France and failing to get to the game that would have just given them a shot at a bronze isn't my definition of a "fairy-tale run". It's an implosion.

[Pill]

So NY, LA, PHX are all better for the kids than TOR. The 11 million he left on the table could have bought those kids and mom one hell of a nice place to stay in Toronto/NY. Plus the distance between NY/Toronto might as well be PHX/LA.

He went to chase a ring and get paid. He used us for leverage. The tears he choked back were probably tears of joy cause instead of the 6 million he was going to get staying in PHX he was going to get paid 2+ Million more and have a shot at a title. This is little more than a PR piece to fight the negative feelings he is getting out of Canada right now. People were calling for his Job with the National team after he signed with the Lakers. No reason to put all these story lines behind it.

[charlz]

i just dont understand the whole Gretzky angle.. why pick a canadian who doesnt even live here, why pick 99 who turned the leafs down to play in NY.. & who soo famously played in L.A, it just seems like a dumb attempt to woo nash... they'd have been better off using Don Cherry to pitch playing in Canada then #99...

thats a good point. As a Canadian who goes to the states ALOT i can tell you if you make it big in the US Canada sort of seems like some chunk of land that shows way too much curling and is frozen for too many months out of the year.

Somewhere along the way of Steve's Fame and Fortune the "Canadian Angle" likely stopped mattering. He is a rock star in the US.

I am sad as a Canadian that it happened but I do not hate. It could have happened to many of us on this board who are questioning his patriotic allegiance.

[white men can't jump]

I don't think the kids thing had anything to do with it. Just like he clearly never said something that really meant he wouldn't want to play for a rival like LA. He took a bit less money (he's already filthy rich), to play for a better team for a chance to win a title.

I think Toronto really never had as much of a shot as even this story implies. I think if LA or another contender hadn't made a good pitch, we would have been his fallback, and that's why he didn't agree to something with Toronto after the first or second day of talks. Coming to Toronto would've been like a transition contract into retirement, acknowledging he's not going to get a chance to play for a legit contender again.