If not for a divorce, Steve Nash says he would have played for the Toronto Raptors.
Nash and former Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo each spoke openly about how close the Canadian basketball legend came to coming north in 2012.
“We tried to get Steve Nash in free agency,” Colangelo said in a recent edition of Open Gym, a Raptors-produced video.
“We had a meeting set with the Raptors, July 1st in New York City at Mr. [Larry] Tanenbaum’s apartment,” said Nash. “It was a meeting that was exciting for me.”
Nash had already put together a Hall-of-Fame resume by the summer of 2012. The Victoria, B.C. native was fresh off his eighth trip to the NBA All-Star Game, and was six years removed from winning back-to-back MVP awards in 2005 and 2006.
The Raptors pulled out all the stops, offering Nash a three-year, $36-million contract according to reports at the time. They also pulled at his Canadian heartstrings, going so far as to enlist the services of Wayne Gretzky in an elaborate recruitment video.
“We closed with Wayne talking to Steve directly,” Colangelo said. “It was so impactful it moved Steve to tears.”
But Nash had other things to consider.
He had announced his split to ex-wife Alejandra Amarilla two years earlier. They had three children together, including an infant son. The kids lived in Phoenix, where Nash had starred for the Suns for the previous eight seasons.
“It was emotional. I was going through a tricky period in my life,” Nash admitted. “This opportunity meant a lot to me but there was another opportunity that had to come first.”
“The reality is I was going through a divorce at the time. My kids were in Phoenix. While you’re going through that transition, there’s a lot of unknowns. You’re trying to figure out how I can see my kids as often as possible. That was really the reason I didn’t end up in Toronto, was because I wanted to be close to my kids.”
Nash accepted $8 million less to go to L.A. in a sign-and-trade with the Lakers.
“To play in Canada, to play for the Raptors, to play in front of those fans in that arena every night would have been amazing. If the timing was better it would have been fantastic to experience it.”
This was the second time Nash almost ended up playing for a Canadian NBA team.
After his second season in Phoenix, Nash was nearly traded to the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1998. The Suns offered the 24-year-old point guard to Vancouver in exchange for Antonio Daniels, who had been picked fourth overall in the NBA Draft one year earlier.
Grizzlies GM Stu Jackson balked at the offer and chose to keep Daniels, who had a long but unspectacular NBA career.
That turned out to be a regrettable decision by the Grizzlies, but you can’t say the same for the failed Raptors deal.
Nash was in the twilight of his career at 38 years old when Toronto nearly landed him, and went on to play just 65 more games over the next two seasons. More importantly, after they lost out on Nash, Colangelo pivoted to another point guard.
The same day the Lakers signed Nash, the Raptors traded for Kyle Lowry, acquiring the 26-year-old in a trade with the Houston Rockets.
And the rest was history.
