Los Angeles Lakers veteran point guard Steve Nash reportedly wanted to retire before this season started, but the franchise persuaded him to continue on.
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Nash featured in just 10 games last season and has not played at all this year as he has been hit with injury setbacks throughout his time in LA.
While that has undoubtedly been tough for him to deal with, it has enraged Lakers fans given that he is on a $9,701,000 salary and they blame him for not retiring last summer and saving the franchise money against the cap.
However, Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding suggests that it may not have entirely been his decision.
“The only reason Nash isn’t retired from basketball already, having put it all behind him, is so he could try to help the Lakers,” Ding wrote.
“Nash was ready to call it a career before the season. After deep soul-searching to accept his body does not belong in an official NBA uniform any longer, he wasn’t just out for the season.
“He was, and is, done.
“The Lakers asked Nash not to announce anything, according to team sources. They hoped they could trade Nash’s $9.7 million salary, not only an expiring contract but also a giant coupon for another club to take and immediately save real dollars via insurance, to get a building block for the Lakers’ future.”
While that does make sense from the Lakers perspective in the sense that they could have used his contract to their advantage in a trade deal, Nash has openly insisted that he was never going to retire as he wouldn’t want to turn down that amount of money.
As a result, there is split opinion on whether or not the Lakers really had anything to do with it, or whether they are looking to protect their player from further scrutiny beyond his playing days.
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