Former NBA superstar Steve Nash was so deeply influenced by Black culture and hip-hop stars that he admits that he “wanted to be Black” when he was younger.
Nash made the confession on his and LeBron James’ new podcast “Mind the Game.” The two-time NBA MVP, who grew up in Canada, shared how hip-hop and Black basketball stars’ creativity resonated with him and he wanted to emulate the legendary ball handlers like Isiah Thomas, Tim Hardaway, and Kenny Anderson.
Steve Nash wanted to be Black as a teen
“Let’s also just be real: I wanted to be Black,” Nash told King James.
“All of the best players in the world were Black, all the best rappers were Black, you know. So I’m trying to emulate anyone who had something about them,” Nash recalls.
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Nash, 51, regaled James about his upbringing and being engulfed in the Michael Jordan sneaker craze and loving Spike Lee’s Nike commercials while he was in middle school in Canada.
“Started playing basketball, fell in love with it,” he told James at the 30-minute mark of the show. “Like, the first Air Jordan 1 Spike Lee commercial … It was right when I was in the eighth grade. I started playing when I was in seventh grade, going into eighth grade. I was like, ‘This world’s amazing.’ And let’s also just be real; I wanted to be Black.”
Much like what Larry Bird admitted decades ago, Nash said he admired the best players in college and the pros — and more specifically, the best ball handlers — who were Black players.
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James said that he and his teammates have said the same thing about his Lakers teammate, Austin Reaves, who was reared in Arkansas.
“It’s so funny you say that because we say the same s–t about AR,” LeBron said. “We’re like, ‘There’s no way you learned that in f—ing Arkansas. It’s like, Markieff Morris — we call him ‘Smooth’ on the team — it’s like, ‘No, I’m not believing you’re from Arkansas. You got to be from New Jersey or whatever. All that — you got that bop, bop, bop. You didn’t learn that s–t in Arkansas.'”
Reaves recently admitted that he believes the negative stereotype about White NBA players, much as Bird did when he ruled in the 1980s.
“You know, as a White guy in the NBA, I sometimes look at White players and I’m like, ‘They’re not very good,'” Reaves told ESPN. “So, it’s a stigma that I think is real.”
