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Sidelines
Kalani Simpson
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Nash has some big shoes to fill
IT was a good day. A great day.
A good man got a great job. The right man got the right job. A good day. A great day.
It felt just right.
"He deserves it," Fabulous Five teammate Dwight Holiday would say, beaming.
"The best part about this is, he's ready," Fabulous Five teammate Al Davis would say, bursting.
Yes, it really happened, yesterday. Four words: Bob Nash, head coach.
Everyone in the room smiled when the realization hit. Rainbows players, when reading the sheet that bore the news, shook their heads, and smiled, and pumped fists, and shook hands, and made phone calls, yes. Yes.
This was the happy ending, the new beginning. A good man. A great day.
Bob Nash deserves this, being named Hawaii's next Rainbow basketball head coach. It felt right because it is right. It felt good because it is good.
He didn't just put the time in -- 28 years as a player or coach at UH -- he put his heart in. He put his soul in.
"I've always wanted this job," Nash would say.
"I wanted to earn this position," he would say.
"I've worked my butt off to get here and I plan on working my butt off to stay here," he would say.
But there's more than that. Yes, he's worked the past two decades to improve himself, to prove he can be his alma mater's head basketball coach. ("I said, OK," Nash said, describing the story of Stan Sheriff saying he needed more seasoning. "I'll hone my skills. I didn't know it was going to take me 20 years to hone them.") He's a man who believes in work. A man who believes in fun. A man who believes in family. A man who believes in Hawaii, in the community, in the university.
He closed his emotional opening statement with a "let's go 'Bows!"
This is a man who believes in laughter.
"We knew he was going to come up with something clever," Davis said in the back of the room, as his old teammate told the assembled crowd that he'd noted that he'd been hired on Friday the 13th.
There's a reason this feels so good. It's because of who he is and where he's been and what he's done. It'll be Nash's personality on this program now, character and laughter and hard work. Defense, and then get it ahead to the next guy, and fill it up.
"Bam," Holiday couldn't help but say, as Nash said this. That's that old Fabulous Five fun.
He'll continue to wave that towel, even as the head coach.
"I can't stop from being myself," Nash said.
Yes, there's a reason this feels right. Because it is right. Because he's right. A good man. A great day.
Bob Nash, head coach. What's the first thing he'll do?
"Kiss my wife," he said.