{"id":31071,"date":"2014-11-10T01:14:49","date_gmt":"2014-11-09T17:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=31071"},"modified":"2014-11-10T01:14:49","modified_gmt":"2014-11-09T17:14:49","slug":"canadas-steve-nash-answers-disgruntled-lakers-fans-in-facebook-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/11\/10\/canadas-steve-nash-answers-disgruntled-lakers-fans-in-facebook-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s Steve Nash answers disgruntled Lakers fans in Facebook letter"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Steve Nash gives interview at The Seventh Steve Nash Foundation Showdown at Sarah D. Roosevelt Park (Lev Radin \/ Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Steve Nash says there’s a big difference between playing basketball and swinging a golf club.<\/p>\n

The Canadian NBA star posted a letter on Facebook on Friday night, to explain the extent of his back injury and to answer fans who are angry over a video of him swinging a golf club.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old from Victoria will miss what would have been his 19th — and surely last — season in the NBA with nerve damage in his back. He recently posted a video on Instagram, which has since been deleted, of him hitting balls at a driving range, sparking outrage from some fans.<\/p>\n

“…there is an incredible difference between this game and swinging a golf club, hiking, even hitting a tennis ball or playing basketball at the park,” Nash wrote. “Fortunately those other activities aren’t debilitating, but playing an NBA game usually puts me out a couple of weeks. Once you’re asked to accelerate and decelerate with Steph Curry and Kyrie Irving it is a completely different demand.”<\/p>\n

Nash’s injuries have limited him to just 65 games in two seasons in L.A.<\/p>\n

“I definitely don’t want to be a distraction, but I felt it best everyone heard from me in my own words,” the two-time NBA MVP wrote.<\/p>\n

“I have a ton of miles on my back,” Nash continued. “Three bulging disks (a tear in one), stenosis of the nerve route and spondylolisthesis. I suffer from sciatica and after games I often can’t sit in the car on the drive home, which has made for some interesting rides. Most nights I’m bothered by severe cramping in both calves while I sleep, a result of the same damn nerve routes, and the list goes on somewhat comically.<\/p>\n

“That’s what you deserve for playing over 1,300 NBA games. By no means do I tell you this for sympathy — especially since I see these ailments as badges of honor — but maybe I can bring some clarity.”<\/p>\n

The Lakers are 0-5 and last in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

Nash wrote that he’s always been one of the hardest workers in the game, and that for the past two years he’s “worked like a dog” to both overcome the setbacks and to find the form that could inspire Lakers fans in what he called “my last chapter.”<\/p>\n

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