Phoenix Suns Since ’68: Steve Nash Returns to the Phoenix Suns

I’d like to thank everyone for coming today. Uh this is a terrific turnout and I think that uh when the floodgates of free agency opened up on July 1, we had one specific goal and and one specific purpose and that purpose is sitting right next to me. Well, it started much earlier. It started a year prior. our team was off to a, you know, very mediocre start and, you know, talked to Mike a lot about, you know, what it might look like if we traded our best player at the time, Stefon Marberry. [Applause] And um maybe struggle through the season, but do so with a plan in mind. The plan being, you know, to to build up through free agency and potential, you know, draft. We talked briefly about what type of players we wanted to bring in and we had a couple guys in mind. We spoke about Kobe Bryant. He was a free agent as well, but we thought maybe it’d be a long stretch to bring Kobe in. So, we were, you know, just thinking about what would be the best fit for us. Steve would be the perfect fit for us because we need a point guard. We have players in every position that’s going to be successful in the near future. We just needed someone to put it all together. Steve would come back during September before he would go to Dallas and play it automatically, you could see the ball just flopping around and normally wasn’t like that. So, oh my gosh, he just makes everybody better. Other than that, I didn’t know a whole lot. I just knew that that’s the guy. If you want to run a what I want to run, we have to have a point guard like that. I didn’t know he was going to be that good. We had a focus on what we wanted to do with that money. Uh Mike and I and and Jerry, you know, talked openly with with uh new ownership about the idea and the thought that we were going to go after Steve Nash. You know, Steve was the guy that we had a we felt we had a legitimate shot at. Instead of flying to Los Angeles, we flew to Dallas. Uh instead of talking to Kobe, we talked to Steve and and we made it our priority uh you know to sign him. It was a long shot, but I also knew through Steve that Mark Cuban really was not acting right in in his opinion uh with regard to their negotiation. So, I knew that there was a little window. You know, we all jumped on the plane and so it was Robert and uh he was leading the pack and Michelangelo myself. There were probably 15 to 20 people at a house where we had seemed like sort of a Thanksgiving type of thing. Nice. amazing crib and I just remember that sitting down on a big table and trying to convince him and you know having no idea you know whether it work or not. He had already met with Dallas and received um what he felt was an underwhelming offer and at the end of the day um Dallas just they thought the the price price tag was too high and they allowed Steve to go and I think it was a mistake. You know, I’d made such a great friendship not with Durk and Mike Finley and and and just was such a part of that franchise at the time. And we’d gone from the worst team in the league to the conference finals I think the year prior to my free agency. So, I felt really embedded and invested in that organization and and wanted to to stay there frankly. But, you know, when they all showed up, I mean, everyone came out to Dallas to recruit me and I was flattered and humbled and I I could tell that they really wanted me and that’s a great feeling, especially when the club that you had had built your your kind of your name with wasn’t crazy about having me back. Um, you know, that that it meant everything to me that somebody did really want me and was going to invest in me and and hopefully I repaid them. Before we left, Steve was like, I’m coming to Phoenix. Yes. I mean, we were so ecstatic. Uh, and the funny thing is I was only maybe 20, I think, at the time. Maybe 21 or so. Kangelo is like, “Uh, so where you guys want to go eat and celebrate? Where you want to go, Amari?” I was like, “Let’s go to Wendy’s.” Like, “What? Wendy’s?” You know, it just it just goes to show how young I truly was. Whether or not we were going to retain him, if Dallas had matched, you know, what where we were talking in terms of the the stratosphere of dollars, uh, you know, that’s an unknown. But the fact that Dallas did not ultimately step into into that realm of dollars and and the fact that we walked out of there with a commitment from Steve that he would be joining us um you know clearly was um one of those great moments in in the history of the franchise.

On July 14th, 2004, the Phoenix Suns officially introduced Steve Nash back to the organization. Relive that day with clips from the press conference and interviews from at-the-time basketball operations personnel Head Coach Mike D’ Antoni and General Manager Bryan Colangelo. The video also features interviews from Steve and Amar’e Stoudemire.

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