TORONTO — Tottenham Hotspur is in Steve Nash's blood.
The two-time NBA MVP grew up a soccer fan thanks to the influence of his father, who introduced Nash to Tottenham at an early age. Growing up in Victoria, B.C., Nash and his family would regularly wake up at 5 a.m. to catch Spurs matches, and that tradition spawned a lifelong love for the beautiful game that is still at the forefront of the 45-year-old's sporting endeavours.
Now a retired basketball legend, Nash has had more time to delve into the sport he first fell in love with, owning stakes in RCD Mallorca of Spain and Canadian MLS club Vancouver Whitecaps. But even with literal stakes in other teams, Tottenham will always top the list for Nash due to the family connection.
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"My dad grew up in Tottenham a mile from the stadium, he used to walk to games as a kid to sit in the boys enclosure," Nash told Sporting News. "It's just something that's run in our family for a long time and was passed down to me from my earliest memories."
For many years during Nash's fandom, Spurs couldn't quite break into the top tier in England and Europe. But recently, with stars such as Harry Kane leading the line, Tottenham has become firmly entrenched among the biggest clubs in the Premier League, and Mauricio Pochettino's men advanced all the way to the Champions League final in June.
With the team on the cusp of its greatest success last season, it's perfectly natural for fans to expect more in the current campaign. But Nash feels Spurs could be in for a bit more transition than expected, even if it doesn't translate to immediate success domestically or in Europe.
"It's an interesting time, we'll see how it evolves here this year," Nash said. "It's kind of a start, refreshing a new cycle, actually. They have a lot of players that are fully mature, so you have to prepare for the next cycle, in a sense. At the same time, we want players like [Christian] Eriksen, [Toby] Alderweireld, [Jan] Vertonghen on the team, this year [and] next year, at least. And so, [they're] trying to fit that balance of some of these guys getting to the later stage of their career and making sure they have suitable replacements. That's kind of what's going on right now."
NBA legend Steve Nash was in tears at full-time of Tottenham's win!
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Nash pointed to the fullback situation at Tottenham as an example of the club constantly needing to reinvent itself. Over the past two years alone, Spurs have lost two England internationals at the right back position as Kyle Walker and Kieran Trippier moved on to Manchester City and Atletico Madrid, respectively.
But the club has hardly missed a beat despite the personnel changes, and Nash feels that Tottenham has created a system under Pochettino in which it can compensate for player departures without missing a beat.
"I think there's obviously some turnover in the wingback positions, but they have a lot of players and depth at other positions and most importantly have an incredible manager," Nash said. "As long as Pochettino sticks around, I always feel good about the outlook."
In Toronto last week as an ambassador of DAZN — the streaming platform that features every Premier League, Champions League and Serie A match, plus every NFL game and NFL RedZone — Nash recalls how tough it was for him as a youngster in British Columbia to satiate his budding love for soccer. Even though he would get up early to watch Tottenham, sometimes it was out of his hands as to whether he'd be able to catch his favourite team.
That's no longer the case in Canada, and Nash says that can only help bring today's young fans closer to the game.
"It's great for fans, great for young people, young players. There's so much access to the game," Nash said of DAZN. "It was so difficult [growing up]. The world was so big, so much bigger in that respect when I was growing up. You'd get a couple Premier League games [per week], maybe a German Bundesliga game, maybe a Serie A game ... you'd get a few games here and there. But, even through the rest of Europe, there [were] only a handful of [available] games, tops. And so nowadays, you can, if you want to, watch whatever, every game anywhere, anytime, and that's an incredible thing.
"And I also think just the access to social media as well to these players and these clubs are fantastic and allows young players and young kids to fall in love with the game at a higher rate, and also allows them to see what the standard is to aspire to get there."