Many of us won’t be able to comprehend how much better NBA players are compared to a layperson. Even a below-average three-point shooter in the league could go perfect during an individual warm-up. And the muscle memory from years of training and playing sticks with these players even after they retire from the sport.
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This was evident in how Steve Nash shocked Pat McAfee. The two-time MVP left the ESPN talk show host in awe of the effortless ease and efficiency with which he shot a basketball for the first time in many years.
In late March, LeBron James made his infamous appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. Following his time with the crew, James used their facility to record an episode of his Mind the Game podcast with Nash. McAfee and his team stuck around.
Nash and James are notorious for drinking glasses of wine during their discussion. The two had drunk a good amount of wine by the time they wrapped up the episode. McAfee believes it was roughly “two bottles of wine deep.”
It’s not often a legendary player like Nash is at McAfee’s studio, titled the ‘Thunderdome’. The analyst extended an invitation to Nash to shoot some hoops on their basketball court. The Phoenix Suns legend was hesitant to start with but eventually agreed.
“We go, ‘Steve, do you want to play a shooting game’?” McAfee revealed on his show. “He goes, ‘I haven’t shot in like 11 years’.”
McAfee and the rest of the crew assumed Nash would be rusty, but that was far from the case. “He goes in the corner, splash. 10 for 10 and he didn’t even hit the rim.”
McAfee, till then, probably had no clear idea how great NBA players truly are. He brought up this story to 13-year NBA veteran Quentin Richardson, who played alongside Nash for the 2004-05 season.
Nash’s shooting prowess doesn’t come as a shock to Richardson. Not only because it’s Nash, but it is common among players. McAfee asked Richardson if he still plays pickup basketball, which he revealed he doesn’t. On the contrary, Q-Rich revealed that if he were to shoot the basketball, he would torch the rim.
Richardson compared the art of shooting to a common hobby everyone can relate to. “It ain’t going nowhere, it’s like riding a bike,” Richardson said, before stating that he would also be able to follow in Nash’s footsteps in terms of connecting on three-point shots at this stage of his life.
“All I got to do is get a couple of warm-up shots, [and] calibrate wherever I’m at,” Richardson stated. McAfee understood at that moment that professional basketball players are a different breed. Specifically, shooting in a non-competitive environment is second nature for them.
Shortly after Richardson’s response, McAfee recalled Indiana Pacers superstar Tyrese Haliburton’s visit to the studio. At the time, he was struggling on the court. McAfee and the rest of the crew were talking trash. Haliburton shut them up soon after.
“[Tyrese Haliburton] was having a bad go there for a little bit at the beginning of the year. He goes 15 for 15,” McAfee revealed.
Richardson reminds McAfee that NBA players have trained their whole lives, and the skills don’t fade away overnight. Having the number of repetitions they’ve had, NBA players are almost always automatic, even if they have been away from the game for a while. The perfect 10 by Nash was a prime example of that.
