Age Before Beauty

O.K. This one is primarily for all the basketball junkies out there... And for old people like me. The truth is I can barely stand the NBA. I only watch the games on television when there's is absolutely nothing else on--which sadly is more and more often.

Steve Nash is once again leading the NBA in assists. He is currently averaging 12.9 per game. These are assists, mind you, not points. In order to average 13 of them, a player has to make a pass that leads directly to a basket. And these aren't like the assists in soccer where you can pass it to a guy and he can then dribble the ball for 30 yards and kick it in. A true assist in basketball occurs when the last thing that happens before the shot is a pass. A good high school guard will average 5 of these per game. Bobby Hurley (hmmmm, where did he play?) still holds the NCAA record for most assists (1076). That record has stood since 1993. As good as Hurley was, he never averaged more than 8.2 assists per game in a single year. I think that he had 13 just once.

A few years ago, Allen Iverson and Carmello Anthony were battling for a scoring title one year. They were both flirting with the magical number of 30 points-per-game. Someone consulted Michael Jordan about this (Jordan averaged 30.1 over his entire career). Jordan just chuckled. He rhetorically asked, do you have any idea what it takes to average 30 a night? Here is a recollection/paraphrase of the conversation: Let's say you have an off night and you only score 20--which is still well above what the average NBA player can score in any given night--but you want to average 30 so that means you have to score 40 the next time out. Or, let's say you've got the flu and you get 15--now you're looking at a 45 point outing... just to keep pace. And, of course, you are playing against the best competition in the world. They know full well that you are the leader so while you are doing your best to average 30, they're doing their absolute best to keep you under 20.

So, we get it. Michael Jordan's accomplishments are even greater than we thought... But Steve Nash is no Michael Jordan...Right? He's that pale, anorexic guy from Canada. He looks more like a guy who works at a mom and pop video store than a serious athlete. And he's getting old or at least older for NBA point guards...

And yet--there it is--almost 13 assists per game. Once again, Nash is setting the bar. At 35-years-old, Nash, along with 37-year-old Grant Hill (hmmm, where did he play college ball?) have led the Suns to an 8-1 start this year. Nash is outplaying younger and seemingly more talented players, sometimes to the disgust of what my dad would have referred to as all the Prima Donnas out there.

So hat's off to Steve Nash and to all those folks out there who are making other people shine, Assists are great and so is playing the game with respect and style at 35! Here's a link to the article that inspired my blog http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/ian_thomsen/11/11/steve.nash/index.html?eref=sihp