Key Takeaways
- Sports broadcaster Emily Austin told Steve Nash she ran the parody account “Steve Nash’s Burner” while interning with the Brooklyn Nets, prompting the former coach to laugh.
- Austin used the account to joke about the Kevin Durant- and Kyrie Irving-era Nets until Twitter, now known as X, suspended it.
- Austin now covers boxing for DAZN and hosts The Hoop Chat, while Nash works as an NBA on Prime analyst.
Steve Nash’s burner social media account was the work of an insider.
According to Men’s Journal, rising sports broadcaster Emily Austin told the former Brooklyn Nets coach on Tuesday, October 13, that she was behind “Steve Nash’s Burner,” the parody page she operated while interning with his team.
The confession came at NBA on Prime’s The Art of Basketball event in New York City. Austin said Nash had never figured out who was posting—and he laughed when she finally told him.
Austin ran the account while studying journalism at Hofstra University, posting jokes and commentary about the Nets as Nash coached a roster featuring Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. While some Brooklyn fans eventually identified the person behind the page, their head coach remained in the dark.
The account’s run ended with a suspension from the platform now known as X, but Austin held onto the story until their encounter at Storied NYC in Chelsea.
Austin interviewed athletes on Instagram Live during the pandemic, building an audience that helped her land her first television hosting job at 18. She joined DAZN’s boxing coverage in April 2024. In addition to her work for DAZN, she hosts the NBA podcast The Hoop Chat.
But for his part, Nash had been making appearances in pop culture long before Austin gave him a fake account. His back-to-back MVP awards with the Phoenix Suns in 2005 and 2006 earned him a name-check in Nelly Furtado and Timbaland’s super-smash hit “Promiscuous”: “Is it the truth, or are you talkin’ trash/is your game MVP like Steve Nash?”
The pop hit came complete with dating rumors that Furtado later dismissed. “Then everybody thought we were dating, which was not the case!” she told The FADER in 2016.
By the time Austin started posting under Steve Nash’s Burner Account, Nash had traded running Phoenix’s offense for managing Brooklyn’s bench. The Nets hired him in September 2020 for his first head-coaching job, and he left in November 2022 with a 94–67 regular-season record.
Nash is now an NBA on Prime analyst.
