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Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash and former Suns guard Jason Kidd are planning a charity game of NBA players at the University of California-Berkeley's Haas Pavilion for December 10, reports Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic.
Nash and Kidd each have San Francisco Bay Area connections, as Kidd grew up in Oakland before attending Cal, and Nash attended Santa Clara.
Said Nash:
"Excited to go back to the Bay Area with Jason to play for the fans and raise money for the children our foundations benefit," Nash said. "We go way back to college so to see the distance we've both come and to take it back to those days will be a lot of fun and for a good cause."
Yahoo's Marc Spears reports that Blake Griffin, Kevin Love, Stephen Curry, David Lee, DeMar DeRozan, Corey Maggette, Trevor Ariza, Ricky Rubio, Shawn Marion, Michael Beasley and likely Amar'e Stoudemire and Kevin Durant will also participate, which would make for a star-studded exhibitiion.
The Bay Area recently turned out over 4,000 fans for an exhibition of current and former Golden State Warriors players in the We Believe Vs. Dub Charity Basketball Game at San Jose State University on November 5th. It was reported to be a "near sellout" of the 4,600 seat SJSU Event Center. Haas Pavilion's capacity is 11,877, so it will be interesting to see how many fans will turn out to see this, if players go ahead with the game.
One thing that might stop this game from proceeding is if a deal is reached in the painfully long and ongoing NBA lockout negotiations. Talks have resumed and continue today, as the league attempts to salvage its nationally televised Christmas Day games. More details can be found from Ken Berger of CBS Sports here.
If this reminds you of the movie Groundhog Day, you're not the only one. A key difference is that the current meetings are more lawyer-y since lawsuits were filed. Players' lawyer David Boies is in, and Derek Fisher is filling a reduced role. Feel free to be as hopeful or jaded about this as you like.