Steve Nash of the NBA’s 1-5 Los Angeles Lakers, out for the year (but still earning $9.7 million) with a bad back, caught fast and furious social-media flak for posting footage of himself taking a swing at a driving range.
The reputation of Steve Nash, point guard for the National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Lakers, was lit on fire via social media, CBSSports.com reported, when Lakers fans, and others, took out the pitchforks and torches after Nash posted a video of himself swinging a golf club despite being ruled out for the season with a bad back.
The Instagram video of Nash taking a swing at a driving range has since been taken down, but that didn’t keep “Lakers nation,” already suffering from a 1-5 start to the season, from burying Nash for somehow being healthy enough to play golf.
The “backlash” got so bad, CBSSports.com reported, that Nash felt the need to respond directly on Facebook.
“This may be hard for people to understand unless you’ve played NBA basketball, but there is an incredible difference between this game and swinging a golf club, hiking, even hitting a tennis ball or playing basketball at the park,” Nash’s post said.
“Fortunately those other activities aren’t debilitating, but playing an NBA game usually puts me out a couple of weeks,” he added. “Once you’re asked to accelerate and decelerate with [pro stars] Steph Curry and Kyrie Irving, it is a completely different demand.”
Lakers coach Byron Scott also defended Nash, ESPN.com reported, as the controversy grew. “There’s a whole lot of people who don’t understand the difference between golf and basketball,” Scott said after a team practice facility. “Unfortunately, you have people like that.
“The guy is hurt and can’t play this year,” Scott added. “But that doesn’t mean he can’t enjoy himself and have some fun while going through rehab and everything else. It probably doesn’t look good [publicly], but relax.”
Health troubles sidelined Nash for all but 15 games in the 2013-14 season, ESPN.com noted. And because of back, knee and hamstring issues, he played in just 65 of a possible 164 regular-season games the past two seasons with the Lakers.
Still, Nash decided not to retire this offseason and instead returned to the Lakers, earning him about $9.7 million as a guaranteed salary in the final year of a three-year, $28 million deal. Nash said this summer that he believed this season, his 19th in the NBA, would be his last, ESPN.com reported.
“I understand why some fans are disappointed,” Nash wrote in his Facebook letter. “I haven’t been able to play a lot of games or at the level we all wanted. Unfortunately that’s a part of pro sports that happens every year on every team. I wish desperately it was different. I want to play more than anything in the world. I’ve lost an incredible amount of sleep over this disappointment.
“I have a ton of miles on my back,” he added. “Three bulging disks (a tear in one), stenosis of the nerve route and spondylolisthesis. I suffer from sciatica and after games I often can’t sit in the car on the drive home, which has made for some interesting rides.
“Most nights I’m bothered by severe cramping in both calves while I sleep, a result of the same damn nerve routes, and the list goes on somewhat comically. That’s what you deserve for playing over 1,300 NBA games. By no means do I tell you this for sympathy— especially since I see these ailments as badges of honor—but maybe I can bring some clarity.”
Nash concluded his letter by writing, “I’m doing what I’ve always done, which is share a bit of my off-court life in the same way everyone else does. Going forward I hope we all can refocus our energies on getting behind these Lakers. This team will be back and [the] Staples [Center in Los Angeles, where the Lakers play] will be rocking.”
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