Steve Nash plays a pickup game of soccer at the Dongdan courts in central Beijing on August 30th. Nash is in Beijing for promotional and charity work, and played a few three-on-three half-court games with local regulars and then crossed over to the soccer pitch…

Story via MSN Images via Daylife

Nash played for about 40 minutes.

Here’s where it gets funny - earlier in the morning, Nash tried to sneak onto a basketball court in “disguise”.

“But before he even palmed the ball, the city’s basketball-crazed fans had spotted the two-time NBA most valuable player.

“I had on a Chinese opera bandana and I had on some protective goggles,” he said, laughing.

“As soon as I walked on they recognised me. It didn’t really work.”"

Nash with his new friends.

“Nash is in China for a week with a handful of NBA players to appear on the finale of a Chinese basketball reality show and for a coaching clinic at a rural school where NBA players are helping build a new basketball court.

It is the Phoenix Suns’ guard’s first time in China in two years and he said he was amazed at the pace of change in the basketball-mad country.

“The development’s incredible. That CCTV building is one of my favourite buildings in the world,” he said, referring to the new China Central Television building, a continuous loop of horizontal and vertical glass sections.

It was driving through the city that he spotted the sprawling pick-up courts and knew how he wanted to spend his day off.

After an hour of hoops, he went to the other side of the fence and kicked a ball around with some soccer players for 40 minutes. “The perfect Sunday,” he concluded.

“The other basketball players, it seems like they’re really influenced by the West,” he said of the Beijing court. “It’s a really cool amalgamation of Chinese culture and Western culture. The opening up of China is fascinating.”