WE FOUND A HERO!

TRIANGLE BELOW CANAL, NYC – This is Robert DeNiro country, this little piece of Manhattan abbreviated as Tribeca. In fact, it’s so DeNiro down here that we’re initiating legistlation (or thinking about it) that would rename the area, well… DeNiro. Anyway, Ed Burns lives down here, too. So does our Our Chelsea Piers noon pick-up ice hockey teammate *Tim Robbins, who is 6’5″ and went to Stuyvessant High School – in case you were wondering. And while each of the aforementioned may very well be heroic in some way, they are not the HERO to whom our headline refers. No. See, our man (sorry, Cookie, Janet, Mrs. Matt, Annie Savoy, Denise, GollyTwo & Linda) is a Canadian from Victoria, British Columbia and lives here part time. You’d never expect him to, either. You’d also never, not in a million years, envision him skateboarding along the West Side Highway from his Tribeca loft to Chelsea Piers for his surprisingly quick workouts. After digging deep – we read the March issue of Outside magazine -into the life of our HOT (Hero Of Today), we now know why his gym time is so brief – the guy is the busiest guy on the froggin’ planet. Between being a daddy and husband, he makes Indie films, is an astute businessman, environmentalist and serious philanthropist. Oh, and we won consecutive MVPs as a point guard in the NBA, who also plays soccer in his free time. Who is this maskless mystery man/MTM Hero?!? It’s none than other than Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns.

Nash is truly a Renaissance Man. He’s gotta be special when Time Magazine says you’re in the top 100 People Who Shape The World and Charles Barkley says, “What has he taught us? It pays to be selfless. You can be content just to make the players around you better.”

So what does he do, exactly? Eddie Curry and Stephon Marburry jotted these down for us:

-He is opening 12 gyms throughout Canada that use recycled materials and will eventually derive their power from the energy the gym members provide – think hamsters in a running wheel. They combine yoga, pilates and conventinal stuff
-He convinced the Suns to convert an their arena into a solar-powered facility for 2009. Duh, they are named The Suns
-His documentary on inspirational cancer victim Terry Fox comes out in April 2010. In 1980, a 21-year-old Fox ran 143 marathons in 143 days on a prosthetic leg before the cancer took him.

His foundation:
–Educates kids in AZ Crazy’s home state
-Built pediatric-cardiology wards in Paraguay – where his wife is from
-Is building a youth center in war-ridden Uganda

Suffice to say, Nash is a pretty special guy. He is the kind of person we can all appreciate and he just so happens to be an athlete. What’s even better is that 1 Steve Nash makes up for 10 A-Rods, 20 Pacmans and 50 Sean Averys; it’s a simple case of  Matts-Matics. It just goes to show, that if you dig deep enough (or read the right magazine) you’ll find that there are humble, hidden heroes doing the right things, making the right choices and giving us the opportunity to say to our kids, “Let’s get you a Steve Nash jersey. He’s cool.” 

That’s all for today, we’d write more but we have a whole slate of TV to watch… Rex O’Rourke beckons you back tomorrow! Please chime in below and PLEASE tell people about MTM. Thank you. 

*Fan Forum friend ‘Finns’ keeps mistakenly referring to Robbins as Tim Hutton, which we think is funny.