A former Los Angeles Lakers point guard has revealed that Golden State Warriors MVP point guard more or less prompted him to retire.
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Steve Nash, like Curry a two-time MVP during his halcyon days with the Phoenix Suns, told Curry to his face on an episode of his and LeBron James’ podcast “Mind The Game” that a preseason Lakers tilt against Golden State proved to be a revelatory turning point in his playing career.
“You deserve a little bit of [blame for] putting me out to pasture,” Nash said. “We went to play these guys preseason [in] like, 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. I’m like, back is broke… I couldn’t have stopped him if I was 100 percent… Stevie Kerr’s putting me in every pick-and-roll action.”
That Oct. 12, 2014 clash at Ontario’s Toyota Arena was a big moment for Nash. Golden State tripled Los Angeles’ output in the opening frame, 39-13, en route to a 116-75 blowout. Curry scored 25 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field (4-of-7 from deep) and 5-of-5 shooting from the foul line, grabbed six rebounds and six assists in just 23:30. Nash scored three points on 0-of-5 shooting from the floor and 3-of-3 shooting from the charity stripe in 12 minutes.
“Man literally like, three or four more days of thinking on it, I was like, ‘Yeah. I think it’s time.’ And that was it. I called Mitch [Kupchak, then-Lakers team president].”
Nash was ruled out for the year due to a back injury ahead of the season, officially retiring in March 2015. That September, he had linked up with Golden State as a team consultant.
“Next thing I know, he showed up at practice, was teaching us pick-and-roll as a consultant,” Curry chuckled.
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Nash had been gearing up for a season with the 2014-15 Los Angeles Lakers, an ill-fitting team that ultimately featured past-their-prime vintages of Kobe Bryant and Carlos Boozer, plus a post-Houston Rockets Jeremy Lin and a rookie Julius Randle.
That season marked head coach Steve Kerr’s first year anchoring Golden State, and would end with Curry’s Warriors besting James’ Cleveland Cavaliers in a six-game NBA Finals series.
The championship would be Curry’s first of four, with three of them achieved against James in the Finals. Nash, surviving in his consulting capacity, would win two titles with Golden State before departing in 2020 to serve (briefly) as the Brooklyn Nets’ head coach. In addition to “Mind The Game,” Nash is now an analyst for NBA games on Amazon Prime Video.
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