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NBA's Best Strap on the Cleats in Steve Nash's Chinatown Soccer Match

By Yepoka Yeebo and Patrick Hedlund

DNAinfo Staff

LOWER EAST SIDE — Some of the NBA's best hoopsters traded in their high-tops for cleats Wednesday to compete in the annual "Showdown in Chinatown," a charitable soccer match organized by Phoenix Suns star Steve Nash.

Hundreds of fans lined the field and filled nearby bleachers to watch the eight-on-eight game, featuring play from basketball’s biggest names, including Tony Parker, Raja Bell, Brandon Jennings, Jared Dudley and Raja Bell.

But the competition wasn't limited to stars of the hardwood — former captain of the U.S. national soccer team, Claudio Reyna, Italian national striker Giuseppe Rossi and actor Anthony LaPaglia took part in Nash's soccer showdown.

“If I hadn’t have played soccer, I don’t think I would have been an NBA player,” said Nash, a two-time Most Valuable Player. “I think it afforded me so much as player and as an athlete that I wouldn’t have been the same.”

The mood was especially elated given the U.S. men’s national team’s thrilling World Cup victory earlier on Wednesday.

“We want to the bring the World Cup in 2018 or ’22 to our country, and the more we put soccer out there and show it and what a great sport it is, it’s going to help our cause,” said Reyna, a former captain of the U.S. team who was a member of four World Cup squads.

The event benefited the Steve Nash Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides services to children in need, and the Claudio Reyna Foundation, which supports underprivileged youth through education and sports.

The crowd gets into it.
The crowd gets into it.
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DNAinfo/Patrick Hedlund