In an interview with Eurohoops’ Cesare Milanti this weekend, Steve Nash spoke for the first time about his tenure as Brooklyn Nets Nash told Eurohoops that he never wanted to be a “career coach.” Without elaborating, he also told Eurohoops that he’s learned that the key to a successful NBA coaching career, long or short, isn’t so much the X’s and O’s but the relationships with a range of team members and “recognizing the power that players have these days.”
Nash, who was in Slovenia for Goran Dragic’s retirement ceremonies on Saturday, did not elaborate on any specific issues he had with Nets players, but made it clear he is happier coaching his children than coaching NBA players in Brooklyn.
“Coaching has been a great experience,” he told Milanti. “I didn’t want to become a professional coach. I don’t think coaching was going to be my career. I coach my children, I teach them about life. I’ve gained the opportunity to choose, and it’s rewarding. There are always projects, affiliates and partnerships. I always have something to do, I focus on my family,” he continued.
“I didn’t plan on being a coach, there was a unique situation in Brooklyn that was knocking on my door. It was a quick transition. You have to deal with a different dynamic. A lot of it is managing the personalities, between the front office, the players and the agents. That’s a big part of my job. All the dynamics, the personalities and the power that players have today,” he said.
During his two and a half years with the Nets before being fired in November 2022, Nash had to contend with the egos of Brooklyn’s “Big Three,” the superstars assembled by Sean Marks between 2019 and 2022.
The New York media often highlighted the power that Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden wielded within the franchise, being consulted on many matters, including roster decisions and the hiring and firing of key personnel, including Nash. Nash was often criticized for his coaching style, including his failure to call timeouts at crucial moments in the game and his inadequate preparation before doing so.
Indeed, Durant denounced Nash’s coaching in his trade request before the 2021-22 season opener. At the same time, Irving was lurching from one controversy to the next and was often absent or suspended. Harden then left for Philly, becoming the first to leave in September 2021. He cited a lack of structure after being traded. By February 2023, all three plus Nash had left Brooklyn after playing just 16 games together.
Nash also spoke about the need for honesty and how his leadership role as a player was so different from his leadership job as a head coach.
“The most important thing is to be honest with the players. You can do it in different ways. It is important to be clear and honest with the players so that they are not uncertain. Communication is the key,” he said, stressing that leadership on the bench is different from leadership on the pitch.
“For me, the easiest thing was to feel comfortable in my role as a leader and lead by example. What’s really difficult from a coaching perspective is that it’s a totally different leadership. When you’re coaching, you have to lead in small moments,” he explained.
“I was surprised to find that when I was coaching, I wasn’t around the team very often. I would spend five minutes with the players before the game, at halftime and after the game. Those were the only times I would speak to the team. I wanted to connect with each player individually. It’s important to create a culture and an environment where people believe in themselves and see them doing their best. You have to feel like you want them to be the best version of themselves,” Nash explained.
Nash, now 50 and out of the NBA, finished his Nets tenure with a combined 94-67 record, a 58.4% winning percentage, second all-time among franchise head coaches. (P.J. Carlesimo, who replaced Avery Johnson after his firing, was 34-19, a 64.8% winning percentage.
Nash was the surprise pick for the head coaching job in 2020, when he was selected a year after KD and Kyrie were drafted in the Clean Sweep. Marks had long been a big fan of the Hall of Fame point guard and had previously tried to lure him to Brooklyn. Nash declined, but with the addition of KD and Kyrie in 2019, the lure was too great. At the time of his hiring, he had never coached anywhere at the professional level.
Nash’s comments add another element to the story behind his departure, seven games into the 2022-23 season.
Ironically, Dragic, whom Nash honors Saturday, had already provided some of the most important details about the Nets’ demise, criticizing the selfish play of the team’s stars when he left the Nets in July 2022.
“I played with stars like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, and I have to admit it was quite difficult because the focus was not on the team, but rather on the individual performances of the players,” Dragic said at the time, adding: “Every day there was something different, something difficult.”
Steve Clifford, the veteran NBA head coach the Nets hired as a consultant under Nash, also defended Nash, saying his coaching was not the problem, but simply the games he missed, particularly those missed by Durant.
Since then, of course, the Nets have hired and fired Jacque Vaughn, Nash’s top assistant, and replaced him with Jordi Fernandez.
