Amar’e Reveals Why Steve Nash Was So Great

So playing, playing with Steve Nash, like, you know, coming in, like, how, how was that? What was the chemistry? What was the relationship? Like what was the conversation? You know what I'm saying? Like y'all couldn't be more different. And you from Florida, like, well, he from Canada. Y'all couldn't be more different. Like how did that relationship start to manifest itself? Cause one thing I know about basketball dog, you can't just show up at seven 30 and cut that. Right. Y'all had to build that relationship through practice, coffee after coffee, before practice on off days, like you build those relationships. But you don't have to lead the offense for however many years and be the most efficient offense for all the years. You build to that. You don't just walk in practice one day and you already in that situation. For answer. That's a good step. You and Nash led the league in offense efficiency every year until 2010 and 11. Nash and Stoudamire led five of the top 10 highest offensive rated teams in NBA history. Yeah, man, it was crazy. Oh, you guys were, you guys, I'm telling you, you guys were hell. You guys were hell. Right. Absolutely. That was, that was the motto. We're trying to rest in the fourth quarter, but here's the thing to your point, to be honest with you, it ain't, it didn't take no time at all. No extra, no extra coffee dates, no sitting down, watching film together, nothing because I was already on my path of where I wanted to go. Right. I got rookie of the year. I was almost an all-star my second year. And then we're like, all right, we have a future with me and Sean and Joe Johnson. We need, we need one more piece. Right. So Joe, so we brought Steve in and Steve was the ultimate point guard. You know, you've got a lot of point guards. Now I want to score. I want to tell the point guard, your rookie or who? Stephon Mulberry. Steph was my point guard, my rookie year. He was more of a scoring point guard. Right. So when Nash came in with all the pieces we had, he fit right in perfectly. Right. And so all it took was maybe like two or three practices. I'm telling him how I like the ball, where I want it, how, you know, and he, he passed it right to me and I make a move and he see what I can do. Then he just makes sure everybody's in the right spot and the passes are right on the dime. And then we take it from there. That old elbow, y'all used to do that elbow clear ---- for you going right hand. There are a lot of victims on that play. I know one thing we had to make sure we were, we had to make sure it was in shape because, because all we want to do is run. And I noticed that in Nash, I'm like, when Nash hit the basketball, he taking one dribble and he passing the ball up the court, you know, he advanced and he advanced in the past. So I'm like, well, we got to hit them lanes. Yeah. We, if we run the lanes and Nash pass it up, we got the, we got the advantage and we do that all game for a quarter. So Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan Antonio was there. Your friend, your friend, your rookie year, my rookie year was, uh, was, was, was not Dan Tony. It was, it was Frank Johnson. So did you guys play? I, I, I'm, I remember playing you guys a ton. Did you guys play like a completely different system because Dan Tony changed the game and his offensive mind and the way he did. So rookie of the year, then like, how are they using you? Cause I'm trying to remember that's, I'm getting old. It was almost the same. It was almost the same. It just wasn't the same personnel. Yeah. Right. I mean, we, it was the same pick and roll was happening that Dunker had on all of what came in my rookie year was all pick and roll. So it was always, it was similar. But then I think when Mike Dan Tony came, he added a little bit more offensive flair to the game. Right. And he allowed us to be versatile. So I went from playing the four to then playing the five and then sometimes back to the four and then Sean went from playing the three to playing the four. Yes. So now we've been virtual to us players and then that changed the game. That was hell to match up with. You know what you had the five and tricks at the four. I'm going to tell you though, man, like, and I, it's a credit to you guys because as you see these kids grow up now, like they care what the position is. It doesn't matter. They can get on the floor. Like you guys, you guys, it always drove me nuts. We come into Phoenix and we would change our style of play. We change our lineups to play y'all. Right. Which should have been the opposite. You know what I mean? We should have came in there with who we are and then try to win that way. Cause we weren't going to win by down or by downsizing with y'all move up, move up front of the five on us. Cause now we have no play. Like it was wild. Y'all must be hell, man. Let's rewind to go to the fact where he talked about running the lane. Everybody runs to the three. Nobody runs the lane for a layup anymore. The lane anymore. Everybody run. You have five, literally run to the three, to the three point line. Nobody runs the lane anymore. You know what I'm saying? Just to go back to hear him say, yeah, run the lane. You'll get a layup. Steve's going to advance it. Like just to hear that. You get that pass right there. You take one or two dribbles. Yeah. And I'm at the rim. Yeah. Just running. They're not going to the rim no more. They started to shoot threes. You take an in and out dribble and take off. Everybody can't take off. Like you said, I could have did an in and out dribble for sure and pop their ass with a 15 footer. Right. Right. So Dan, yeah. Dan Tony really changed the game that way though. Offensively. I love Dan Tony. Offensively what he did. Defensively Dan used to get on my nerves cause he used to leave me open when we had shots. He used to just leave me open. Every time I make a shot, he'd leave me open. Like he'd leave me open. But offensively what he did offensively, I love the way he fast forwarded the game. You know what I'm saying? And all the things that he thought about that people weren't thinking about making it positionless, moving four guys to five, moving three guys to four. I mean, Trix was a good guard at that four spot. Trix bounced four or five times before a regular four man jump once. Right. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? Exactly. Exactly. It was crazy. Exactly. And at first I didn't like it. I didn't want to play the five. I'm like, man, I got to guard Shaq. I'm 6'10", 245. This man, 300 pounds, 7'1". I got to guard him. I got to guard these centers. You got, you have a tumble. You had, you had centers back then. And by the way, yeah. Thank you for the people listening at home. It was, it was centers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Real centers back then. I got to guard them. So what I decided was, I said, all right, well, if I got to guard them, they got to guard me. Yes. And I can run them all day and then they're going to be tired third, fourth quarter. Then, you know, then I can rack them up. Yes. Yes. This is true. So fun to watch. This is true. It was fun to watch. Like in Phoenix, what do you think was it that, cause you guys just couldn't get over that. What was it? What do you think it was? Cause then you obviously move on and go to New York. What, what was it? Winning championships, by the way, is hard. Yeah, it is now. I didn't focus on much defense. We didn't focus on much defense. They didn't focus on much defense. Once again, we talked about how great he was. Offensively dad, Tony was ahead of the game. Right. Defensively. It wasn't really much of the focus. And we all know we're in a seven game series in the playoffs. I ain't running. You ain't seen before. You ain't running nothing. We ain't seen before. I think that's why I wanted to play. That's what we didn't focus on. Defense was something that we didn't focus on. And as a high school player, you know, going into the NBA, I need to learn how to play defense. Right. And we never we never put emphasis on that. I saw someone, Steven, they were saying like, you know, we could have we could have brought in Thibodeau as a coach to bring in some defense. But we hired Mike D'Antoni's brother. Right. So then I'm like, well, damn, if I'd have known that, I would have pushed for having Thibodeau to play some defense. Yes. I needed to learn that. And I think playing against the Spurs and the Lakers with Kobe and Shaq and these guys, if you can't play defense. It's going to be hard to win a championship. That Lakers team, gosh, damn. Yeah. Kobe Shaq. Then they had, you know, Bynum and Gasol with Kobe. And then you had the Spurs with Tim and Manu and Tony Parker in there. The West was tough. And then Dallas with Dirk. And the West was tough. I mean, bro, all those things, if I'm not mistaken. One of those years, Tony Parker led the league in paint points. Yeah, exactly. As a point guard. Right. You have Shaq in the league. You have Tim Duncan in the league. You have you in the league. You got Garnett in the league. Garnett. Right. The person that led the league in paint points was Tony Parker. Exactly. Kids at home. Understand what I think I tell my son this all the time. Be in attack mode. Get two feet in the paint. Don't be lazy. Absolutely. Just pass the ball, pass the ball. No, get get in the paint. You know, I'm saying to make a play for somebody. Right. That's all Tony Parker did. Get that and get in the paint and make plays for people or finish that. But he was constantly putting pressure on the defense. Absolutely. Never had a chance to rest. When you when you made that decision to go to New York, what was it? Well, it was just it was time. It was time. It was time. Y'all whipped there, too, now. Yeah, but I really wasn't looking forward to leaving. Yeah, that's what you're right. I wanted I wanted to stay in Phoenix. I just got a bought a crib. I had a house. There's not everyone by the crib leaves. Yeah, that was a big summer in free agency. If I'm not mistaken, I think it's huge. So I was free agent. The way it was free agent. You were free agents with Joe Johnson. It was a loser was free agent. A lot of guys were free agents. A lot of money out there. Big all season for sure. And I want to stay in Phoenix. And I was trying to negotiate with the previous owner. And he was like trying to trying to create this whole football kind of contract where nothing's guaranteed. I'm like, wait, well, no, I just let the team is scoring rebounds and blocks. And we lost at a buzzer beater. Kobe shot a buzzer beater, run our tests, scored it last second. We could have went to the Western Finals of one shot and run it back. Me and Nash had a great, had a great season. And he was like, well, I want to try this. And I'm like, man, I got no time for trying. Yeah, I just let the team score points, rebounds and blocks. I'm not going to be the guinea. I'm not going to be the guinea pig. I'm not the guinea pig. Pay that, pay that stuff. So because he didn't want to work that out, I decided to go elsewhere. What's wrong with the business part of it sometimes gets in it like that. Why would you even try to reinvent that? You got you got you got started my Nash, the next Malone and Stockton. Keep those two guys together. Figure out the rest around that. But you got to keep you got to keep them together for the. No, you build on that. Yeah, you know, trust me. I've been a part of a little dynasty. And right. Nice running. You hope that you can keep it together and just build around those pieces. Absolutely. It ain't never really that easy. It's not that easy. Never. Right. You know what I'm saying? That's why you got to give credit to the Spurs. Yeah. And the teams that were able to keep it together. Right. And, you know, get the most out of it. You know what I'm saying? Absolutely. It doesn't always work out like that. We've got another exciting week of hoops coming up, and I've got the perfect way to get you even closer to the action on the court. Right now, all new DraftKings customers who bet just five dollars will get one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets. If your bet wins, just download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and sign up using my promo code. Oh, geez. The crown is yours. That's right. New customers get one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets. If your bet wins after betting just five dollars. And don't forget to stay in on the action and use your hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets on DraftKings same game parlays for a shot at an even bigger payout. Combine multiple bets together from the same game. If sports betting is not available in your state, don't worry. You can still join in on all the fun with DraftKings Daily Fantasy and have the shot to win cash prizes. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now. New customers use my promo code. Oh, geez. And bet just five dollars on any wager and get one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets. If your bet wins. That's promo code. Oh, geez. Only at DraftKings Sportsbook.