Hooped Up

Here are some highlights from the Steve Nash Showdown @ Chinatown Soccer Match in New York City yesterday.  The event was for charity and it looks like everybody had fun at this positive event.  I wish I could have made it.  Below are a list of Steve Nash’s friends that showed up.  What a list!

Steve Nash
Thierry Henry
Jason Kidd
Baron Davis
Leandro Barbosa
Juan Pablo Angel
Claudio Reyna
Jozy Altidore
Robbie Fowler
Steve McManaman
Raja Bell

Hooped Up

Several NBA players, and some of the best soccer players on the planet — will be playing a soccer game tomorrow afternoon in New York City to raise money for charity.

It’s free and open to the public. It will take place at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Nike Field in Sara D. Roosevelt Park. The game is just off Chrystie Street (between Rivington and Stanton Streets) south of Houston.

Among those expected to participate are Baron Davis, Jason Kidd, Raja Bell, Leandro Barbosa, Joakim Noah, Thierry Henry, Claudio Reyna, Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, Jozy Altidore, Juan Pablo Angel, and Gregg Berhalter.

What Stein’s story does not mention, however, is that Marc Stein himself will be playing. He’s a die-hard soccer fan who plays regularly.

He has a tactic in mind to look good in such a high-level game: Stay close to the NBA players like Kidd and Davis who did not grow up with the sport.

Davis, however, reportedly wants to get around his inexperience with his feet by playing goalie.

ESPN

Once again it pays to be rich and stupid!  I don’t know why these “punishments” are even released to the public to show how bad the legal system is.  Joakim Noah should just pay this in pennies to make this more exciting.

Joakim Noah could have charges for possession of marijuana and drinking from an open container dropped, according to The Chicago Sun-Times. 

Florida’s attorney office in Gainesville and Noah’s representatives reached terms on a deferred prosecution agreement on Wednesday. 

“This is a program we have for first-time offenders charged with misdemeanors,” a representative from the office said. 

Under terms of the deal, Noah must pay $50 for the cost of prosecution and make a $150 donation to Project Payback, a local charity. If he doesn’t violate any federal, state, or local laws in the next six months the charges will be dropped. 

“Once you’ve completed the process, we drop the charges and complete the case,” the representative said. “It remains open until then.”

Alligator

What a joke, he might as well do this every six months.

Joakim’s dad is pretty cool about the situation.

Yannick Noah doesn’t understand “all that fuss” surrounding the arrest of his son Joakim for possession of marijuana and drinking from an open container, according to The Chicago Tribune. “I don’t understand all that fuss for just drinking a beer on the street,” Yannick Noah said Tuesday at the French Open. Having won the French Open in 1983, Yannick created a sensation a few years before when he told a writer he smoked marijuana. The Bulls have said General Manager John Paxson told Noah of “his disappointment in his actions,” but the team has withheld further comment.

Chicago Tribune

The Bulls placed Joakim Noah on the inactive list for Friday’s game against the 76ers after the rookie forward engaged in an angry exchange with assistant coach Ron Adams at the team’s morning shootaround. Two team sources said Noah kept forgetting plays and blowing assignments during the walkthrough, then snapped when Adams kept riding him.

Chicago Tribune