You may have read about this charity, free to the public, soccer event Steve Nash held today at Stanton Field in Sara Roosevelt Park in Manhattan. Labeled "The Showdown in Chinatown" (though Stanton and Forsyth is borderline Chinatown, and more LES nowadays than Chinatown, but we'll save that discussion for Friday), Steve Nash brought together a nice crew of NBA and MLS All-stars to the game. I decided to head down there, and take some pics of the event. And, man, did I have a great location to see the players, if not the game itself.
The crowd was huge. Everywhere around the field there were people to be found:
Steve Nash's teammate, Leandro Barbosa, was first to arrive. The stars all came via car, and entered by the back entrance that I was lucky enough to have staked out. Here's Barbosa:
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Funny thing about most of the point guards in this event: they kinda looked short in real life. Kidd is barely 6'2, despite being listed in most media guides as taller than that (6'4). Steve Nash was shorter still - he barely breaks 6'0. Barbosa was tall, though... he was at least 6'3.5, in my opinion. Oh, and Jason Kidd has seen into my soul:
Okay, I admittedly don't know if this is Robbie Fowler or Steve McManaman, but both were there today:
I know Claudio Reyna. Homeboy is mad old... I remember Pele once said that it was Reyna who taught him the game...
Baron Davis is the coolest guy, period. The fans loved him. He seemed to like me (or at least my Argentina jersey). He even took a pic of me:
Also there were Raja Bell, and last-minute surprise Thierry Henry. Well, he was only a surprise if you actually thought France was going to advance to the quarterfinal round of the Euro2008.The crowd was pretty packed at points - here is another pic to emphasize the point:
Once the game started, the fan favorite was clearly the one dude playing soccer in a baseball cap:
I forget who actually scored the first goal, but I do know who had the assist. Really, to no one's surprise... Jason Kidd. He may be aging, but I'm better he still has one monster season left in him.Baron Davis was clearly the most inexperienced player on the field, which combined with his silly fun antics made him a crowd favorite. When he miraculous scored the second goal of the game (I don't even know how it happened), the crowd had it's biggest applause, and promptly broke into a clap-clap-clap "Ba-ron Da-vis" chant. Though the rumor seems to be that he is on his way to Detroit, I think he would make a great Knick. The city would love him.
Here's more of the crazy crowd - those guys spent the whole game, almost 2 hours, in that position on the fence:
Claudio Reyna resembles Elliot Gould in that pic, no?Here's more of those fans, plus Baron Davis in his cap and basketball kicks:
This guy was my favorite fan of the game though...
Why is he my favorite? Check out what he's standing on to get a better view:
The second half highlight was one of the MLS players faking an injury, and Baron Davis jumping on top of him while he was laying on the ground.Also, there was Baron Davis (again, he's the entertainment) committing a foul in the goal area, drawing a yellow card and giving up the easy penalty kick for Henry. Not a good foul, Baron.
The game ended in spectacular style, as Steve Nash did his version of Maxi Rodriguez' famous goal against Mexico. Nash took a long outlet pass, bounced it off his chest, and whipped in the hard kick past the goaltender. That must have felt good for Nash.
Here's a very meta photo of Barbosa on the way out... or really, a photo of the man taking a photo of the man, while standing next to the man:
Everyone wanted a word with Baron Davis:
Thierry Henry, departing after losing his shirt:
One more Steve Nash pic:
Jason Kidd was always the easier person to photograph, because he is taller than Steve Nash.
It was a great event. Here's hoping more athletes will try to do fun events in NYC similar to this one today.
10 Comments
Comments
that looks like excellent time, thanks for an enjoyable report and the picture of the guy on the fence. im a big warriors fan and also watch a lot of euro football.
by the way, the guy in the yellow shirt identified as barbosa is actually thierry henry. i like barbosa's hi speed bball game but henry is a much bigger soccer star than barbosa is a hoops star.
great report
fyi photo #6 isn't Fowler or Macca, it's US International Greg Berhalter
very cool afternoon
Thanks for the feedback guys, much appreciated. Yes, Guang, I mislabeled that photo. They left around the same time, and I thought I had taken a pic of Barbosa, who was surprisingly tall for a point (compared to Kidd and Nash), but I guess not. Also interesting about Barbosa: not as good a soccer player as I thought he would be, given his Brazilian background. Kidd was actually a bit better, I thought.
Hey you have barbosa and Henry mixed up. The picture Henry is signing is of spike and henry at a knicks game about 3 seasons ago.
Yo, SML. This going to the same games as each other thing is starting to scare the living shit out of me. Seriously. I'm worried for my personal health. Me and about ten friends were standing roughly ten feet behind the goal on the basketball court side of the field, and it was sick.
You're definitely confusing Barbosa and Henry, the guy without the shirt is too blurry, but I'm pretty confident it's Jozy Altidore.
Me and my friends can attest to having self-started three Ba-ron Da-vis chants on the night, but I guess you only heard the one after he scored. By the way, the first goal was Salomon Kalou from Chelsea.
Baron Davis is the man. He has more cool in his unnecessary non prescription glasses than I have in my entire body, and I loved how Jozy Altidore kept feeding him the ball even though his possessions ended up in one shot over the high fence, one shot that hit a woman leaning against the fence - he came over and rubbed her head - and multiple turnovers.
And, I'm a post late, but what was up with that comment about Medill in the other post? Are you trying to start some journalism school shit or something?
U'd think Steve Nash would be the best out of all of them
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Dude, that looks like the sweetest thing ever.