mobile app bar

“Damn Steve Nash, I am wide open!!”: When Lakers superstar Dwight Howard shouted at his teammate and current Nets coach for not passing to him on 2012-13 Lakers squad

Akash Murty
Published

"Damn Steve Nash, I am wide open!!": When Lakers superstar Dwight Howard shouted at his teammate and current Nets coach for not passing to him on 2012-13 Lakers squad

Steve Nash is one of the best passers the NBA has ever seen. But there was an occasion when Dwight Howard thought Steve could’ve done better.

Steve Nash was one otherworldly passer. You could be anywhere on a basketball court, guarded by a great defender, still, a Nash pass will find you. It won’t just find you, it would be at a perfect height and spin for you to catch and shoot or dunk.

Nash made his living out of the craft. He led the NBA in assists 5 times. He ranks as one of the top players in NBA league history in 3-point shooting, free-throw shooting, total assists, and assists per game.

But Dwight Howard was once upset with Steve when they were both with the Lakers.

Also read: “Chris Paul will be one of the best point guards in our game for a long time”: When Steve Nash was all praises for a rookie CP3 before he broke the Nets head coach’s assists record

Dwight Howard was seen shouting at Steve Nash for not passing the ball to him

Steve Nash had a very successful NBA career, drafted by Phoenix Suns in 1996 he had two stints with the franchise. First, he played there for 4 years, went to Dallas Mavericks for 6 seasons, then came to Phoenix and stayed doubled his last stay.

His second stint with Phoenix was where the guard was considered as league’s best, he won 2 MVPs in his 1st two seasons back in his hometown. He won those MVPs when there were prime Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Dwight Howard in the league.

Nash later in his career teamed up with Kobe and Howard in search of his first championship. It was in LA where the incident that we are talking about, happened. It was a match with the mighty Miami Heat,

View on Website

There was clearly no way that Nash guarded by Udonis Haslem and all his path covered by LeBron and Mario Chalmers could have passed the ball to “wide open” Howard.

If he could have, Dwight would have got it without asking because Nash lived to feed the scorers, he knew and saw every angle possible. That’s how he was the league’s top-3 assist provider until CP3 crossed him recently.

Also read: “It’s an honor, a privilege and I’m grateful”: Chris Paul expresses his true emotions after passing Steve Nash to become the 3rd highest assists leader in NBA history

While Dwight is one of the best Centers in the NBA and a future Hall of Famer, he should not and must not tell a guard of Steve Nash’s caliber where and how to pass the ball. Will he dare do that to LeBron James or Russell Westbrook? Well, he must, as the Lakers will need all the support from the bench this season, having started with a 5-4 record.

About the author

Akash Murty

Akash Murty

x-iconfacebook-iconinstagram-iconlinkedin-icon

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

Read more from Akash Murty

Share this article