The Nets shocked the world when they hired Steve Nash as head coach, despite all the rumors suggesting otherwise.
There was talk of them leaning toward hiring Tyronn Lue, Jeff Van Gundy, or possibly even Gregg Popovich, who is currently under contract with the Spurs. But when he reportedly put his San Antonio house on the market, the rumor mill went nuts.
And yet, none of that matters, as Nash will coach the team going forward, despite all his other business endeavors, and his aspirations of landing a consistent gig calling soccer games in the booth.
Nash will now face his greatest challenge — creating an offense to involve both ball-dominant players, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant. And, most importantly, keeping them both happy.
He does have a history with Durant, having worked with the superstar forward as a shooting consultant for the Warriors. Nash also apparently has a friendship with general manager Sean Marks, which he opened up about, as well as why he’s excited to work with the Nets players.
“We both love the game of basketball,” Nash told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “We got a bond, over me in a sense being a teacher and a pupil through the years,” Nash said of KD. “It dates back to when I was finishing my career and we would work out together, and working with him with the Warriors. … I think that there is a trust, a commonality and a language between us when it comes to the game that has developed over time. That definitely is important. He’s one of the greatest players I’ve ever seen and to have his confidence is really important.”
We can’t wait to see how this experiment turns out. Nash is innovative, with an extremely high basketball IQ, but he has little coaching experience, and a challenging task ahead of him.