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Stephen John Nash (born February 7, 1974 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a Canadian All-Star National Basketball Association player for the Phoenix Suns. He is the current and two-time consecutive recipient of the NBA Most Valuable Player Award. more...

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Early years

Born in South Africa, Steve Nash's parents relocated to Canada, settling in Victoria, British Columbia before he was two years old. They did not want to raise their children in an environment of apartheid. As his mother Jean later said, "I didn't want our son to grow up in a place where one group of people was second-class citizens."

Nash comes from an athletic family. His father John Nash was a minor league professional soccer player in South Africa. His brother Martin Nash has made 30 appearances for the Canadian national soccer team. His sister Joann was the captain of the University of Victoria soccer team for three years. Nash had decided to focus on basketball in his early teens, but still played soccer through high school, and was named British Columbia player of the year in soccer as well as basketball in his senior year. Since his father is a native of Tottenham, Nash grew up rooting for Tottenham Hotspur and even trained with the "Spurs" in North London as a teenager. Soccer continues to be an important part of Nash's life. In fact, when Dirk Nowitzki arrived in the NBA from Germany, he and Nash became close friends, in part because they enjoyed watching soccer together. In addition to soccer, Nash excelled at hockey and lacrosse as a child.

Nash grew up in Victoria, British Columbia and played high school basketball for St. Michaels University School along with his younger brother Martin. In his senior season, he averaged nearly a triple-double per game—more than 21 points, 11 assists, and 9 rebounds—led his team to the BC AAA provincial championship title, and was named the province's player of the year. However, because of the limited attention afforded to the Canadian high school basketball circuit, Nash went completely unrecruited by the U.S. NCAA schools. His coach, Ian Hyde-Lay, sent letters of inquiry and highlight reels on Nash's behalf to over 30 American universities to no avail.

Acting on a tip, Santa Clara University head coach Dick Davey was intrigued enough however to twice request video footage of the young guard before finally making the trip up from Northern California to visit the recruit in person. After watching Nash dominate a game, Davey recalled later, "I was nervous as hell just hoping that no one else would see him. It didn't take a Nobel Prize winner to figure out this guy's pretty good. It was just a case of hoping that none of the big names came around." Nash was awarded a scholarship by Santa Clara for the 1992-93 season. As a freshman, he helped lead the Broncos to West Coast Conference title and an upset win over No. 2 seeded Arizona Wildcats in the first round of the 1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.

Read more at Wikipedia.org