A report from the US Airways Center in Phoenix, where the Spurs faced the Suns on January 29th, and we talked to Steve Nash about not making the All-Star squad.PHOENIX, Ariz. -- When the All-Star reserves were announced on Thursday, there was a fairly glaring (although not surprising) omission from the Western Conference squad: two-time MVP and six-time All-Star Steve Nash was left off the list.
As I said, this wasn't exactly a surprise. With Shaquille O'Neal and Amare Stoudemire solidly in, it's hard for the Suns to justify a third player in the game when they're a team that's near the bottom of the playoff picture, whether they play in the city that's hosting the event or not.
After the Suns were defeated by the Spurs, Nash gave us his thoughts on not being named to the squad, and said that based on the season he's had so far, he didn't deserve to be there.
"Of course it would have been a great honor to make it, but I probably didn't deserve it," Nash said. "We had a first month of the season where we weren't really ourselves, and the team's in seventh place. You know, I spent a month of the season just walking up the court and throwing the ball in the post so, it's hard to be an All-Star like that. And we didn't win enough games that month, so, I probably didn't deserve it."
Reading between the lines here (or perhaps just translating the obvious), the system -- and the way Nash was asked to run the offense, especially to start the season -- is more to blame for his statistical decline than anything else.
Nash's numbers are the lowest they've been since he was a member of the Dallas Mavericks five years ago, and it's hard to look at anything but Terry Porter's new system for the explanation. Nash can still bring it though, as he's shown more recently: he's totaled 96 assists over his last seven games, for an average of 13.7 per contest. Those are All-Star numbers anyway you slice it, and had the first month of the season gone a little differently, the Suns might just have gotten themselves that third All-Star.
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Least he's admitting it. He looks like he's ready to go to NY in a NY minute just to reunite with D'Antoni.
All of the clues lead to Steve's heading to the Big Apple for his reunion with D'Antoni. Even to his new home away from sunny AZ.