Two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash revealed that Stephen Curry helped him decide to retire from the game after the 2013-14 season. Nash spent the last two seasons of his career with the Los Angeles Lakers, forming one of the worst super teams in history with Kobe Bryan, Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard.
Once that experiment was over, Nash and Co. had fresh expectations, but age caught up with him. During Tuesday’s episode of Nash and LeBron James’ “Mind the Game” show, the Phoenix Suns icon told Curry, this week’s guest, how playing against him made him confirm it was time to walk into the sunset.
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“You might know this, but you deserve a little bit of putting me out to pasture, a little bit of my retirement story,” Nash said. “It’s not something I like to talk about in public a lot. When he came in the league, I still felt like the big brother, you know, I still did. And then he started becoming who he is, and the pendulum shifted.”
Nash wanted to test his body against a way younger Curry, but the challenge was harder than expected.
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“And so we went to play these guys’ preseason in Ontario, California, or somewhere. We came out, I’m guarding Steph. I think they put up like 50 in the first quarter. Maybe it was 45, but it felt like a 50-piece. He’s running everywhere, my back is broke, everything’s jacked. I couldn’t have stopped him if I was 100%, and I’m dragging around.”
“Three or four more days of thinking about it, I’m like, ‘Yeah, I think it’s time.'”
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Nash didn’t appear in a single regular-season game of the 2014-15 season. He played just 15 the last campaign while his health deteriorated. He retired as an eight-time All-Star, seven-time All-NBA and five-time assists champion in a career that lasted 18 years.
On the other end, Curry went on to win four NBA championships with the Golden State Warriors, while taking two MVP awards (he was the first-ever unanimous MVP in league history in 2016), becoming an 11-time All-Star, two-time scoring champion, 11-time All-NBA and winning the 2022 NBA Finals MVP, too.
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