Said it last night and will say it again today, I don’t think there is a better or more important Canadian athlete of the last quarter century than Steve Nash.

None.

There are so many layers to him and his career – which I presume is now over with news that nerve damage will keep him out of this entire season, the last of his current contract – that when you come to write or talk about him today, it’s hard to know where to start and where to go.

Fiercely Canadian.

A more wonderful a basketball player than Canada has ever produced.

A citizen of the world whose interests transcend mere sports.

An inspiration who made himself what he is by sheer hard work and determination.

So many layers and when you put it all together, I would suggest my point is valid and right.

Now, I saw all the tweeter traffic last night with all the suggestions on the others who might be considered and it was really fun blocking the absolute idiots with actors/stuntmen/fakes who are, um, wrestlers, but here’s my point:

In no way in the world, despite their prodigious and extraordinary talents, did the likes of Sidney Crosby or Wayne Gretzky – and I respect their abilities more than I’ve often said -- fight against all odds to make it as big as Nash did and, in a truly global sense, they didn’t go as far as he did.

(Let the slings and arrows start)

They play – and even the most devout puckheads in the history of puckheads have to agree with this – a sport that has not nearly the global reach of basketball and never, ever, ever will.

They did not rise to the absolute top of their profession by having to fight preconceptions, to fend off history and prejudice and players from all over the world and do it on the strength of their own determination. No one had to promote or prove himself, none of the hockey players had to basically beg someone to take a chance on them, they were identified as a pre-teens and nurtured from there, they were athletes of privilege from the get-go and everyone knew it.

That a Canadian is a two-time MVP in the NHL? Yawn. Should happen every year, no? That a Canadian is a two-time MVP in the NBA? I’ve been warned by far smarter people not to speak in absolutes but I one zillion per cent guarantee that will NEVER happen again.

I don’t think people really get this: This is a guy not much bigger than I am, he plays against giants and was a giant among them.

His legacy?

On the court?

He was instrumental in revolutionalizing the game, the Seven Second Or Less Phoenix Suns were the template for a fun, fast, entertaining style of play that put entertainment back into the equation when the game had drifted to too much isolation and standing around, too much thug, too much “hitting first” because that was most important.

He will go down as one of the best shooters in the history of professional basketball helped revolutionalize the game.

Off the court?

He spoke to social injustice and on important issues, he used his platform to get messages out to people who might not have thought of them. He didn’t preach, he tried to educate, he is more interested in making people aware than convincing them to think like him. That’s a truly wonderful characteristic.

You know what I feel about this?

Sad.

Was talking electronically to a bunch of people last night and the overwhelming sense was:

This sucks.

I’m going to get a bit personal, if you don’t mind.

I’ve written about Steve Nash since the 1992 FISU Games in Buffalo, for goodness sakes, just a year or so after No. 15 Santa Clara upset No. 2 Arizona (and Damon Stoudamire) in the NCAA tournament.

I’ve been to Toso Pavilion at Santa Clara – one of the greats of our business, Al Maki, concurred that it was a funky little gym no one knew about – and I’ve had pizza and pitchers with his mom and him and a bunch of his teammates in some strip mall joint just off campus.

We hung in Beijing a bit and Dallas and Phoenix and Toronto. He is unfailingly polite and accommodating when we have to do our jobs, a good storyteller and cool guy to have a beer with. He is, despite his status as a surefire NBA Hall of Famer, a regular dude.

And that a storied career will likely end because his body let him down is the saddest part of his whole story. We had a long chat at the Staples Center a year or so ago – the same day as the Rudy Gay trade as a matter of fact – and he was adamant that he’d do whatever it took to get back on the court so he could go out on his terms. The lengths that he went to keep his body in shape and functioning every summer and season were tremendous, that it would fail him at the end the toughest part of the whole affair.

Now, I know the guy’s not dead and there is far more in life that he will accomplish so I hope this doesn’t come across as an obituary; it should be simply a story if a good guy who did wonderful things in one part of his life that transcend sports and make him unique among Canadian athletes.

He proved that a person’s strong will can take him to unimaginable heights, he knew what he wanted and went out and got it when everyone was telling him it couldn’t be done.

In that regard he should be an inspiration and his message should resonate with teens in all walks of life.

Believe in yourself, set high goals and work tirelessly to achieve them, despite what seem like long odds and hurdles at every turn. Be confident but not boastful, a bit self-deprecating but never, ever sell yourself short. Work for the whole rather than yourself, play or work for the guy sitting next to you, the accomplishments of the group are more important than individual accolades.

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I remember a long discussion I had with him a year or so ago, a chat about his legacy, his place in basketball, his place in Canadian sports history and one of the questions was:

What do you think it means to be “wholly Canadian?”

He said:

“One thing it is to be wholly Canadian is to not get carried away with this answer, you know? We know who we are, we do our best, we try to play as a team and we try to look out for other people rather than ourselves more often than not and just let’s leave it at that.

It becomes wholly un-Canadian to gush over that answer, you know?”

That’s not bad at all.

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