Dreaming, believing in yourself and practicing are the keys to becoming one of the best point guards in the National Basketball Association (NBA), according to Steve Nash.
The modest Dallas Mavericks star always wanted to play professional basketball. "I would say that I was naive enough to think I could do it," he says.
Nash's career began in high school at St. Michaels University School in Victoria, BC, and continued at Santa Clara University in California. In storybook fashion, the Phoenix Suns drafted Nash in the first round, right out of university. After two years in Phoenix, he was traded to Dallas and the rest, as they say, is history.
At 28, Nash has proven that he's got game. He was selected as a reserve for the Western Conference team at the 2002 NBA All-Star Game and was also captain of the Canadian basketball team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He led the Canadian team to its best-ever record of five wins, two losses and a seventh-place world ranking. Nash's abilities as a basketball player are also reflected in his impressive statistics.
Nash spent many hours perfecting his talent. He videotaped college and NBA basketball games so he could "watch the players' moves over and over, and then try to do them myself." Nash thinks the visualization techniques and mental agility so useful in sports will soon be more recognized as crucial skills for all aspects of life.
At Santa Clara University, Nash studied sociology, which - at first - was a way to avoid classes he thought he would dislike. However, Nash says he grew to enjoy his studies because the subject fueled his interests in psychology and people. "I thought sociology was very educational, if not practical in a career sense." Nash says he attended university to pursue his dreams of playing professional basketball, but it was important to him to graduate.
Basketball careers don't last forever, but since Nash is at the top of his game, he hasn't figured out his next move yet. "My primary goal is always to be happy and have fun and having a family would be a great way to do that," he says. "Other than that, the only thing I've thought about doing is helping people, maybe developing my foundation (the Flo Foundation) and having a more profound impact on people in need."
CP: Do you have any role models or people you look up to?
SN: Aside from athletes and people in basketball, my mom and dad. I think everyone is a role model, because everyone is fascinating to some extent or another.
CP: Is there a secret weakness that nobody knows about you?
SN: I was never a very interested student. Now I find myself very intrigued and reading a lot and really interested in a lot of things. I also wasn't a very explosive player, until recently. Now I'm more explosive, but I always struggled with power and jumping and stuff like that.
CP: What kind of advice would you give to people who have extraordinary dreams?
SN: I would say believe in your dreams, and don't take the world too seriously. Have fun with it. If your dream isn't fun and is causing you to be unhappy, then maybe you should re-evaluate what you're doing. I think people should follow their dreams with passion but also with spirit, with the goal of having fun in their mind, because that's how people are most successful.
