Steve Nash, Baron Davis, and Jason Kidd in “The Showdown In Chinatown”.

Alternative title:  Baron Davis has surpassed Gilbert Arenas as the most likeable, light-hearted (goofy) NBA player.

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.  Actually this is Thierry Henry, as I failed to take any good pics of Barbosa.

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:

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.