Yet another catch-up post. This was a column last week by the Toronto Star's Rick Westhead on Steve Nash, the superlative point guard for the NBA's Phoenix Suns.

But that's not what make Nash, a Canadian, admirable to me. Read on:

While many of his NBA peers favour the likes of Vibe magazine, Nash reportedly has read the autobiography of Che Guevara and to get a better idea where the Cuban revolutionary was coming from, he also turned to Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto.

And while other NBA stars couldn't point out Iraq on a map, Nash was scorned during the 2003 all-star break when he showed up with a T-shirt that read, "No War. Shoot for Peace."

"I'm not embarrassed by America," Nash said at the time. "I'm embarrassed by humanity. More than embarrassed, I think it's really unfortunate in the year 2003 that we're still using violence as a means of conflict resolution. That's what I'm speaking out against."

Westhead's column was explaining why Nash was a marketer's nightmare:

Nash appears to be simply too smart, with too much of a social conscience for many corporate executives.

"He's blatantly anti-war and he's a Canadian and that some American CEOs would look at him and say, `Who the hell are you coming in here and telling us to get out of Iraq?'" said Bob Dorfman, an executive with Pickett Advertising in San Francisco. Dorfman suggests that while once dating Liz Hurley would work in Nash's favour, "his views on important issues would probably be a turnoff for a number of CEOs."

Nash -- who is handsomely compensated for his work, like most NBA stars -- has said he doesn't care about that.

Pro sports needs more Steve Nashes.

The world needs more Steve Nashes.