Steve Nash has kept a low profile since being fired by the Nets, but the 50-year-old has opened up a little about his stay in Brooklyn and his shock at his coaching failure.
Nash was put in charge of a superteam featuring Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in 2020, but was fired in November 2022 despite a 94-67 record.
Nash had never been an assistant before, but he recently admitted that the job wasn’t quite what he expected.
“When I was coaching I was surprised at how little time I was with the team,” Nash told Eurohoops. “You have five minutes to speak to the players before the game, at half-time and after the game – that’s the only time you ever speak to the team.”
“I wanted to connect with each of my players. It’s important to create a culture and environment where people believe and see them as their best. They need to feel like they want to be the best they can be.”
Nash was speaking in Slovenia at a retirement event for Goran Dragic, who played behind Nash as a point guard in Phoenix and under him in Brooklyn in 2022.
Dragic, who learned about the Heat’s vaunted culture in Miami, has commented in the past about how difficult his time with the Nets was because the team seemed more interested in pacifying their stars than winning.
Irving, who said he didn’t think the Nets had a good head coach shortly after Nash was hired, repeatedly ignored Nash’s play calls.
Nash, a Hall of Fame point guard, was accustomed to leading winning teams as a floor commander, but he found leading a group of strong personalities off the bench was an entirely different job.
“The most important thing is to be honest with the players. That can be communicated in a variety of ways,” Nash said. “It’s important to be clear and honest so the players don’t feel insecure. Communication is key.”
“What was easy for me was just getting used to my leadership role and leading by example. What’s actually difficult from a coaching standpoint is that it’s a totally different form of leadership. When you’re coaching, you have to lead in the smaller moments.”
Nash was invited to Brooklyn in September 2020 by general manager Sean Marks, a longtime friend from his playing days.
Marks had previously tried to recruit Nash to join the Nets organization and continued to offer him better positions, but ultimately the opportunity to become head coach was too good for Nash to turn down.
“I never planned on being a coach, but a special situation in Brooklyn came knocking on my door,” Nash said. “It was a quick transition, dealing with different dynamics. A lot of it is managing personalities between the front office, the players and the agents. That’s a big part of my job — all of the dynamics, personalities and power that players have these days.”
Durant tried to cut Nash in the summer of 2022, but Nets owner Joe Tsai refused.
But the Nets fired him after just seven games the following season and then fired his replacement, Jacques Vaughn, and interim coach Kevin Ollie.
Jordi Fernandez begins his first season as Nets coach in October.
