PHOENIX, AZ - JANUARY 05: Steve Nash #13 of the Phoenix Suns handles the ball during the NBA game against the Los Angeles Lakers at US Airways Center on January 5, 2011 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Lakers defeated the Suns 99-95. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)In an unforeseen twist that could thrust the Los Angeles Lakers straight back into title contention, two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash has successfully negotiated a sign-and-trade deal from the Phoenix Suns to the Lakers that will team him up with Kobe Bryant, according to sources with knowledge of the deal.
Sources told ESPN.com that Nash, with the New York Knicks also pressing hard to complete a similar sign-and-trade deal, was swayed to join the Lakers after a determined push from Bryant and because the move keeps him in the title hunt and allows him to stay in close proximity to his three children in Phoenix.
Nash will receive a three-year deal in excess of $25 million, sources said, because the Suns ultimately agreed to sign-and-trade him to the Lakers, who can absorb Nash via the trade exception they created by dealing Lamar Odom to the Dallas Mavericks in December.
The Suns will receive 2013 and 2015 first-round picks and 2013 and 2014 second-round picks from the Lakers, according to the Arizona Republic.
The deal can't be officially completed until July 11, when a leaguewide moratorium on new business is lifted.
The Lakers are no longer trying to retain point guard Ramon Sessions, who opted out of the final year and $4.55 million of his contract to become a free agent, a source told ESPNLosAngeles.com's Ramona Shelburne.
Sessions was hoping for the security of a longer term contract, but while discussions with the Lakers were positive, they never progressed toward a multiyear deal, the source told Shelburne.
Difficult as it is on some levels for the Suns to help the face of the franchise get to the Lakers -- especially after years of playoff battles with them in the Nash Era -- sources say team owner Robert Sarver finally agreed to the trade after yielding to a plea from Nash to send him to a destination where he could maintain the closest possible ties to his children and still chase the ring that has eluded him for 16 seasons.
The Lakers clinched the deal by surrendering the package of picks, but sources said that the Suns did decide to reward Nash for all the success he delivered over the past eight seasons.
Sending Nash to the team of his choosing ensures that the sides part on good terms after it became clear in recent days that the Suns left little doubt since free agency began Sunday at 12:01 a.m. that they were prepared to move in a different direction instead of trying to match the determined bids for Nash coming from the Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks, Knicks and Lakers to retain the 38-year-old.
The Knicks were equally high on Nash's list in a sign-and-trade scenario -- he's an offseason Manhattan resident -- and the Raptors were initially seen as the favorite for Nash's services after quickly registering a three-year, $36 million offer. The Brooklyn Nets and Mavericks also pursued Nash, Dallas in particular after the Nets won the Deron Williams sweepstakes earlier Tuesday.
Yet, Nash ultimately decided that the chance to team with Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, the three-year deal he had been hoping for, and ability to keep a West Coast base near his children could not be passed up.
Ironically, though, Nash said just last week in a radio interview with ESPN NewYork 98.7's Stephen A. Smith and Ryan Ruocco that it would be difficult on some levels to join Miami after the Heat just won the championship or sign with the Lakers after all their playoff battles the past eight years.
"The truth is I'm a bit old school," Nash said in the June 25 interview. "For me, it would be hard to put on a Lakers jersey. That's just the way it is. You play against them so many times in the playoffs, and I just use them as an example, and I have the utmost respect for them and their organization.
"I kind of have that tendency (to try to beat the best teams), so it is strange, but as a free agent you're free to go where you want, so I'd have to consider everything regardless of the past or the future."
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