On the latest episode of Mind The Game with LeBron James, Steve Nash shared a story that perfectly captured the passing of the torch between generations. Sitting alongside Stephen Curry, the player who redefined the point guard position, Nash admitted that guarding Curry during a preseason game was the moment he knew his NBA career had reached its end.
“You might know this, but you deserve a little bit of putting me out to pasture, a little bit of my retirement story. It’s not something I like to talk about in public a lot. When he came in the league, I still felt like the big brother, you know, I still did. And then he started becoming who he is, and the pendulum shifted.”
“So my last two years with the Lakers, my second game with the Lakers, I bumped knees in Dame’s first game with Dame, and broke my tib-fib joint on the inside where it’s weight-bearing, it’s a problem. And it’s where the nerve goes. I already had nerve stuff, and I was never the same.”
“I spent two years working out twice a day just to try to overcome it. So I come back, my 18th training camp, and I’m like, I’ve been going so hard trying to get there. I had a pretty good first preseason game. I can’t remember how many, I think we drove home from San Diego. I had a back spasm the next morning.”
“I was just like, then, like, I don’t know, I was doing all right, and then I was like, another flare-up. And it’s just that my nerves were messed up. I couldn’t recover. And I was like, well, I gotta find out. So, like, I had a week since I’d last played, and I was like, we’re playing them in preseason, I gotta find out—can I play hurt? Or else, what’s the point, right?”
“And so we went to play these guys’ preseason in Ontario, California, or somewhere. We came out, I’m guarding Steph. I think they put up like 50 in the first quarter. Maybe it was 45, but it felt like a 50-piece. He’s running everywhere, my back is broke, everything’s jacked. I couldn’t have stopped him if I was 100%, and I’m dragging around.”
“Stevie Kerr’s putting me in every action, I’m looking over at Steve like, come on Stevie, we know, we know. They’re laughing at me. Alvin Gentry over there is laughing at me, like, ‘No, no, no, I just thought I’d see what you got.'”
“And I’m like, man. Literally, like, three or four more days of thinking on it, I was like, yeah. I think it’s time. I think it’s time. And that was it.”
“You put me out!” 🤣
Steve Nash faced Steph Curry in the preseason and knew it was time to hang it up 😭 Watch @mindthegamepod on @PrimeVideo, YouTube and listen everywhere podcasts are available 🍿 pic.twitter.com/ixF9PDDVxm
— NBA on Prime (@NBAonPrime) November 4, 2025
Ironically, not long after his retirement, Nash showed up at a Warriors practice, this time as a mentor rather than a defender.
“Next thing I know, he’s teaching us pick and roll,” Curry recalled on the podcast.
Nash smiled and replied, “Hey, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”
The story is poetic. Before Curry, Nash was the NBA’s purest playmaker, a two-time MVP who revolutionized spacing, tempo, and shooting efficiency. Over 18 seasons, he totaled more than 17,000 points and 10,000 assists, shooting 42.9% from three and 90.4% from the free-throw line.
But against Curry, the future stared him right in the face. The movement, the shooting, the relentless energy, it was everything Nash once brought to the floor, turned up to another level. That night wasn’t a defeat; it was a realization. The game had evolved, and his successor was standing right in front of him.
