Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 05:26 PM

Basketball star aims to share inspiring story with American audience

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. - Steve Nash, a two-time NBA MVP and graduate of Victoria's St. Michaels University School, is about to make a film about Terry Fox.

Nash's film will be broadcast on ESPN as part of the U.S. cable channel's 30/30 film initiative. The showcase will feature 30 one-hour films by 30 different filmmakers on 30 different subjects from the past 30 years in sports.

Fox, role model to an entire generation of Canadians and a tireless fundraiser for cancer research, died in 1981 after his cancer returned during his Marathon of Hope run across Canada.

Nash said Fox, of Port Coquitlam, has been an inspiration to him through his own life and career.

"I remember as a six-year-old what it felt like to watch him run across our country," Nash told reporters at the summer meeting of the Television Critics Association. "And I especially remember what it felt like the day he had to stop running because he had two tumours in each of his lungs. That feeling of going back to school and being heartbroken is something that stuck with me, and all Canadians. I'd just like to tell his story, and to have the opportunity to do it on film and do it in front of a big audience is exciting to me."

Although Canadians are familiar with Fox through countless films and TV programs made about him and, more importantly, the annual Terry Fox Run for cancer research every September, Americans are quick to forget, Nash said.

"I aspire to be a filmmaker," Nash said. "This is an exciting opportunity, not only because of the filmmaking aspect, but because I get the opportunity to tell a story that I think in many ways has been forgotten in the States and needs to be retold. I think it would be a really special story to retell. This is more than being excited to make a film -- it's a chance to tell a great story in a great medium to a great audience."

Much of ESPN's programming airs in Canada on TSN, but there was no word early Friday whether 30/30 is included in TSN's future plans.

Nash appeared at the news conference alongside filmmaker Spike Lee. One reporter from Toronto quipped that, when he saw the two together, he thought for a fleeting moment that Nash had been traded to the New York Knicks, the team that Lee famously supports.

"I wish it was true," Lee said, to a round of laughter.