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"One of the sports world's foremost renaissance men, Steve Nash, plays many roles: Lakers point guard, two-time NBA MVP, renowned good-guy, budding filmmaker and father of three, just to to name a few.\nBut Nash is also a massive soccer fan \u2014 making this summer extra special for the greatest Canadian basketball player of all time. On June 25, he'll host the seventh annual Steve Nash Foundation Showdown, a charity f\u00FAtbol match featuring basketball and soccer pros in New York City's Sara D. Roosevelt Park. First up for Nash, however: Departing on Tuesday for a 12-day trip to Brazil to take in a little soccer tournament called the World Cup.\nSee also: The Definitive World Cup Preview (in Haiku Form)\nWhilst herding his young kids to the dentist in Manhattan Beach last week \u2014 \"You've got them on backwards,\" he paused to correct a tyke's dressing progress at one point \u2014 Nash found some time last week to call Mashable. We talked Showdown, World Cup, his favorite soccer memories \u2014 and more.\nWhat follows is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.\nQ&amp;A with Steve Nash, soccer fanatic\n\nNBA basketball player Steve Nash, left, and British Columbia Premier Christy Clark beat drums prior to the Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC MLS soccer game in Vancouver, B.C., on Saturday March 19, 2011. Nash is a part owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps. Image: The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck/Associated PressLet's get one thing out of the way first: Is it called \"soccer\" or \"football\" in the Nash household?\n[Laughs] It's soccer. When my dad came over to Canada [from England by way of South Africa], he just adopted the way everyone else talked about it. But I have no problem calling it football. My cousins in the U.K. call it football, so when we get together we talk football.\nYour love of soccer is well-documented. But what less people may know is that you told GQ in 2005 that you think you could have gone pro in the sport had it been your main focus growing up. First: Do you still stand by that? And second: What kind of player would you have been on the pitch?\nIt's really hard to say. I mean, obviously I said that in all my arrogant glory, but it was my first sport and I got pretty good at it at a young age, although not as much as basketball. I was always an attacking player, an attacking midfielder. But who knows? I could have ended up as a defensive midfielder as I moved up in the game. Really, I just know I love the game \u2014 and the arrogance in me makes me think I could have made it. [Laughs]\nLet's look at that crossover in reverse. Are there any NBA players you think could have made particularly special soccer stars?\nAthletically? Sure. A lot of guys in the League have the agility, the coordination, the strength. But I don't know if any of them were actually good soccer players growing up. A lot of people have the potential to play in the NBA, too \u2014 they just never get the chance.\nBut some of the really athletic point guards definitely could have done it if they'd grown up with the sport. I mean, if Allen Iverson had played soccer his whole life \u2014 shoot, any of those types of guys \u2014 I think he could have been something.\nWhat's your fondest soccer-playing memory, either from growing up or since you've been in the NBA?\nI was lucky enough to win a provincial championship in high school in British Columbia \u2014 that was an unbelievable experience. But the one that probably takes the cake is I once got a chance to kick the ball around with Thierry Henry and Zinedine Zidane on the French practice pitch. It was at Clairefontaine, where the French national team plays, while they were there prepping for the 2004 Euros.\nI got a chance to visit while they were in the middle of two-a-days. We were chatting inside between their practices, and then they asked if I wanted to go kick the ball around. These are two of the greatest players in the world, in between two-a-days \u2014 I'm just like, 'Are you kidding me?' But we ended up kicking the ball around and talking out there for about an hour. You could have taken me out and buried me in the forest after that and I'd have been happy.\n\nThe Showdown is a really unique idea that marries basketball and soccer for a good cause. How'd it first come about?\nOne of my best friends is Simone Sandri, an Italian NBA journalist who lives here. He's introduced me to a lot of Italian soccer players over the years and we played on the same NYC soccer teams for a long time. One day he just said, 'Why don't we take the field we play on and play this match for charity, but also have it be an open thing where kids in the neighborhood can walk up to the fence and see Dirk Nowitzki or Thierry Henry there playing soccer. We thought it'd be fun and a good way to do something positive for the foundation. Happily, it's turned out to be a success.\nLet's talk a little World Cup before you go. Will you be in Brazil and how excited are you for this thing?\nYeah, I'm going down there with a travel company called Beck &amp; Score on Tuesday for 12 days. I'll be in Sao Paulo for one game, but mostly Rio \u2014 hanging out and seeing a few games but mostly just trying to enjoy the atmosphere. You could definitely say I'm fired up. A buddy of mine was just telling me: 'You've got the World Cup fever.' And yeah, I'm definitely swept up in it.\nSo as a Canadian who's long lived in the U.S., who are you pulling for there?\nMy family's English, so I've always rooted for England. Then secondarily, I'm looking for Brazil. I love how they play. I love Neymar. I'd love to seem them win it in Brazil. Especially with all the protests and everything, I'd really love to see them do well in their home country.\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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