We couldn’t fit Nash’s entire interview into the magazine. Read up on everything else the man had to say including a potential future playing pro soccer

By Justin Monroe

It would be pretty difficult for the NBA to cut down on plan travel, but what about those obnoxious light shows at arenas? They don’t have anything to do with basketball.

Steve Nash: That’s a tough call because, although we want to move in the right direction, it won’t do anyone any good to lessen the value of an NBA game, therefore lessening the fan base. All the perks that make that package attractive to fans, I think, in some ways [are] unavoidable.

When you watch sports live, do you enjoy that stuff?

Steve Nash:Me personally, as a player and as a fan, I don’t need that stuff. I’m into the game, but obviously there’s a big market for it. There are people out there who may not be so into basketball and come for the entertainment value [including] what’s happening when the game’s not [being played].

Nike’s “Reuse-A-Shoe” program, which turns old sneakers into materials that can be used to build playgrounds, is awesome. As a Nike athlete, do you recycle your shoes, or is it more productive to give them away to make money for charities?

Steve Nash: Typically my shoes go to charitable causes or fans. Hopefully fans aren’t going to throw them in the garbage. With endorsement deals hanging in the balance, many professional athletes shy away from taking stances on issues. Why are you willing to voice your opinion? I don’t know. I certainly don’t feel obliged to give my opinion or preach about anything, but on occasion there’s things that I believe in, and I’m not afraid to stand up for them.

Does being an international player have anything to do with it?.

Steve Nash: I have no idea what the correlation is. I think it’s probably just a combination of a person’s family and upbringing and their personality.

Does anyone ever ride you about speaking out?

Steve Nash: Not really. Back when I stood up against the war [in Iraq], people gave me a hard time a little bit, but what I remember more was the support and some of my teammates asking me why I did that and what I thought, starting a dialogue. That was the point of everything. What was your response to people who said you should just shut up and play? Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. It didn’t affect me. The people who said that didn’t really get my message; they just assumed that I was anti-war, anti-American, anti-Bush. My point was, let’s get more informed and start a dialogue and not just rely on the mainstream media for our facts. To do that I felt like I had to stand up for what I thought, let everyone know I was anti-war and that we hadn’t exhausted all possibilities before going to war. You grew up playing soccer and could have gone pro. Former Red Bulls coach Bruce Arenas said you could play in the MLS now.

Any desire to play a few years of pro soccer after you retire from the NBA?

Steve Nash: It’s a huge passion of mine, so I’d love to, but I think it’s a bit presumptuous to think that I’d have the legs to play professional soccer after my basketball career. But I’m definitely going to keep playing the sport the rest of my life because I grew up playing it and I love to play.

Who is the best soccer player in the NBA?

Steve Nash: Other than myself?

Laughs.

Steve Nash: I don’t know, I’d imagine it’d probably be a foreign player…

Don’t you and [Brazilian teammate] Leandro [Barbosa] play?

Steve Nash: Yeah, we play. Maybe Leandro.

How did the physicality of soccer and the wiliness it requires prepare you for the NBA?

Steve Nash: Soccer gave me a totally different perspective on the game of basketball. It made a lot of sense to me, the correlation between the two [sports], finding creative ways to get the ball from one place to another, bending it around or over people, flipping it through gaps. I felt like I was cheating when I went on to play basketball and could use my hands.

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