There are layers and layers to Steve Nash.

The 38-year-old Los Angeles Lakers guard is a filmmaker and a father, a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player and the best basketball player Canada has ever produced.

He is interested in social causes away from the game — peace initiatives, children’s programs, ecological issues — that make him one of the more well-rounded athletes of our era.

In a series of wide-ranging interviews spread over three days this week in Los Angeles, Nash let loose on any number of issues.

They ranged from his decision to join the Lakers and not the Raptors or the New York Knicks, the role his three young children played in the decision and his thoughts on his Canadian roots, his role models and his activism in a wide array of issues.

Here’s Nash, in his own words.

On Canada

Q: How do you feel about your role in Canada, that all the young kids point to you as the standard.

A: That’s amazing, if that’s true. I would say if that’s the case for any kid, that’s an amazing compliment to my career and makes me certainly feel good that I could inspire these young kids. And my only wish would be that they continue and try to inspire the kids after them. That was a big reason I got involved with the national team was to try to help this generation realize their dreams so they can project what’s possible to the next generation, hopefully tenfold of what I did for this one.

Q: Did you have a generational guy?

A: Not so much from a Canadian, we didn’t really have any kind of Canadian guards in the NBA when I was growing up so it wasn’t really quite the same. Then again, nowadays, you know, with the Internet and Youtube and satellite TV, I mean you don’t necessarily have to look up to those in your community. They don’t have to look up to me, they can look up to anyone they want because there’s so much access. And I think that’s very valid. I think a lot of guys, even at their own level, they can look online and see the best players in the country or in North America at their age, by the time they’re 14 or 15 on Youtube, or even younger, so information is pretty free viral these days.

Q: And you don’t have any of that?

A: No, I had to go down there and see for myself which was a very rare opportunity.

Q: We were talking about Canada and you being a role model for young players. Who were yours growing up?

A: I had role models in my community, guys that were older than me and played at university or on the national team, Eli Pasquale was always around UVic when I was a young player and the national team was around Victoria a little bit so I got to watch those guys and learn from them.

For me, I had some really good coaches that helped me a lot and then I had guys like Isiah Thomas and Magic Johnson that I always looked up to as well.

On heroes

Q: Did you have heroes outside of basketball?

A: Of course. Wayne Gretzky was about as a big a hero as I had, all my Tottenham Hotspur guys, in particular Glen Hoddle but I loved Maradona, John McEnroe, all different sports.

Q: Was there a common theme with those guys, the way they handled themselves, or their success? What drew you to those guys?

A: They all had something special, they could all do something that would bring the crowd to their feet with their creativity, their touch, thinking the game, Magic with his passing, Gretz obviously, guys who would always leave the crowd scratching their head . . . guys who would do something special with the ball or the puck, see ahead of the game.

Q: That’s kind of what you’re known for in this game?

A: Yeah, obviously I tried to emulate those guys for a reason. I wasn’t going to be the fastest guy on the team or the strongest or jump the highest. And my Dad, he always could spot and could — what’s the word I want to say? — compliment the vision or touch or being clever. My Dad always highlighted that. I think I was lucky, a lot of Dads wouldn’t know it to recognize it. My Dad being a soccer player and being clever, he could show us that and he could compliment us and see it when it happened in a game and I think that was a huge advantage for us because I’m not sure a ton of Dads would be able to do that.

Q: You mean a ton of Dads would look at numbers instead of plays?

A: It wasn’t did you score a goal; he would say: “Hey, that pass in the first half, the kid never got it but that was the best play of the game.” And that transferred to hockey, soccer, basketball, even tennis. No matter what you were playing, he’d always compliment creativity and thinking ahead and doing something a little cheeky.

Q: How about away from sports? I know the Terry Fox film was obviously a very personal thing (Nash produced a critically-acclaimed documentary on Terry Fox for ESPN’s original 30 For 30 series) and I know you and Jay (Triano, an old friend and former coach) had great respect for what Terry did. How did that influence your life?

A: I was six when Terry was running across our country and to see a young man running across Canada, he looked like a hero and he looked fit and healthy and then you notice he’s limping. As a six-year-old, you think, ‘hey, look at this great athlete, why does he have a prosthetic leg, what is that, why?” And it just provoked so many questions and taught me so many things about life, not only about the fragility of health, the fairness of life, but getting on with life and being mentally tough, unselfish and bringing people together, so many lessons and thoughts that Terry provoked in all of us. As a six-year-old it was pretty impressionable and I’m sure it was the same way for everyone at every age.

He was a hero to all for us add I don’t really know if there’s a bigger figure in Canada than Terry Fox. Even Gretz because of the special moment in time and Terry’s incredible story.

Q: You’ve lit the Olympic cauldron, carried the torch, played in the Olympics. Describe your Canadian experience.

A: You know, it’s been great. It’s been unbelievable. It’s a strange one, I’ve been away for 20 years now, I’ve been away longer than I lived in Canada but for some reason I remain wholly Canadian. At the same time, I’m not that abreast of what’s going on at home but hopefully those of us in the same shoes as myself are carrying the torch for all Canadians.

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

A: 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?

On moving to L.A.

Q: Since you’ve been here, have you felt any kind of backlash?

A: From Phoenix? Yeah, a little bit. But I’ve felt some backlash but I’ve also felt an overwhelming amount of support. There are people that are pissed off that I came here to the enemy but, to me, this opportunity ticked all the boxes after Phoenix didn’t want me to come back. That’s the thing that I think some fans don’t realize or don’t understand, an offer was never made.

So am I supposed to pass up an opportunity to play on a great team, be in a great city and be an hour from the kids just because? For me, my kids trump everything.

Q: Before L.A. came in, how tough was it to decide Toronto or New York.

A: That was tough, that was really tough because I loved both opportunities. Toronto was a very special opportunity to me because, I mean, when they came to recruit me, it’s Bryan (Colangelo) who I’ve known my whole career; Jay Triano, recruited me in high school and who is a very close friend and our national team coach; Marc Eversley, who was my Nike rep way back and now an executive for the Raptors and very close friend of mine; Johnny Lee, who is a very close friend of mine, manager on the Olympic team. It’s hard when it’s a room full of people you care about to say no to that.

Let alone the fact I love Toronto as a city, it’s home in many ways and I would have been proud to play for the Raptors and in front of those fans and to try to move the ball forward a little bit with that franchise; that was exciting.

And the Knicks opportunity was exciting; I’ve been in New York for 10 summers, always wanted to play in the Garden for the Knicks in some way and I have so many friends in the city now living there. Just the challenge of playing the Garden even though it’s been such a tumultuous environment recently, it still was an exciting proposition just to experience it. They have a lot of talent, too.

I would have been happy to go to either and I would have been thrilled to play in Toronto.

Q: But when the Lakers came in, did that sort of make you go, ‘okay, it’s over?’

A: It wasn’t over because there were factors. We started talking to the Lakers, had to get them to sign off on a third year (of a contract) and the Suns had to sign off on a sign-and-trade, which was very difficult and took almost two days.

Q: The sense with this team with you and Dwight and Kobe; it’s not as hated as the Heat were with LeBron, Chris and Dwayne. Do you get that sense? Hated might be the wrong word but the public had a huge backlash to that Big Three that doesn’t seem to exist here.

A: I think it’s a different situation. I think the way that it was handled was different, I think always the first time is the hardest when something like that happens and people get over it. I think it’s slightly different.

Q: Given this is Los Angeles and with your outside interests in film; is that a part of your future plans?

A: It wasn’t a factor at all. You know, I realize that although I’d like to make films as a career after I’m done playing, I really love basketball, I really love my career, an opportunity to compete every day, and to push myself physically, mentally and emotionally. I know it’s not going to last forever, this could be it so I definitely don’t want to jeopardize the enjoyment or success of my last year’s in this league because I was over-reaching on the off-the-court stuff. So when I made the decision, I had already come to a place in my mind that I wasn’t going to make this decision about extraneous stuff, the only factor was family and basketball.

And to be honest, the way it went was when I initially decided, it wasn’t really a difficult thing for me to come to play for the Lakers because they had been the enemy for us for so long in Phoenix but I initially decided for my kids.

In the three months since, I got really excited about the basketball, I can’t lie. But basketball was somewhat secondary at the time of the decision; I just thought if I go to Toronto or New York, I’ll see the kids three or four times a year, a season, and if I come to L.A., I’ll see them three times a month hopefully at least.

That’s kind of what happened.

On family

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Q: How would you have reconciled Toronto or New York given that desire to be closer to your children?

A: I was prepared to do it but it would have been really hard on me and my family. The kids came out for fall break last week and they went home yesterday morning and just the boo-hooing that’s going on, I couldn’t imagine if it was that I wouldn’t see them again until Christmas. I’m really fortunate that’s not the case, I love being the dad and it’s just too priceless for me not to get as close as I possibly could.

Q: Most athletes don’t like their children out there, you’ve made yours part of this decision. Do you think it’s hard on them?

A: The decision I think is oblivious to them, that they were a part of the decision, that their names were in the paper, they don’t know any of that because they’re too young.

I typically don’t like my kids out there but I think they get to a certain age and they become such an important part of your life that it’s impossible not to. You can’t just start hiding the fact, so many people want to know your story that you continually have to face those questions. After a while, there’s a certain amount of honesty and forthright dialogue that just feels right. I feel like, I don’t really want my kids out there but if you’re going to ask me 100 times, I’m going to tell you the truth and get it over the first time. I’m going to make this decision first and foremost for my kids. I don’t necessarily want them out there, but I don’t also want to deal with it every day. If you tell the truth, the situation goes away.

Q: What do you want for your kids?

A: Well, I want my kids to have passion for life, to really have a passion for life. I think when you have a passion for something, you can overcome obstacles, if you float through life without having anything to hold on to or get you fired up emotionally and to focus on, I think it’s really hard to overcome things.

If they can find a passion, a sense of humour, a smile and a twinkle in their eye, so to speak, for life, I don’t care what they do, they’ll be growing and be empowered and want to get out there and see the world and connect with people.

Then the whole world opens up.

I guess what I’m saying is if you lead a horse to water, whatever that old axiom is, I want to give them the tools to take advantage of this great opportunity to life live to the fullest.

Q: And if you’re a good parent, and you’ve taught them right from wrong and to have an inquisitive nature, they will take that and use it for good.

A: I will say this: I sit here and I can say parenting is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Absolutely mind-bogglingly difficult. It’s almost impossible so you just do the best; I learn more daily form my kids about life and parenting and people than I have in any other facet of my life.

On the end of his career

Q: Have you ever thought about what your legacy will be?

A: Not really. There’s probably a lot to think about, right? How it ends up looking to Suns fans at the end of my career, what ends up happening here, for me I don’t really think about legacy I just try to be in the moment and enjoy this awesome opportunity. I’m still playing at 38, I have three years left, get to play for one of the most storied franchises in sports in a great part of the world and compete for a championship. I just want to enjoy that and I think I can appreciate it a little more now than when I was younger.

Q: What’s been the biggest change in your game in the last five years?

A: It’s hard to say. I probably don’t attack the basket quite as much but I don’t know that I’ve always attacked it. I mean, I attack the paint but I don’t know if I’ve changed or not. Probably in my Dallas days I attacked the basket more. I don’t know, it’s a good question. It could be pretty much the same or something you’d really have to look at film and watch and study because I couldn’t really tell you how much, or if anything. It’s just slight.

Obviously, I’ve learned and become more experienced, and maybe evolved or grown in some respects but I can’t really pinpoint that I don’t do this or do this now.

Q: People wonder how you’ve stayed so healthy?

A: I think the work I’ve done . . . which started with Alex (McKechnie, the Raptors’ director of sports science) has been paramount and that’s kind of like the backbone of everything. I think the bottom line is I still like to do it and I’m willing to sacrifice. I think you get older, you’ve played so much ball, sometimes you just say, ‘God, do I really want to get up this morning and work hard and watch what I eat and get my rest?’ You travel a lot in the summer and I’m still willing to make sacrifices, I get off a plane and I try to get a sweat it every day no matter if I’m exhausted or it’s not ideal. I think that’s the key: There’s a willingness to sacrifice, the opportunity to learn so much about the evolution of sports medicine and dumb luck.

Q: How about soccer? Does that keep you fresh because you’re not doing basketball all the time?

A: It’s important to me, it’s a multi-directional sport like basketball and it’s one that I love. Some people love to play golf or surf, I love to play soccer so it’s like stress-free enjoyment and it’s heckuva lot better conditioning that going to a track or a treadmill.

Q: Kobe Bryant says it’s easy to play together. Why is that?

A: I think we’ve got veteran guys, the first unit in particular have all been around together, can read and react and know the game and have experience.

The difficulty it is we’ve all been The Guy before and so trying to relinquish some of that for the betterment of the sum being greater than its parts is what we’re working towards.

Q: Was that hard at the start?

A: It still is a challenge, you know. For me, I think I naturally try to think for others, try to set up others and probably in some ways it’s a detriment to me because I’m caught thinking a lot now and taking more than I should. I should just play a little more, you know, maybe other guys feel out of it in that respect so they’re more aggressive or too aggressive. We all have to figure out our personalities, how we fit together, how to make this thing work.

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