According to Jesse Campigotto of CBC Sports, Steve Nash of Victoria, British Columbia has been named the new head coach of the Brooklyn Nets. Nash takes over from Jacque Vaughn, who will return to his role as Nets assistant coach. Vaughn was the interim head coach of the Nets when the team fired Kenny Atkinson as their head coach on March 7.
Nash comes to Brooklyn with no coaching experience. Since 2015, Nash has been a player development consultant with the Golden State Warriors. Nash has been working closely with Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. While with the Warriors, Nash helped Golden State win back-to-back NBA Finals in 2017 and 2018. Both titles for the Warriors came over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
With the Nets, Nash will be reunited with Brooklyn’s star player in 2020-21, Kevin Durant. Nash and Durant were together with the Warriors. According to Kerr, Durant has “inherent” respect for Nash.
As a player, Nash was a wizard as a point guard and is in the National Basketball Hall of Fame and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. An eight-time all-star, Nash won the Lou Marsh Award in 2005, the Lionel Conacher Award in 2002, 2005 and 2006, and was the NBA Most Valuable Player in 2005 and 2006. He played 18 seasons in the NBA with the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers, and has the second highest free throw percentage in NBA history at 90.4%.
