Steve Nash Was A Jerry Buss Ride-or-Die Gamble

He was never going to be prince of the city but the expectation to raise upon his shoulders the values of his past was part of the Steve Nash fable. On Independence Day 2012, no one expected it would have an extended injury prone life and a long, torturous death. Depressing as it was to watch frame by frame, you kept waiting for it to be the kind of movie where the hero has a moment, a last gloried chance. But even that was part of the great Steve Nash failure, denied a lasting image or an enduring photograph or a perfect goodbye, some sort of portrait to remind us who he used to be when he was something special.

Instead, he conquered next to nothing while he was in Los Angeles, even as he wanted to convince himself the opposite was true. But his tortured body had the last say in how all of this would play out. It was depressive and a double life: getting shorted in a deal where you had to give up a lot of dough and draft picks and three years you can’t grab back while pretending something about it could be saved.

The simple truth was the Steve Nash melodrama was horrendously tragic. It was a dream deferred and a dream dead consequence. It was bitter and filled with the familiar calculus of an old athlete forced to quit his body before he quits his mind. When all is said and done and it is looked upon years from now, the agreement will be unanimous. The Steve Nash-Los Angeles Lakers story was a catastrophe.

Apr 8, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Steve Nash (10) acknowledges the crowd after passing Mark Jackson (not pictured) to move into third on the all-time NBA assist list in the second quarter against the Houston Rockets at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

But it was a gamble too, a risk, a hand poker players love to play, only three Kings so you bluff and hope no one can beat you. It was a Jerry Buss specialty, the big gamble for the big reward. He pulled it off so many times in his basketball career. He drafted James Worthy instead of Player of the Year, Terry Cummings. He traded Norm Nixon for Byron Scott. He traded a first round pick for Cedric Ceballos (the pick would be Michael Finley). He drafted mercurial Nick Van Exel, a first round talent who had slipped because of his attitude. He traded his All-Star center Valde Divac for 17 year old Kobe Bryant. He traded Shaquille O’Neal for Lamar Odom and Brian Grant. He chose Ron Artest over Trevor Ariza. He traded for Dwight Howard.

So Dr. Buss was used to gambling and trusting his instincts and in 2012 something else was true. He was fighting cancer. As he was fighting the disease, he was still engaged in building a team in the post-Phil Jackson era. One of the Lakers hallmarks under Phil Jackson and his triangle system was they never had the need for a true point guard and so they never drafted one and never developed one. With the absence of Phil, the cupboard was bare in the Lakers backcourt. Kobe Bryant and no one else.

Jerry Buss loved Los Angeles and he loved the Lakers and he really, really loved stars, the kind that moved ticket sales, that made people watch. Steve Nash was the biggest free agent star on the market in 2012. He was the one Jerry Buss coveted. What Steve Nash could do with the ball reminded Dr. Buss of what Magic Johnson could do with the ball. Both were artists on the court, Picassos with the dribble. Both were scientists, blessed with three dimensional vision. From a gamblers perspective, Steve Nash could return the Lakers to its up tempo roots. Before he died, Dr. Buss could witness Showtime in his last, sick year.

A genius at almost everything, Jerry Buss could see where the league was heading, that it was eschewing its past of very, very tall men for a fun loving haven of young, quick, perimeter guards who were hard to defend and who, accidentally, gave the game the same excitable flair it had in the 1980’s. This was the backdrop, the intention, what Steve Nash was supposed to do for the Lakers, and Dr. Buss, who was fighting his cancer as hard as he could, was infected by its promise even if nothing was promised. Although that was not how it felt. It felt like everything was promised.

But some promises fail to deliver. If Steve Nash and what happened to him these past three years weren’t enough to create apathy and despair, then the draft picks the Lakers gave up to acquire him symbolized the extraordinary cost. It was such a big gamble with such a high price tag that only Steve Nash at his greatest self, his youngest self, his championship level best, would have balanced the lopsided nature of the deal. Although Robert Sarver, owner of the Phoenix Suns, loathes the Lakers, he could not pass up on a deal in which he acquired two first round draft picks and two second round draft picks and $3 million dollars in cash for a player that at the end of the deal would be 41 years old.

Oct 7, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) drives the ball defended by Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul (back) during the first quarter at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports

Youth, they say, is wasted on the young and that is true in almost all walks of life, in love and marriage and in parenting, in science and business and politics. But in basketball, heroism comes from the under thirty crowd. Chris Paul, 29. Steph Curry, 26. Damian Lillard, 24, Kyrie Irving, 22. John Wall, 24. The body begins to wear and tear like paper after the age of 32. Three years later, at 35, the war begins and rebellions have to be staved off if you have enough will and stamina. At 38, it’s one of those close your eyes and squint gambles because anything can happen and a lot of it is bad.

It is simple now that it is the end. But it is also a reminder of how quickly events can change you. Dr. Buss has been gone for one and a half years. Steve Nash’s career has been gone almost twice that long. The difference was that Dr. Buss had a brilliant and extraordinary beginning and middle and the end came too quickly. While Steve Nash had a brilliant and extraordinary beginning and middle. But that end…it dragged on forever.