Nash not retired, but not in touch with the Lakers
LOS ANGELES – Save for a thoughtful but pointed Facebook post, Steve Nash has been out of sight and, largely, out of mind for the Lakers since being ruled out for the season.
Which is not exactly how the Lakers anticipated things might go.
Both Coach Byron Scott and General Manager Mitch Kupchak said they hoped Nash, whose Lakers career has been beset and presumably ended by back injuries, would serve as a mentor and de facto shooting coach for younger players.
Not only has that scenario yet to materialize, Scott can’t even get Nash to return a phone call.
“If my coach would have called me,” Scott said, “I definitely would have called him back.”
Nash, 40, played in two exhibition games before being ruled out for the season. Scott initially said he would give the two-time former NBA Most Valuable Player some time to process the apparent end of his career before calling him. Scott, who didn’t even have Nash’s phone number until a team employee gave it to him, said he finally reached out, but has not heard back.
The first-year Lakers coach tried to downplay that as any kind of issue, saying he was “not angry at all.”
“I’ll try him again when I get some more free time tomorrow or Monday or something like that,” Scott said. “I know he’s probably going through a tough time as far as trying to adjust to life without basketball at this particular point.”
It might not sit well with Lakers fans, however, that Nash continues to be paid by the franchise and not have a presence, even if it’s understood he’s unable to play.
Asked if he expected Nash to be around at all this season, Scott said, “I don’t know. I would like him to, but I don’t know.”
Nash has appeared in 65 games after being acquired in a sign-and-trade in 2012. In an open letter to Lakers fans last week, Nash defended social media posts in which he could be seen swinging a golf club and hiking and said he has “never worked harder, sacrificed more or faced such a difficult challenge” as in his time with the Lakers.
He did not state whether he intended to be around the team.
LAKERS DEFENSELESS
As the Lakers continue to play what is statistically the league’s worst defense, Scott continues to scratch his head to find a way to fix it.
He came in, of course, with a plan for this sort of thing. At his introductory news conference Scott promised “consequences” for players who didn’t perform on the defensive end, meaning they would find themselves on the bench.
