17-04-2025
LeBron James to Steve Nash: 'Seven Seconds or Less' Suns pioneered modern NBA
LeBron James and Steve Nash discussed the "Seven Seconds or Less" Phoenix Suns, led by head coach Mike D'Antoni on the "Mind the Game" podcast.
James and Nash host that podcast together. When the "Seven Seconds or Less" era of Suns basketball came into discussion on April 16, James revealed how he views its influence on the NBA.
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'I don't think that you — and I don't think Mike D'Antoni get enough credit for revolutionizing the game to where it is today,' James said.
D'Antoni's system, with Nash at point guard, was an up-tempo offense designed to get a good shot off within seven seconds or less. Sports Illustrated NBA writer Jack McCallum wrote the book on that Suns era's 2005-06 team titled ":07 Seconds or Less: My Season on the Bench with the Runnin' and Gunnin' Phoenix Suns."
Those Suns existed from D'Antoni's first full year as head coach in the 2004-05 season through the 2006-07 season.
"I think it was right at the right time because the rules were changing too," Nash said. "So you couldn't like, have two hands on a guy anymore. ... The league I think — wisely — wanted to make it a more free-flowing, open, highlight the athleticism (league)."
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In the 2009 offseason, then-Suns general manager Steve Kerr redesigned the roster to be built for a system more like what new Suns head coach Alvin Gentry helped run as an assistant under D'Antoni.
Gentry and Nash led the Suns to the Western Conference finals that 2009-10 season, just like D'Antoni and Nash led the Suns to the Western Conference finals in both the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons.
"We were small," Nash said. "There's rim protectors everywhere; you got Tim (Duncan), you got Shaq (O'Neal), you got all these guys around. We didn't have that ... So how could we cope defensively, not being a rim protection team?
"By one: Being different, switching more, trying to find ways to junk up the game. And on the offensive side: How can we blow teams away? And so it was an amazing time for me in a sense because I think I had just taken my game, my skills, my confidence to a new level. And then Mike opened the floor up and let me play."
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D'Antoni continued running his up-tempo, run-and-gun system as head coach of the New York Knicks from 2008-12, the Los Angeles Lakers with Nash as his point guard again from 2012-14 and the Houston Rockets from 2016-20. D'Antoni also helped run it as an assistant during the 2020-21 season with the Brooklyn Nets, in Nash's first of two-plus seasons as the head coach in Brooklyn.
Many teams since 2014 have adopted similar pacing and similar emphasis on 3-point shooting. More wing-heavy lineups without a traditional rim protector on the floor have been put to use after D'Antoni laid the blueprint.
Kerr ran a similar offense as Golden State Warriors head coach from the 2014-15 season and still does to this day. Kerr has won four NBA championships with the offense in Golden State and is set to run it in the NBA playoffs, beginning for the Warriors on April 20.
"You and your style of play. That is the game today," James said to Nash. "You guys were before (your) time."
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: LeBron James tells Steve Nash how he feels about Mike D'Antoni's Suns
