Back when Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James was just getting his career going in Cleveland in the mid-2000s, Steve Nash and Mike D’Antoni were making the Phoenix Suns the NBA’s most exciting team. D’Antoni came over to Phoenix from Italy with a new, innovative offense and Nash was the perfect point guard to run it, immediately turning the Suns into a championship contender and winning back-to-back MVPs in 2005 and 2006.
The Suns’ style of play was unheard of at the time, focusing far more on up-tempo, spread out basketball with a lot of 3-pointers and ball movement. Though they never won a championship, elements of those Nash-led Suns teams remain in the game today and they truly changed basketball.
This is something that LeBron feels they don’t get enough credit for and he discussed that in the latest episode of Mind the Game alongside Nash. The Lakers superstar spoke on his belief that Nash and D’Antoni don’t get enough credit for how those teams changed the game and Nash discussed why they were able to be so effective at that time:
As Nash noted, the timing was perfect for D’Antoni to come in and implement that offense as the NBA was changing the defensive rules, no longer allowing the hand checks and extra physicality the league was known for. Opening things up made that Suns offense nearly unstoppable as opposing teams didn’t have the athleticism to match the likes of Amar’e Stoudemire and Shawn Marion while also having to account for shooters like Quentin Richardson, and Nash orchestrated thing beautifully.
Of course, Stephen Curry has since come in and taken things to an entirely different level, but what those Nash-D’Antoni Suns teams did deserves a lot of credit as well. Like LeBron said, there’s plenty of others who get their shine, but those Suns teams helped shape the future of the game and were tough to deal with, as the Lakers teams of that era know all too well.
LeBron James wants to make sure others get their credit, but Austin Reaves wants the Lakers’ superstar to get his as well. Reaves recently spoke on how important LeBron has been to his career, welcoming him in to the Lakers from when he was on a two-way deal to helping him grow on a daily basis.
“As all of y’all have probably seen from my rookie year when a tweet got posted from when I was 12 talking about, I basically was just talking shit on LeBron,” Reaves said. “Wasn’t a huge LeBron fan, I was a Kobe fan. So automatically I didn’t love him.
“But obviously I always respected his game and then just being around him every single day, the joy that he brings to the team. Like I’ve said, he isn’t ever in a bad mood. He’s always joking, laughing, having a good time. For him to welcome me from when I was on a two-way the same way as he does today, it just meant a lot to me. Obviously being able to play alongside him just helped me grow every single day. So I owe him a lot for what he’s helped me accomplish. Yeah, he’s a pretty good guy.
