Okay okay, that's it...
So today is gonna be a fun day I've come
to LA to visit the ex-NBA star Steve Nash
and I've heard he's got some crazy
stuff in his house...
Hey! Unisport!
- What's up man? I wasn't expecting that.
- Come on in!
- You good?
- Great!
- Welcome.
- I hear you got some good stuff here.
- I hope so.
- Let's go!
Sorry we got so many boxes and stuff... Do you want to go upstairs now?
Let's go upstairs!
Steve Nash is a former professional
basketball player who was one of the
most legendary NBA stars of his era and
while you might remember him as the
two-time NBA MVP who later in 2018 will be inducted to the NBA Hall of Fame today
we are visiting the Nash residence to find
out more about Steve's lifelong passion
for soccer. Get ready for crazy stories,
an insane collection of match worn
boots in Steve's basement:
Ronaldinho gave me his boots, so did Sam Eto'o...
And of course shooting some hoops with one of the all-time greats in his own private gym
But first let's pick his brain a bit to find out where his passion for soccer comes from
I've heard you have a passion for
football as well? This is true, yes.
My first word was "goal" and just grew up in a soccer loving household. It's always
been a huge part of my family my brother
played for Canada 35 times I think
and I've just loved the game - it's a really important part of my life.
What about when you were young, I assume you played both football and basketball.
- Why did you end up going...?
- Actually I didn't play basketball!
Growing up in Canada I played hockey, as
we call it soccer, baseball, lacrosse...
everything - but basketball I didn't play
until I was 13 but all my friends at a
new school played basketball so all the
kids that were playing sports were
playing basketball and so for me it
really was because I wanted to be with
my friends - but it was also a great time
Michael Jordan had just come into the
NBA, you know he's this incredibly
exciting player, he's doing commercials
with Spike Lee and he had these cool
shoes and so for a 13 year old kid and
it's pretty important stuff. It was one
of those things that I just wanted to be
with my friends and I fell in love with
another game and I let it go I just
still love it as much as ever but I
spent my life trying to be a basketball
player from 13 years old on.
Obviously choosing basketball turned out pretty
well for Steve Nash who nowadays just
like many great former players has moved
on to doing TV commentary - but unlike
most ex-athletes
Steve is not on the American TV screens
talking about his main sport basketball
instead he's sharing his knowledge in
the UEFA Champions League studio
talking about soccer.
Basically they're bringing in a basketball player who's
extremely passionate about soccer to
maybe introduce the game to more people
Soccer is growing here, there's a lot of
great players and fans across the
country now but I think there's also a
lot of people that haven't really been
introduced to it you know where they get
to know you know some of the stars of
course they know who Messi and Cristiano
Ronaldo is but you know who is
Harry Kane and who is Paolo Dybala and
who are some of these guys that maybe
aren't on the tips of tongues here in
the United States but are incredible
players with incredible skill great athletes
great personalities and have great stories.
I think we should head down to the basement I've heard you got some good stuff over there.
Let's see what I got for you I know you've been around the world and seen some good stuff maybe I
have a couple stories...
This is my pride and joy!
This is it! A lot of people say a "man cave" but this is like the basement.
It's not a great name but it has everything I want - you know I have some of my memorabilia
coffee and I have the pitch, the stadium so
what more can you ask for.
I have some great, important memorabilia: Zidane, Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o's boots
and I have the torch - I was lucky enough to be one of 4 Canadians to light the
Winter Olympic Cauldron in Vancouver
2010 yeah so amazing I had a mutual
friend with Thierry Henry and I was in
Paris and my friend said "Thierry wants you
to come to Clairefontaine", the maison de
futbol in France outside of Paris and
so I went to Clairefontaine you know a
nervous little schoolboy and met Thierry and
Zidane and Olivier Dacourt and Pat
Vieira and then me and my cousin kicked
around with Thierry and Zidane for an
hour in between their training sessions
that was unbelievable and they had
security guards in suits in the forest
around the field it looked like Secret
Service for like President Obama or something.
Now at this point it became
clear to me that Steve would have an
unlimited amount of crazy stories to
share with me so next I wanted to hear
more about his crazy collection of
football boots match worn by some of the
finest players of all time
- Nice, wow this is amazing.
- Barcelona had a preseason in the United
States and they're in New York City where
I was at the time and so I went out to
training that guys were incredible they
brought me in the dressing room
Ronaldinho gave me his boots so did Sam Eto'o. They introduced me to this little
kid who was 17 I think at the time and
Ronaldinho says he's gonna be the best
player in the world. You're watching him playing and right away
you're like wow this guy's unbelievable
and if Ronaldinho says he's gonna be the
best maybe he is but you also remember
how good Ronaldinho was so at the time
you're thinking there's no way you can
be as good as you right? Well he is.
- And obviously you're talking about Lionel Messi
- Yeah you know he was
this little guy in this room full of
stars and watching him training you
realize right away this guy's special
that was a great experience to meet him
and to see him train at a young age and to
see possibilities.
- Zidane!
- Catch.
You know as you can see, "Zizou" wore these out
Who would think that that Zidane would put tape on the back of his boots but...
I like the fact that you haven't
removed the tape
Obviously he taped them up you know I actually was similar as a player, you could wear a new
pair of shoes every game but I like
having my shoes worn in so I'd wear them
for two or three weeks and I'd wear a
separate pair for practice that would
I'd wear for the games like in a couple
weeks so I guess Zizou liked them nice
and worn in so they felt comfortable in
his foot and as you can see
he has beat these up a little bit but uh
it was a great experience I'll never forget it.
- Looking at this little basement...
- Man cave, whatever you want!
I don't see a lot of basketball stuff like is it like
somewhere around the corner or like?
Well there's actually a picture with
President Obama and one of my teammates
Grant Hill and we went to the Oval
Office to meet the great man and shot
some hoops with him on the basketball
court at the White House. How was he?
President Obama can shoot he can
shoot and can play I actually have a
great story about that he was in a suit
and we had a great chat in the Oval
Office and he says you know guys I
really wanted to go down to the court
and shoot with you guys today but we're
passing a bill it was a Saturday and
they were passing a bill and so he's
like so I just don't have time to get
down there so we went down there having
a good time and all of a sudden we hear "hey fellas" and turn around President Obama's
walking on the court taking his jacket
off, kind of shirt and tie on.
Rolls his sleeves up and he starts shooting
with us and we're like this is amazing
so we're shooting, talking and he's asking
us questions, were asking him questions
having a great time and then he's like
"well I gotta go fellas" and he
shoots he misses and I'm like "Mr. President you can't leave on a miss" and he's
like he's like "you know what you're
right". So I pass it out to the 3-point
line he shoots it I mean pure swish and
as it's going in he like looks at us and
like "That's how I roll!". He goes and gets his
jacket and takes off I was like oh
this guy's got balls and I'm
glad he's our president.
When was the last time you got starstruck?
President Obama for sure is like the person I
admire the most I think he's you know
incredibly intelligent charismatic
a great role model for my kids and myself
and so he's somebody that I think is
just on another level as far as human
beings go but obviously whenever I see
any of these athletes whenever I saw Zidane and Thierry, Ronaldinho you
know whenever I see my Tottenham boys, the picture with Christian Eriksen, Vic Wanyama and
Eric Dier that's when I really feel like a kid even though I
just turned 44 I get a chance to get on
the pitch and have a few touches with
those guys it's like I realize how lucky I am.
In case you didn't know Steve is a
lifelong Tottenham Hotspurs fan and
being as well-connected as he is Steve's
had the ultimate pleasure of training
together with his favorite football team
on multiple occasions. Now let me just
point out that this guy is one of the
greatest NBA legends of all time but
judging by his footwork he could have
done well on the football pitch as well.
You got some moves, you have great ball
control you know you're playing Rondo
with Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane
like how do you keep up? Yeah I'm okay
you know it's one of those situations
where you try not to embarrass yourself
just keep it simple keep it moving quick
touches obviously I respect the speed of
thought as well as the touch it's like
they've been doing it their whole life
which they had you know it's like they
were born to do it
it shows me how many hours and how many
touches it took to get there and that's
really inspiring for me so I always love
you know getting to see up close and
personal how great these guys are behind
the scenes to see them behind the scenes
when the pressure is off and there's
no cameras on it's always a treat
because there's a little bit of extra
ingredient in there, when they're relaxed that's amazing to watch.
Obviously you have your basement
and you get to shoot around in here
do you sometimes go out to play some
pickup games or? No I don't play
basketball ever since I retired. What about soccer?
I play twice a week you know a little 7/8/9 aside little small goals yeah it's fun
we have some great players come and
then some everyday people.
Obviously you're one of the best point guards of all time, thank you, but you know these
moments when you get to kind of like
live your dream did you ever think like
man I wish I continued with soccer? Well
I do the dream is still alive...
Every day I have a part of me that feels like
that little kid that still wants to make
it but you know the reality is I think I
had some ability to play football but so
did millions of kids around the world
and so you know if I end up putting the
time into football that I did into
basketball which was a lot who knows
maybe but I'm also not silly enough to
just think oh you know because how many
talented footballers it's the most
popular sport in the world people play
everywhere have you seen right you've
seen them all over and very few of them
make it I really respect the top
footballers a lot.
Everybody wants to be a professional top level athlete but what is something that you know
people don't know about maybe the
sacrifices or the daily is it all
just like you know houses and...? I mean
I think it's funny you know like it
looks very glamorous but like in the NBA
or my career quite often you'd have a
back-to-back game where you play you fly
to a city you'd play you get on the
plane and land in another city two or
three hours away get to bed at 4:00 or
5:00 in the morning I have to play that
night on TV with reporters telling you
you didn't make the grade you know so
when you're coming off that plane at
3:00 or 4:00 in the morning in Milwaukee
and there's nobody there and no cameras
and you're like groggy can barely you just
fell asleep for ten minutes at the end
of the flight it's not very glamorous
you know that's the part I think that
some people don't understand and and the
other thing is you're lucky if you start
the season a hundred percent healthy
right and then after that nobody's 100
percent healthy right so you're always
playing with something something
bothering you whether it's an injury or
a niggle something's bothering you so
that's the one thing I don't think fans
understand is that when you play that
many games and you travel that much you
train that much something is always
hurting it's a challenge because you're
playing the best guys in the world and
if you step on that court no one cares
what you're carrying right so that's the
beautiful part of it and I miss that part of it.
Now the last thing on my list of things to do with Steve Nash was to
play some basketball with him and to put
things in perspective this is like
shooting free kicks with David Beckham
so in other words there was simply no
way I would miss out on this opportunity.
Nice, did you play a little bit?
- I just like shooting around.
- You got good technique!
Get that elbow pointed at the rim, elbow pointed at the rim. Yes there you go.
Good technique! We got something to work with here!
Yeeesss!
- Yeeeess!
- I'll take that!
You got some game I think you could develop into a nice player
What about my height man? It's okay we've had smaller guys in the NBA
a lot of good players
One of my last questions you know obviously you
have a lot of things going on but you
know what kind of goals do you still have?
Well other than to play for Tottenham Hotspurs you know I want to
make transformative sports content tell
stories and make content that gets
people moving and active or inspired or
aspiring to do things I want to see Real
Mallorca in La Liga again where they
belong and have been in the past and
just trying to learn you know always
trying to learn always trying to
challenge the traditions that I believe
in that's always exciting for me to
learn and challenge my way of thinking.
Wow guys & girls I truly hope you enjoyed
this amazing experience as much as I did
Steve Nash is not only an incredible guy
who by the way just so happens to be
one of the biggest NBA legends of all
times but he also has a massive passion
for soccer and on top of everything else
he's one of the most humble massive
superstars I've ever come across in my
life and trust me I've met quite a few
during my time here at Unisport he
shared some amazing stories with me and
I would love to hear which of the
stories was your favorite make sure you
let me know down in the comment section
below
and also if you want to see more stuff
from Steve Nash make sure you click on
the link right up here to check out his
youtube channel and in case you haven't
already make sure you subscribe to
unisport webtv by clicking the green
bubble on the top right corner of your
screen I've had an incredible day I'm
gonna continue enjoying LA Steve it was
an absolute pleasure thumbs up
