B.C. native Steve Nash – the finest Canadian basketball player in history – will eventually become a member of the New York Knicks.

That’s the word in and around the NBA, and it’s being spread like wildfire by league sources who know their stuff. They predict Nash will be with the Knicks before 2010.

Makes sense, too. Nash already has an off-season home in New York. He plays in a Manhattan soccer league during the off-season. And he has gone on record as saying New York would satisfy his cultural interests and foster his filmmaking desires.

There’s also the fact that Mike D’Antoni is the new Knicks coach and used to be Nash’s coach in Phoenix, where the point guard and the Suns excelled in a fast-paced system that is being introduced these days in New York.

And, oh yes, the Knicks made two trades last week that cleared $27-million U.S. in their salary cap.

• A Knicks team featuring Nash, of course, likely would make life more miserable for their Eastern Conference rivals, including Canada’s NBA franchise.

Despite starting the NBA's tallest frontline in 6-foot-11 Jermaine O’Neal, 6-foot-10 Chris Bosh and 7-foot Andrea Bargnani, the Raptors have been playing subpar ball and languish near the bottom of their conference with a below-.500, 6-7 record.

And some of the same folks who are whispering about Nash’s future in New York are buzzing about what they perceive as the likely firing of Raptors coach Sam Mitchell before the all-star break.

Indeed, Mitchell has been getting outsmarted by opponents too frequently this season, and it’s making NBA types believe they were bang-on a few years ago, when they voted him the league’s worst coach in a Sports Illustrated poll.

Not that Mitchell is entirely to blame for the Raps’ woes. Club bossman Bryan Colangelo also needs to take some heat, for a change. The Raps have virtually no depth – and that’s his fault.

• Leftovers from Sunday’s Grey Cup turkey:

The oddsmakers’ line for most of the week was a pick ‘em but the Alouettes were favoured by 1.5 points at kickoff, largely because national media types such as Chris Schultz and Stephen Brunt -- who seldom dig up new information but often feel inclined to offer up predictions – suggested unabashedly that a home-field advantage would make Montreal a winner over the visiting Calgary Stampeders.

Well, the Stamps’ defence and field-goal specialist Sandro DeAngelis dominated the game and led Calgary to a 22-14 victory.

Bottom line: Always consider your sources before wagering on games. And, remember, Metro told its readers last week that Calgary would prevail largely because of its defence and kicker.

Marty York is Metro's national sports columnist as well as an instructor at the College of Sports Media in Toronto. He can be heard regularly on Vancouver radio station CKNW with Sportstalk host Dan Russell. Contact Marty at marty.york@metronews.ca