Although Steve Nash announced his retirement on Saturday afternoon, the Los Angeles Lakers point guard still had at least one NBA admirer.
That’s LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers who reportedly wanted Nash to sign with the Cavs if the Lakers opted to buy out their point guard after the NBA trade deadline.
Such a deal never manifested, likely because Nash wanted the coin owed to him, thus the two-time NBA MVP remained on the Lakers roster despite not being healthy enough to play. Had he been given his walking papers though the Cavs and LeBron James would have liked him to backup Kyrie Irving.
Per Marc Stein:
League sources told ESPN.com earlier this month that LeBron James‘ Cleveland Cavaliers — who happen to have two of the biggest Nash admirers on Earth in their front office, in David Griffin and former teammate Raja Bell — let it be known to longtime Nash agent Bill Duffy that they would love to give the old man a whirl as a short-minute backup to Kyrie Irving if Nash wanted to seek a buyout from the Lakers after the trade deadline passed with no deal.
Even if such would have happened, Steve Nash has shown an inability to stay healthy for any stretch of time so he likely wouldn’t have added much from an on-court perspective. Though you can never have enough knowledge, especially from somebody like Steve Nash.
