Steve Nash – Life After Basketball

I’m retiring.

I heard someone once say there comes a day when they tell us all that we can’t play anymore. We’re not good enough. Surplus to requirements. Too slow, maybe. When you’re a teenager with outsized dreams and a growing obsession, and someone tells you this ain’t gonna last forever, it’s scary. I never forgot it.

Steve Nash is retiring from basketball.  He penned a letter to announce his decision via The Players Tribune (found here).

Nash is a Canadian Icon on and off the basketball court.  IHis play on the court has inspired many young Canadian basketball players to imagine the possibilities of a Canadian excelling on the largest basketball stage, the NBA. Nash won consecutive NBA MVP awards and was most likely a sham bench call from competing for a NBA title.

Nash is now in charge as general manager of Canada Basketball and his vision and diplomacy will lead a new generation of Canadian basketball stars onto the world stage.  If you haven’t read his letter please find a few minutes to do so. It’s well worth the time.

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Andrew “Maple Jordan” Wiggins – Worth The Hype?

The dog days of summer are here.  The Blue Jays are floundering, The Raptors are a few weeks away from assembling their middling team, The Bills are already training to be mediocre at Training camp and The TFC (home game winner aside) are well The TFC.  So now would be the perfect time to pass on some great reading about Canada’s (and possibly basketball’s next great thing) Andrew Wiggins.

I just finished reading an interesting piece on Wiggins on the Bleacher Report by Jonathan Wasserman and as per my usual policy I’ll gladly pass you down the internet highway to someone much more knowledgeable, more capable, more connected than I.  So click on this link and give it a read.

As for my uneducated eye I can see no reason that Wiggins isn’t worth the hype that surrounds him.  It’s likely that he will run wild at Kansas this year and be Canada’s second straight first overall selection in the NBA.

If this is the case Canada Basketball is living in it’s own golden age now with the young talent that is soon to be available to them.  Andrew Wiggins, Tristan Thompson, Anthony Bennett, Andrew Nicholson, Kevin Pangos, Kelly Olynyk to name a few.  Exciting times are ahead indeed.  This should be fun to watch.

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