Nash is an odd choice for NBA poster boy. As the 15th overall draft pick in 1996 out of Santa Clara, he is the lowest draft choice to win an MVP (Karl Malone, a No. 13 pick, is the only other MVP not drafted in the top 10). If Nash had his way, the media would lavish attention on someone — anyone — else: Wade or James or Pat Burke. Nash finds fame alien and bewildering. Take his hair, for example. He simply decided it was time for a change, got a pair of clippers and hacked it off. He seemed stunned that the chop created a midsummer media stir. Not to mention a stir among sponsors and organizations that already had photographed Nash with long hair and would need to retake photos. That's the kind of thing you're supposed to think about when you're famous. Nash didn't.

This summer, Nash moved his wife, Alejandra, and twin daughters Lola and Bella to Manhattan because, he says, "You can be anonymous in New York, and it's nice to spend some time away from Phoenix, which can feel like a country club." Nash prefers to be the idolizer, not the idolized. When he met Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho during the offseason, he excitedly e-mailed a photo to his father, John Nash, with the subject line, "Me and my mate."

Before Nash returned to Victoria for last summer's basketball court dedication, Helen Hughes, a city councilwoman, made a proposal to Jenny Miller, the executive director of Nash's foundation: Steve Nash Day, complete with a parade. Miller, who has known Nash since he was 11, frowned. "I told her, 'That would be great, but Steve would hate me,'" Miller says. "Steve is not the parade type. Parades leave behind nothing but litter and sugared-up kids. When Steve does something, he wants to leave more than that." Instead, he left the rehabbed basketball court and made a dodgy part of town a little less dodgy.

Still, don't be entirely fooled by Nash's humble guy rep. He is intensely competitive and always has been. "When he is walking down the street and sees a guy walking next to him, he will speed up to beat the guy to the corner," John Nash says. "When he was a kid, he would get out of the car at a stoplight and see if he could walk and beat his mother to the corner. It's just something inside him that makes him want to win."

When the Canadian national team beat Puerto Rico for the bronze medal in the 2001 Tournament of the Americas, Nash scored 22 points. After the game, Nash told his agent, Bill Duffy, that he was driven to win by Puerto Rico's Carmelo Travieso, the former star UMass point guard. "Steve told me, '(Travieso) and Edgar Padilla just got way too much publicity in college,' " Duffy says. "That's something that most people don't see about him. He doesn't go around talking trash and all that, but he remembers everything. He uses it when he prepares to play."

He still uses whatever he can to drive him. Nash, after a summer of soccer and cardio training, remains in top shape, even as he ages. Remember, when Dallas decided to let Nash go to Phoenix as a free agent in 2004, it was because the team felt Nash was wearing down. At the time, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wrote on his blog that Nash's "kamikaze spirit" was his greatest weakness and that, "The most improbable stat from Steve Nash is how few games he has missed in the last few years." Little wonder Nash has ramped up his offseason workouts and has missed just 10 games in two seasons with the Suns.

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"He is our best-conditioned player," D'Antoni says. "I know he's 32, but I don't think it matters. The guy is just incredible. His mind is fresh, and he just wants to play. And I see no drop-off for the next three or four years." Which will mean more high-paced hullabaloo in Phoenix, more games in the 110s and, possibly, more championship runs. And the Suns will be led by one of the most lovable stars in sports, a guy who is attracting fans of all walks. John Nash chuckles when he thinks about the fan mail he has gotten for his son — mail from Australia and Japan and China. Then he recounts a conversation he had with an elderly Scottish man at his tennis club in Victoria.

"He said, in this great Scottish accent, 'I've a bone to pick with you,'" John Nash says. "'I used to come home, read my newspaper and then sit down and read a book. But now I come home and all I do is watch basketball. Because of your son.' I loved that."

Go on. You can, too. The NBA is on the rebound. It's OK to love this game.

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