Hooped Up

Steve Nash is known on the basketball court for peerless vision that allows him to see plays before they develop.Off the court, Nash is already visualizing the success of the Women’s Professional Soccer league more than a year before it starts. He’s becoming an investor and part owner of the new venture.

“I look at my childhood and realize how many athletes I had to look up to,” Nash said in a phone interview. “I look at the opportunity to put some of these wonderfully talented athletes who are dedicated and committed and put them in a setting to inspire a whole generation below them.”

The deal to bring on Nash and fellow Victoria native Jeff Mallett, a former president and chief operating officer at Yahoo Inc., as investors for the eight-team league was to be formally announced Tuesday by the San Francisco-based league.

Before Nash became a two-time NBA MVP, he was one of the top young soccer players in British Columbia. His college days were spent at longtime women’s soccer power Santa Clara.