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- CLUTCH Summary: Steve Nash won two MVP's due to his ability to score and create for his teammates.
- Phoenix was a contender with the star point guard on the roster.
- Nash dropped some memorable assists throughout his career in Phoenix and was one of the most feared playmakers of his time.
Steve Nash has made a career of highlight-reel passes throughout his Hall of Fame career. The two-time NBA MVP is a savant with the basketball and has the magical touch to make every pass he makes look extra special.
Nash spent the best years of his career with the Phoenix Suns. Players such as Amare Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, and Jason Richardson, to name a few, were some of the lucky recipients of some of the most amazing Steve Nash passes we have ever seen.
Without further ado, here are Steve Nash's five nastiest passes from his time with the Suns.
5. Soccer-Style Header to Amare Stoudemire for the 360 Throwdown
I'm gonna cheat a little bit with this one. Though it didn't happen in an actual game, this header assist to Amare Stoudemire in the 2005 Slam Dunk Contest was just too good to pass up.
When Nash returned to the Suns in the 2004-05 season, he and Stoudemire instantly clicked and had tremendous chemistry with each other. The awesome one-two punch showcased just that with this creative dunk contest team up that put the Denver crowd (including the likes of Kenny Smith, Kevin Harlan, and Magic Johnson as you can hear in the video above) into a frenzy.
Stoudemire deservedly garnered a 50 for this particular entry — his lone perfect score of the night. The 360 finish was impressive enough. But the real highlight was Nash's picture-perfect, on-the-money header.
Stoudemire, however, came up short in the final round as eventual winner Josh Smith of the Atlanta Hawks proved to be too much for the 6-foot-10 high-flyer to overcome. Smith dominated the finals with two 50's, while Stoudemire only finished with a total of 87 points for his final two dunks.
4. Falling Out of Bounds Save Versus the Lakers
This particular pass wasn't necessarily an assist, but it was one of his sickest ones nonetheless. With a minute remaining in the second overtime of a March 2011 game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Nash was doubled and trapped by Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher in the corner and was in danger of falling out of bounds.
With literally nowhere to go, Nash kept his balance and delivered an amazing behind the back pass to Marcin Gortat to save the possession. Gortat then made a heads up play by driving to the middle of the lane and kicking the ball out to a wide-open Channing Frye for a right-wing triple to give the Suns the lead late in OT2.
Nash actually could have traveled on this play. However, he kept his balance and got the ball to Gortat just in time before falling out of bounds.
Nash had a season-high 20 assists in that game. Phoenix ended up losing the Triple-OT thriller against the Lakers, 139-137.
3. No-look Over-the-Shoulder Pass to Grant Hill for the Triple
Nash's third best assist ever happened in a 117-113 regular season loss against the Miami Heat in December 2007.
This was actually a pretty crazy sequence for Phoenix. The Suns had a fast-break opportunity with the two-time MVP rushing down court. However, no other teammates were with him on the break apart from Grant Hill, who was standing in the left corner.
All five Heat defenders were back on defense as Nash made his move down the court. Nash appeared to go in for a layup and in the process, suctioned in two Heat players to commit to him, leaving Hill wide-open. Nash looked like he was in trouble as he jumped, but instead, flung an insane behind-the-head pass over his shoulder right into Hill's shooting pocket.
With a pass like that, there was no way Hill could miss.
Nash's amazing court awareness and basketball instincts were on display here. He knew Hill was waiting in the corner. But given that he was the only Suns player in sight and nearly every Heat defender was back, Nash made the right play by attracting the defense first.
Any other player who made that wild pass could have sent the ball into the stands. But not Nash. He put just the right amount of touch to rifle the pass right into Hill's hands.
Nash had 14 assists on the night. However, he shoot poorly from the field (4-of-13) en route to an 11-point outing.
2. Slick Behind-the-Back Feed to a Cutting Tim Thomas
Steve Nash's second-best assist ever occurred in a late-season game in April 2006 against the Los Angeles Lakers. The then-reigning MVP (this happened before he won his second) was in transition surveying the floor for an open man. He drove in the middle of the paint, dribbled behind his back, stopped for a split second, and delivered a slick behind-the-back hand-off to a cutting Tim Thomas for the easy deuce.
The amazing thing about this play is how slow and how smooth it looked. It really makes you appreciate the Houdini act that Nash just pulled off. You could literally see the four Lakers defenders in the lane freeze for a good second before they realized what the then-reigning MVP had just done to them.
The funny thing is, this is actually Tim Thomas' only basket in that game, which was their final regular season encounter before the Lakers and the Suns eventually faced off in a seven-game classic in the first round of the 2006 playoffs. Nash finished with 25 points and eight assists himself to lead Phoenix to a 107-96 home win.
1. Wrap-Around to Stoudemire!
This is arguably Steve Nash's nastiest assist of all time. It occurred in a high-stakes contest in the playoffs, too — facing elimination in Game 6 of their Western Conference Semi-Finals match-up against the San Antonio Spurs.
In this play, Nash drove past his former Dallas Mavericks teammate Michael Finley and got Spurs big man Tim Duncan to commit as well. It appeared like the two-time MVP was going in for a layup, but dished off an insane behind-the-back pass around Duncan's body that led to a massive and-one slam from Amare Stoudemire.
Mike Breen lost his mind on that one. He couldn't believe what he just saw.
Nash has always been gifted with incredible court vision, and that was on full display in that sequence. What makes this play extra special was his awareness of where his high-flying big man was.
You can see even STAT was surprised with the hot dish from his MVP. It took him a half-second to gather himself, but that was all the time he needed to fly in for the massive throwdown over Timmy D, and-one.
Unfortunately, the Suns lost that particular contest and were eliminated from the 2007 playoffs.
