Can Steve Nash Resist the Curse?

 

Steve Nash, Will He Beat the Odds?

The phrase “those who can, do; those that can’t, teach” is often used to point fun at teachers. With some minor word twisting, it can be applicable to some coaches, too, in that “those who can do, often can’t teach.”

Three out of the four NBA teams that have reached this year’s respective Conference Finals (LA Lakers, Boston Celtics and Miami Heat) and possibly all four teams (if the Denver Nuggets are able to win their series against the LA Clippers) are governed by head coaches who had zero NBA playing experience. Yet, the Brooklyn Nets, a team that is looking to have an inspiring 2021 campaign with the likes of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, decided to hire Steve Nash, an NBA Hall of Fame point guard.

Nash is a highly intelligent and skilled player. He created the “run and gun” Phoenix Suns which helped them reach the Western Conference Finals, named a seven-time NBA All-Star, and even led the Canadian National Team to earning silver and bronze medals in several international tournaments. Nash also was hired by the Golden State Warriors as a part-time consultant during two of their NBA Championship runs. Despite all these accolades, Nash has yet to serve in any meaningful coaching capacity.  So, placing him as the promising Brooklyn Nets’ head coach is analogous to throwing a child in the twelve-foot end of a swimming pool before teaching him how to swim in the three foot end.

History is not on Nash’s side either. Sixteen people have become NBA head coaches without any prior coaching experience.

Year	Team	Coach	Seasons	W	L	PCT	Playoff appearances	Series won
2020	BRK	Steve Nash	?	?	?	?	?	?
2014	NYK	Derek Fisher	2	40	96	29%	0	0
2014	GSW	Steve Kerr	6	337	138	71%	5	18
2013	BRK	Jason Kidd	1	44	38	54%	1	1
2011	GSW	Mark Jackson	3	121	109	53%	2	1
2008	CHI	Vinny Del Negro	2	82	82	50%	2	0
2005	MIN	Kevin McHale	1	19	12	61%	0	0
2000	IND	Isiah Thomas	3	131	115	53%	3	0
1999	ORL	Doc Rivers	5	171	168	50%	3	0
1997	IND	Larry Bird	3	147	67	69%	3	7
1995	BOS	M.L. Carr	2	48	116	29%	0	0
1994	LAL	Magic Johnson	1	5	11	31%	0	0
1993	DAL	Quinn Buckner	1	13	69	16%	0	0
1992	DEN	Dan Issel	3	96	102	48%	1	1
1987	PHO	Dick Van Arsdale	1	14	12	54%	0	0
1980	SDC	Paul Silas	3	78	168	32%	0	0

 

The average winning percentage for these sixteen coaches is a subpar 43.75%. And though it is hard to fathom that Nash will have the paltry coaching records that his  colleagues Fisher and Buckner experienced, it’s even harder to suppress the expectations, especially in a city like New York who irrationally considers all their teams to be championship contenders, that Nash will reach heights similar to Bird or Kerr. The CornerCube believes that Nash will reach Bird’s average, but not reach the winning percentage of Steve Kerr.

Derek Fisher, Possibly Puzzled on Why He Took The Knicks Job

The reason for this is because of the psychological theory called, “the curse of expertise.” In L. Jon Wertheim’s and Sam Sommers’ book called, This is Your Brain on Sports, they summarize this psychological theory (in sports terms) as, “the better we get at a task, the worse we often become at articulating what we’re doing. So it is that the Great Ones often . . . struggle to communicate what has always come naturally to them.” People forget that “being an expert at doing something doesn’t always translate into being an expert at explaining how to do it.” Experts, in this case great players, see and mentally organize the world differently than others – they have greater visual skills/anticipatory skills/motor skills – but have difficulty realizing that they are actually experiencing these skills. In other words, experts can’t share with others these skills because the expert themselves don’t realize fully these skills.

The Nets have several positives on their side. The first is that they have two all-stars, in Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, to help alleviate any of Nash’s growing pains. Luke Walton, an interim head coach for the Golden State Warriors, could directly credit Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson with making him look like a Hall of Fame NBA coach (it wouldn’t be until Walton was hired the subsequent season by the Lakers to realize his true coaching value). The second positive is that Nash is a willing participant and willing to overcome the curse of expertise. First, Nash can use data to help determine which coaching concepts provide the best results and, second, is that Nash has had time to reflect and (possibly) take notes on what he struggled with in basketball prior to becoming great. This way of thinking forces the expert to have to think about what they did to overcome their past difficulties. Unfortunately, the best method for an expert to overcome the curse is to shadow a coach or in laymen’s terms – have prior coaching experience.