Steve Nash retired from basketball on Saturday. He is 41 years old.
In this case, “retired” means that he will not play basketball professionally any more.
Nash is on the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team but he hasn’t played in about a year because of a back injury.
Nash is considered one of the most talented point guards to play the game and one of Canada’s most talented professional athletes. He is known as a nice person—both on and off the court.
He is about 6’ 2” tall (188 cm) tall, which is considered fairly short for a basketball player. He made up for his lack of height with intelligent playing, speed and hard work.
Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, sent Nash a message on Twitter. “There has never been a better Canadian basketball player than Steve Nash,” the tweet read. “Congratulations on an incredible career.”
Many of Nash’s former teammates have also put messages on Twitter saying that they enjoyed playing with him, and that he inspired them.
Eight times, Nash was named an all-star; only two other players in NBA history have more assists than he does (he has 10,335 assists).
Steve Nash was born in South Africa, but he grew up in British Columbia.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Many professional athletes find it difficult to retire. Even Steve Nash, who had a very serious back injury, did not retire until almost a year had passed. Why do you think professional athletes find the decision to retire so challenging?
Reading Prompt: Making Inferences/Interpreting Texts
Stephen Harper sent a Twitter message congratulating Steve Nash on his illustrious career. Why do you think Prime Minister Harper tweeted?
Primary
Make inferences about texts using stated and implied ideas from the texts as evidence (OME, Reading: 1.5).
Junior
Use stated and implied ideas in texts to make inferences and construct meaning (OME, Reading: 1.5).
Intermediate
Develop and explain interpretations of increasingly complex or difficult texts using stated and implied ideas from the texts to support their interpretations (OME, Reading: 1.5).
Language Feature: Semi Colons ( ; )
Semi Colons give many writers headaches. Maybe it’s a half colon; it is a semi colon after all. Or maybe it’s halfway between a period and a comma; it sort of looks like that. Well, here’s how it works. A semi colon should be treated almost identically like a period. In terms of punctuation, the only only difference is that you don’t capitalize the first letter after a semi colon.
So what does a semi colon do?
A semi colon is a punctuation mark that shows that two complete sentences are related. In other words, the author is trying to make a visual link between two sentences. Like here,
Eight times, Nash was named an all-star; only two other players in NBA history have more assists than he does (he has 10,335 assists).
Write two sentences sentence about yourself and swap the final period with a semi colon when you are done. Reread the sentences and try to see the difference in meaning that a semi colon can make!
