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Field report: Steve Nash's 'Showdown in Chinatown II'
Wednesday afternoon, Posting and Toasting's Seth Rosenthal swung by the "Showdown in Chinatown II" event in NYC. Here's his report of the match:
For the second year in a row, Steve Nash(notes) and Claudio Reyna orchestrated the collision of two sports worlds on a damp turf field in New York's Lower East Side. Afternoon rains ceased just in time for the so-called "Showdown in Chinatown," featuring professional soccer players like Thierry Henry, Adrian Mutu, Ryan Babel, and Edgar Davids, a smattering of NBA talent in Tony Parker(notes), Grant Hill(notes), and Chris Bosh(notes), and ESPN.com's Marc Stein, just for fun.
The set-up was impressive: a field fenced in on all sides, with fans pushing, climbing, and scaling benches to get a better view. Just inside the fence, the place was packed with children representing Nash's Football For Good foundation. Kids lined the length of the field and book-ended both baselines right up to the goals. It was so tight that a waist-high shot could either land on goal or stray wide and pick off some unfortunate pipsqueak nearby, which is what we in the business call a win-win situation.
Anyway, I'm a basketball person and I assume most of you are too, so let's get to the important stuff: which ballers could kick? Well, Grant Hill has clearly seen a soccer ball before. His game was the same measured, team-oriented stuff he's shown in his twilight on the hardwood. Hill kept the ball moving with teammates Nash and Babel, and generally knew where to be on the field.
Parker and Nash, meanwhile, just about hung with the pros. Each maneuvered and passed with ease, even finding the net at times. I think Parker scored twice, while Nash nailed a penalty kick resulting from what I believe was a Marc Stein foul. (Side note: I got into a cab immediately following a game and read a report on the little TV in the backseat that Jamal Crawford(notes) had been traded. Who’d filed the report? Marc Stein.)
The star of the evening, though, was Chris Bosh. The gawky, dreadlocked seven-footer was a crowd favorite from the moment he stepped onto the pitch, sticking out like a sore thumb amidst a throng of children and reporters. In game play, he traipsed around sheepishly, biting his lip and occasionally sticking out a leg to deter a shooter. Bosh whiffed headers, sliced one-timers, and repeatedly took opposing shots to the gut. (And we're talking Thierry Henry’s shots here. Those'll knock the wind out of you.) He became a target for his teammates, too, as Reyna and Parker continuously fed him ill-fated lobs, much to the delight of the crowd. The big guy's soccer game is pretty raw, but he's got plenty of upside.
