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Olympics 2000
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Nash flying several flags Down Under
It has been a long time since Britain made any kind of impression in the
Olympic basketball competition. Since 1988 when qualification was
narrowly missed, we have been on the sidelines watching in as more
vertically blessed nations have contended for the titles on offer. So
with that in mind, Steve Nash would be most appreciative if you could
offer him and his Canadian team-mates your support instead.South African-born but of London parentage, Nash is regularly hauled out
on public parade by the NBA and packaged as a pseudo-Brit, the
proverbial 'someone from here who is doing rather well over there.' The
Dallas Mavericks point guard may have established himself as one of the
best passers in basketball across the Atlantic but he admits that on his
regular journeys to Blighty, he gets to be just another emigrant
returning home to see the family.Except that not every tourist gets to wander off the street and train
with Spurs on a summer's afternoon as Nash did recently, a fantasy come
true which for him was the fulfilment of every childhood sporting dream.
With a father who was good enough to make a career in the lower reaches
of the English league, he could so easily have followed a path into
football instead, a choice he reveals was more due to peer pressure than
an absence of talent."All my friends played basketball and I didn't want to be travelling
round playing soccer or hockey when they were doing something else,"
states Nash. "So I pretty much gave it up. Being a naive and cocky
sportsman, I always think I could have made it. I've no idea how good I
could have become though."Nn a competition where American victory is as close to a certainty as
death and taxes, Nash and his national squad are hoping to squeeze in for silver and are buoyant after a positive 2-0 start.Although he is one of two NBA representatives in Canadian colours, Nash is aware that the gulf in class is immense between the neighbouring countries.
"They are going to be hard to beat," said Nash, whose national selection
was defeated 99-70 by the USA in a warm-up contest last month. "But I
think you have to have a balanced basketball team without worrying about
where guys play. When you have good players, you have to make them fit
together and make a better team than the sum of their individual parts."Just because Todd (McCulloch) or I are in the NBA doesn't mean we have
to score 20 points every game. Just because you are great in the NBA
doesn't make you great in the international game. Some people play
differently in different settings."Canadian coach Jay Triano will need additional help from his British-
based contingent which includes Newcastle Eagles shooter Andrew Mavis
and Chester Jets' guard Greg Francis. Their team will first have to get
past a qualifying group which includes fancied Yugoslavia and Spain if
they are to tee up a meeting with favourites in the latter stages. It is
a challenge which few expect can be met but Nash insists that the
feeling within the camp has been nothing but positive."As long as we continue to have the great chemistry we had last summer,
I think we can upset some people. We're probably not expected to win a
medal but we feel privately good about our chances. However it's the
Olympics. It's going to be difficult at every turn. With Canada, we feel
we can beat any team but also lose to anyone as well. So we have to be
focused every night."
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