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They called him Captain Canada. So it’s only fitting Steve Nash of Victoria is the first Canadian player inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame. Nash was honoured for his nine years of playing for Canada in international competitions. FIBA is the world governing body for basketball. The two-time NBA MVP Nash was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018.
Nash’s international highlights included leading Canada to a 5-2 record, and into the quarter-finals of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, before a crushing 68-63 quarter-final loss to Tony Parker and France kept him out of the Games medal round. The picture of Nash, in tears leaving the court, graced the front page of the Times Colonist the next day.
Nash led Canada to qualifying for Sydney through the hairy Americas’ tournament in Puerto Rico, where the buses took the long route to the arena and fans banged on the visitors dressing room door, ahead of the winner-take-all final against the host nation.
The graduate of Arbutus Junior High and St. Michaels University School, who made his national-team debut at the 1994 world championships in Toronto, was also named MVP of the Americas regional qualifier in 2004 despite that Canada did not advance to the Athens Olympics.
Nash was among the cauldron lighters for the home-province 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics along with Wayne Gretzky, Nancy Greene and Catriona Le May Doan.
Nash was inspired to play internationally for Canada by watching University of Victoria stars Eli Pasquale, Gerald Kazanowski and Greg Wiltjer make it to the semifinals of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics against the Michael Jordan-led U.S. and then to sixth place in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Nash becomes the fourth Canada-associated person in the FIBA Hall after the game’s inventor Dr. James Naismith, four-time Olympic coach Jack Donohue and referee Allen Rae.
Nash, now head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, was also GM of the Canadian national team for seven years, often shagging balls in pre-game warm-ups at international tournaments. Nash’s international connections continue into the next generation with his God-Son R.J. Barrett of the New York Knicks expected to play a key role for Canada in the Tokyo Olympics qualifying tournament June 29 to July 4 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
Nash headlined the 12-member FIBA Class of 2021, which will be enshrined in a virtual ceremony in June. Also to be inducted in the Class are Ukranian star player Alexander Volkov, who won gold with the Soviet Union in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and American coach Tara VanDerveer, the winningest women’s coach in NCAA history at Stanford, who coached the U.S. to the gold medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
cdheensaw@timescolonist