It's like his hometown without the cherry blossoms. Somehow it just doesn't feel like spring in Phoenix without Steve Nash of Victoria in the NBA playoffs.
Since the Arbutus Junior High and St. Michaels University School grad went from Dallas to Phoenix in 2004-05, hoop heads across ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ have been transfixed by the annual ritual of an exciting, breakneck-paced Phoenix Suns team falling achingly short in the post-season.
Now, there's not even that, as Nash sits out the playoffs for the first time in nine seasons. The Suns championship window, as it existed in Nash's first four seasons of his six-year contract, has closed emphatically.
As importantly, he faces an uncertain off-season following what he described as a difficult and disappointing season. With his future hanging in the balance, the former Team ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Olympian enters the final season of his deal with the Suns that has him set to receive $13 million US in 2009-10.
Some in the Toronto media this week have already assigned the 35-year-old Victorian a spot on the Raptors to close out his career. The fairytale storyline goes: What Wayne Gretzky wanted to do in hockey but couldn't in closing out with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Nash might be able to do with the Raptors in basketball.
But it might be just that - another Toronto tale of fairy dust. Nash is very tight with Raptors coach and former Team ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ coach Jay Triano. The two have been through the 2000 Sydney Summer Games and several other Olympic qualifying wars together. But how would Nash feel about playing behind Jose Calderon, Toronto's anointed point-guard of the present and future?
Also, Suns GM Steve Kerr is giving indications he wants Captain ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ to finish out his career in the U.S desert.
That's the way it will probably work out.
"I don't want to voice anything. I would love to know what their [Suns] vision is for the future," Nash told reporters, in addressing a media scrum in the bowels of US Airways Center for the last time this season.
"It's great that they feel I'm an important piece of the future. We'll see."
But then again, nobody thought Dallas would let Nash walk five years ago.
"I know anything is possible after what I've been through in my career . . . I've seen a lot," said Nash.
"The odds are I'll be back [with the Suns]. It's what I'm hoping for. But who knows? Those are the best odds, though."
Continuing in his exit interview with the Phoenix media, Nash talked about needing "clarity" for his career regarding the future "for my family to be comfortable."
"This summer would be a good time to make [a contract] extension," he said.
Asked about his age, the 2004-05 and 2005-06 NBA MVP said he knows his body and knows he can still go. He proved that over the 2008-09 season by averaging 16 points and 10 assists per game. The guy from Gordon Head has still got game.
"The age looks enormous but it's not that big a deal. I know how to get myself there [physically]. We'll see how it goes. I would definitely like to play for a few more years at minimum."
