Allstar Weekend Part 1

Alright, lets just dive right in, the Celebrity Allstar game. First of all, the lack of talent on that court was astounding. Besides people who do or did play the game of basketball professionally there was next to no skills on display. T.O. can dunk, but he doesn't really have a jumper or any sort of handle, and he is well, T.O. so I have less respect for him from the get go. Common (a rapper for those of you not familiar with the Chicago Music scene or rapmusic) was a nice surprise. He came in late just like D Fish in the Utah/Golden State playoff series a few years ago, to be put in right away. The guy really changed the game. The tempo quickened and there was finally some energy injected into the game. The guy had some handles. The other player I was impressed with was the young Asian golfer for the West, Anthony Kim. No one bothered to point it out but he ran the pick and roll perfectly with Michael Rapaport and dropped him a perfect dime. Too bad Magic Johnson kept Kim on the bench most of the game. Also, was it me or was Magic a little mean and brutal on his ripping of Alonzo and bringing out the number of championships. I had to laugh though when he said that no one there was close to his number of championships, at which point everyone watching the celeb game, all 150 of us nationwide?, went, "wait, didn't they just announce Robert Horry and put up on the screen that he is a 7 time champion?" Last fun fact of the night from those introductions was that Rick Fox was introduced as an NBA legend. I am pretty sure his game off the court is more legendary this his on court game.

Mike Breen was the celebrity ref once more and I was impressed with a couple of the jump balls he called. I fell that is a call that is often called incorrectly in the NBA. Often a foul, travel, or no whistle is blown when jump ball is the correct call. Breen also ran the same skit with one of the Globetrotters to throw a bucket of stuff at John Barry. Problem was unlike the year before when it was confetti, this year it was water, and John was pist. To be fair, I would have been too, but it was uncomfortable watching at home because you could tell that Barry was just stewing in it. Not good TV people.

Alright, the Rookie Challenge. First of all the sophomores were at a disadvantage without Derrick Rose, but none the less they just seemed to be the less talented team. Other than Westbrook, Mayo, Marc Gasol a.k.a. Baby Jesus and Lopez, I can't really think of who else was on that team, that's how lack of talent they were. (I also remember Anthony Morrow but that's only because I am from the Bay Area and a tortured Warriors fan).

Side note: I do my best not to be a homer for the Warriors when I write about the NBA, and to be honest I think its a lot easier than it is for other writers cause the Warriors are really bad and dysfunctional, and have been for a while.

I love that Dwight Howard came on and talked a bit with the color guys at TNT. By far the best was his aforementioned nickname of Marc Gasol, which is Baby Jesus. Dwight's right too, Marc looks like the white, Anglican version of Jesus, with the light beard. Later they christened Jame's Harden's facial hair as "The Moses." I really really like the biblical theme they had going on and I wanted to add one more to the list. It is the Ramses II beard, also known as the Amen-Hotep or Pharaoh's beard. Monta Ellis is known to sport this look. Speaking of facial hair, why does Kobe have a goatee in those MVPuppets commercials? Other notable facial hair shout-outs go to John Salmons who has a beard I can't really describe, and of course Baron Davis who now has a thick enough beard that small mammals could make a home in it.

For the rookies, it was the DeJuan Blair show featuring almost every rookie point guard in the league except for Darren Collison. Collison would have been great in this game. He didn't deserve to go because he didn't start putting up numbers till Chris Paul got hurt and it was too late, but he definitely has the talent. Most of all I would have loved to see Collison matched up on Westbrook. Both were point guards at UCLA and even played together during Westbrooks one season at UCLA. It would have been the prodigy who left after one year against the four year college player. I am sure someone, somewhere would use the outcome to make an argument for or against players leaving college early versus staying four years.

Blair was great, not just because he had the 20-20 game, but because he got the fans excited, and really, that's what it is all about. I do however, HATE that Tyreke Evans was booed when he got his MVP trophy for the game. It is not his fault that the fans voted him in via text. Tyreke also had a hell of a game, as did Jennings. Johnny Flynn and Curry had very respectable games too. I thought that Curry's biggest problem was he passed the ball too much when all the other guards were very hesitant to give up the rock, especially Flynn. Flynn had one really nice dime but it came after he almost lost the ball and had to terminate his dribble. That sequence pretty accurately shows what it took to get him to pass the ball that game. The Rookie challenge was actually my favorite event from Allstar weekend because of the individual performances from some of players (maybe cause the bar is set much lower for them than the allstars) but all the game was faster paced, energetic and just plain lively. The fact that it was an upset with it being the first time the rookies have beat the sophomores in 7 years made it that much better. I feel bad for Brook Lopez who couldn't even get a win at Allstar weekend, but I liked it when he got pissed off at the end and fouled Blair hard, I like to see that in a player, even on Allstar weekend.