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Dallas Mavericks: Looking back at Steve Nash’s time in Dallas

By Kohl Rast

SPRINGFIELD, MA - September 7: Inductee Steve Nash speaks to the audience during the 2018 Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony on September 7, 2018 at Symphony Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images)
SPRINGFIELD, MA - September 7: Inductee Steve Nash speaks to the audience during the 2018 Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony on September 7, 2018 at Symphony Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Steve Nash has officially been inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and his career would have never been the same if he didn’t have a few formative years with the Dallas Mavericks.

There have been few players who have impacted the NBA quite like Steve Nash did and that impact really started to take shape during his time with the Dallas Mavericks. Nash and Dirk Nowitzki quickly became a duo to be feared and they took the league by storm, bringing the Mavs from the bottom of the league to a regular playoff team.

Not only were Nash and Dirk a deadly duo on the court, they were also great friends off of it. This is why it was so heartbreaking to see Nash leave during that fateful free agency in the summer of 2004. Immediately Steve Nash joined an offensive powerhouse and became the dynamic player that we know now.

Even still, Nash helped put Dallas on the map during the early 2000’s. His very first All-Star appearance came in the 2001-02 season, followed by another appearance a year later. Meanwhile, the Mavs started their more than decade long playoff run behind their two All-Stars in Nash and Dirk. The team was looking good.

What followed a six-year long stint of Nash to Nowitzki basketball is one of Mark Cuban’s biggest regrets since becoming the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. In the summer of 2004, Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, took a little too much of what the team’s medical staff had to say to heart and he decided to let Nash walk in free agency.

Nash went on to dominate the league for another 7-8 years before his body finally caught up to him and during those many years, he won two MVP awards, went to six All-Star games, and shaped the NBA moving forward with his ability to control a run-and-gun style offense the way he did.

Nash was one of the most entertaining players to ever step on the court in the American Airlines Center. His induction into the Hall of Fame was not only deserved, it was necessary. A game-changing point guard, one of the best passers the game has ever seen and a class act off the court, there are few more deserving players for this honor than Steve Nash.

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