Lakers point guard Steve Nash is ready to rebound from a tough season that saw him dealing with injuries and inconsistent play from the offense and he will get started by playing another sport entirely, as the huge soccer fan will get a tryout with the stories Inter Milan football club in Miami this week.
According to ESPN.com, Nash will get a tryout with Inter Milan as the team starts the Guinness International Champions Cup tournament, which has right teams coming from around the world to play against each other with a champ coming out at the end of the week on August 7. Nash grew up loving and playing soccer in Canada and said it was a dream come true to get a tryout with the team.
The tournament is getting started up with AC Milan and Valencia and on Wednesday Juventus and Everton will play in a first round matchup. Thursday will see Inter Milan play Chelsea and the LA Galaxy against Real Madrid and the tryout will come ahead of those games in New Jersey on Tuesday. Nash said that he will be a bit nervous to put on cleats and tryout, but that he is very excited about it and he also said that he is excited to check out the tournament, as a number of talented teams will be playing. Nash is active in the soccer community and he is one of the ownership group members in the Vancouver Whitecaps team in the Major League Soccer organization.
The Lakers had a rough season with Dwight Howard after acquiring the star from the Magic and while it seemed at first like a perfect fit -- best center in the league, coming from the same team as Shaq, playing for the same franchise as Magic..Johnson -- but it never materialized until late in the season and soon after Howard and Bryant started playing well together, Bryant suffered his Achilles injury. Howard never seemed to get into Mike D'Antoni's offense and clearly he did not enjoy his time in LA, as he bolted to Houston pretty quickly and while he is excited about the prospect of playing there, a championship is no guarantee.
"It's a dream come true to get a chance to try out, not just to try out but to take the field with Inter Milan, one of the great, storied franchises in professional sports," Nash said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I feel like a little kid."
The Rockets did a good job at recruiting Howard and they will have a very strong team next season after making the playoffs as the number eight seed this past year. Howard has a budding superstar in James Harden, while Chandler Parsons, Omer Asik, Jeremy Lin and Patrick Beverley are a solid supporting cast. The Lakers have made improvements as well and while many don't see them as a championship contender, the franchise feels it is ready for a playoff run if everyone can stay healthy.
