Steve Nash has one year left on his contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, and when that deal is up, it will likely mark the end of Nash's NBA career. The legendary point guard said as much in an interview with Sport TV last week:
Steve Nash says he’ll retire after next season
Barring a change of heart, Nash will call it quits after his contract with the Lakers runs out.
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“I think this is my last season,” Nash said. “But I still love to play, practice and work on my game. I’m going to spend hopefully many many years living this life without basketball. It’ll be nice to play one more year.”
The 40-year-old Nash has been plagued by injuries ever since joining the Lakers for the 2012-13 season, appearing in just 67 games total over the last two years. Last season, he played in only 15 games due to a lingering nerve issue in his back.
Nash could have easily retired after last season, but he admitted the $9.7 million on the table for 2014-15, among other things, was a major draw for him to finish out his three-year contract.
The Lakers considered waiving Nash via the stretch provision this offseason, which would have spread his cap hit out over the next three seasons, but Nash will stick around after L.A. whiffed on its major free-agent targets, according to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times and confirmed by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News.
Keeping Nash on the books for what will likely be another rough year in Los Angeles makes sense, as waiving him would cut into cap space for future years. That’s cap space that could be used in another attempt to attract stars to the franchise.
It's unclear whether Nash or the newly acquired Jeremy Lin is in line to be the starting point guard next season. Even if Nash does get the call at the outset of the year, expect Lin to get plenty of starts given Nash's health problems.
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