Basketball meets Soccer as NBA players get ready for the Steve Nash Charity Soccer Game in New York City

NBA players Steve Nash and Grant Hill of the Phoenix Suns, Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs, Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks, Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors, and Raja Bell of the Charlotte Bobcats will join Claudio Reyna (retired American international), French international and FC Barcelona player Thierry Henry, Argentine international and player for Italy's Serie A club Inter Milan Javier Zanetti, Chelsea player and Ivory Coast international Salomon Kalou, Dutch international and Liverpool striker Ryan Babel, Dutch international Giovanni "Gio" Van Bronckhorst, French international and AC Milan player Mathieu Flamini, Colombia international and Inter Milan player Ivan Cordoba, and Romanian striker and player for Italian club Fiorentina Adrian Mutu for a soccer match at Sara D. Roosevelt Park on Chrystie and Houston Streets in New York City. THe match will take place on Wednesday June 24 at 6 pm (the night before the NBA Draft).

Steve Nash is a big fan of soccer and plays the sport a lot in the NBA off season, especially during the summer. In doing so, he has become good friends with former Red Bull player and long time US national team captain Claudio Reyna, who was born and raised in Livingston, New Jersey. Together they decided to start this annual charity event inviting NBA players as well as soccer stars from throughout the world. The first was last year. Nash also has a good relationship with Henry of France who was invited to both last year's and this year's event. However, last year Henry did not expect to make it due to Euro 2008, but did due to France's early elimination from the tournament. France scored only one goal in the competition which came from Henry.

Nash became a fan of the sport because his father, John, played soccer professionally in England and South Africa. His younger brother also plays for the Canadian national team as well as the Vancouver Whitecaps of the United Soccer Leagues, the league underneath Major League Soccer in the American Soccer Pyramid. Steve Nash was born in the Vancouver area.

Steve Nash, himself, plans on being involved in the "world's game" when his NBA career is over. Last year, Nash revealed that he dreams of getting involved in the sport through the ownership of his favorite club in the English Premier League-- Tottenham Hotspur (my favorite club as well after my favorite player--Luka Modric--started playing for them). He was also a big part of bringing a Vancouver team to Major League Soccer as an expansion team, which is set to happen in the 2011 season. Vancouver will be one of three Northwest region clubs in Major League Soccer. The other two are the Seattle Sounders, currently in the middle of their first season this year in MLS, and the Portland Timbers which will also have their expansion year in 2011. Nash also joined former Yahoo! president Jeff Mallet as an investor for the struggling Women's Professional Soccer League. He hopes to use the women's soccer league as something that would give his own twin daughters role models in his other favorite sport besides basketball.

More information regarding this charity event will be provided as more information becomes available.

Stay tuned to my blog as I update the 2009 Confederations Cup tonight at around 10:30 p.m. eastern time. I was able to catch the second half of the Spain-Iraq match which has ended a little over 90 minutes ago. My prediction was right. Spain was only able to get 1 goal passed Iraq for a final score of 1-0. More on this match, the upcoming South Africa-New Zealand match at 2:30 pm eastern time (on ESPN 2), and predictions for tomorrow's Group B matches will come at around 10:30 tonight.