Have The New York Knicks Won The Steve Nash Sweepstakes?

He’s received King-like treatment from Toronto over this past week but no response from Steve Nash has had Raptors fans (like myself) worried that the home bread Canadian wants no part in returning home. He’s been urged by Wayne Gretzky, given a boatload of cash and even witnessed Bryan Colangelo pull a chess-playing move by signing Fields to a lucrative deal. All of this to make room for Nash.

What’s concerning is that there has been no response. With all this courting, you’d think Nash would have clicked the accept button already. Clearly, he doesn’t want to end his career in Toronto.

And that’s the latest news on the Nash-sweepstakes front; as of this afternoon, the New York Knicks have emerged as frontrunners in the race to acquire the two-time MVP point guard.

From Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski:

The Knicks have emerged as frontrunners to land Steve Nash in a sign-and-trade deal, league sources tell Y! Sports. Knicks, Suns are in the critical stages of discussions on a sign-and-trade deal that would pay Nash $27M-$30M over 3 years. NY package would include Iman Shumpert, Toney Douglas and likely 3 low money players to get Nash salary needed to close gap on Toronto offer.

While the Toronto Raptors are still firmly in the hunt for Nash, you have to be concerned at this point. The Knicks are putting all the cards on the table with a potential sign-and-trade to give up young guard Iman Shumpert.

A source close to ESPN says: “The Knicks don’t want to trade (Shumpert), but they will if they have to. They want Nash.”

So the real question isn’t who wants Nash, it’s where does Steve Nash want to go? There are five teams competing for Nash’s services next year – Brooklyn, Phoenix, Dallas, New York and Toronto, the latter two remain the frontrunners.

He’s 38-years-old and surely entering that last stretch of his career. Nash has never won an NBA championship in his 16 seasons but he’s also said that he values life and family over winning. Does that mean he’ll be settling on Toronto, or is New York’s offer too tempting?

Whatever ends up happening, we’ll keep you updated.