Steve Nash: An athlete with a conscience

This year’s Most Valuable Player award in the National Basket ball Association went to Steve Nash, a 6-foot white guard who plays with the Phoenix Suns. He was raised in Canada.

Nash is highly regard ed as a selfless player who is not only a great shooter but a great passer. He led the league in assists—meaning passing the ball to an open teammate who went on to score.

When he was presented the MVP award he insisted that all of his teammates, the great majority of them African American, accept the award with him to show that he could not have won the award without their cooperation.

Nash is not only an exceptional player, he is politically progressive. Two years ago, before the U.S. attacked Iraq, Nash spoke out against this war. At the February 2003 All-Star game, he wore a practice t-shirt that read, “Shoot baskets, not people.”

In defense of his t-shirt he stated, “I think that war is wrong in 99.9 percent of all cases. I think [the Iraq war] has much more to do with oil or some sort of distraction, because I don’t feel as though we should be worrying about Iraq.” (http://www.edgeofsports.com)

When more politically conservative NBA players and officials publicly spoke out against Nash’s stance, he never backed down. Nash’s public denunciation of the Iraq war is reminiscent of the heroic position that Muhammad Ali took against the Vietnam War. Ali, who is African Amer ican, later had his heavyweight boxing title stolen from him in 1971 for refusing to fight in that war.

Nash stated that one of the books he read recently was the “Communist Manifesto.” Nash may be small in physical stature, compared to other NBA players, but his political consciousness helps him stand head and shoulders above many other athletes.