NBA All Star Weekend Thread

Gregg Popabitch1 · Post by **Gregg Popabitch1** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 12:46 pm

Talk about the All Star Game, Skills challenge, Celebrity game, and other festivities in here.

Skills challenge participants:
Kobe Bryant
Lebron James
Chris Paul
Dwyane Wade

Celebrity Game Roster

EAST TEAM
David Arquette (גIn Case of Emergencyג)
Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile)
Nelly (Grammy Award-winning hip hop artist)
Kevin Frazier (host of גEntertainment Tonightג)
Donald Faison (גScrubsג)
Taye Diggs (Rent, Chicago)
Bobby Flay (גThrowdown with Bobby Flayג)
Carrot Top (comedian)
Katie Smith (WNBAגs Detroit Shock)
Coach: Tim Legler, ESPN analyst
Asst. Coach ג James Pickens Jr. (גGreyגs Anatomyג)

WEST TEAM
Jamie Foxx (Ray, Dreamgirls)
James Denton ("Desperate Housewives")
Reggie Bush (NFLגs New Orleans Saints)
Bow Wow (Roll Bounce)
Jamie Kennedy (גJamie Kennedy Experimentג)
Tony Potts (co-anchor of גAccess Hollywoodג)
Nick Cannon (Bobby)
Jonathan Silverman (גIn Case of Emergencyג)
Tamika Catchings (WNBAגs Indiana Fever)
Coach: Greg Anthony, ESPN
Asst. Coach ג Wayne Newton (גGreyגs Anatomyג)

Positive A · Post by **Positive A** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:06 pm

Kobe with MVP.
Chris Paul wins Skills.
Carrot Top goes off in Celebrity game.

Gregg Popabitch1 · Post by **Gregg Popabitch1** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:18 pm

Positive A wrote:Kobe with MVP.
Chris Paul wins Skills.
Carrot Top goes off in Celebrity game.

btw, i'm voting for Carmelo for MVP. he's gonna be mad that he wasn't even voted on to the All Star game. This will be his official non amaechi coming out party.

Lebron wins skills.

and i think the West will dominate the celebrity game. that roster got talent. They even have jesus on their side.

djm13 · Post by **djm13** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:54 pm

The West team is stacked. Hard to envision them losing.

Unless Bobby Flay gets hot from the outside.

bringinoutbangerz · Post by **bringinoutbangerz** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:34 pm

Wilbon wrote straight heat this morning. Peep the (clearly out of touch) game:

Michael ILLbon wrote:Not the Game, But the Playaz

By Michael Wilbon
Friday, February 16, 2007; E01

LAS VEGAS Silly you, sitting at home in front of your TV thinking NBA All-Star Weekend has anything to do with basketball. It might for the 70 or so players competing either in the game Sunday night or the various Saturday competitions, including the three-point shootout and dunk contest. But for everybody else, "The Biggest Party in NBA History" began Thursday, and basketball is simply the excuse that got 'em here.

The Pro Bowl is serious stuff compared with the NBA All-Star Game, especially this first one in Las Vegas. While a great many NFL players will do anything to get out of going to the Pro Bowl, even the injured NBA all-stars show up in Vegas. Just because you can't find Allen Iverson in uniform Sunday doesn't mean you can't find him here. You can see plenty of A.I. if you can persuade Ice Nightclub to let you into the Allen Iverson-LeBron James All-Star Weekend Celebration with, among others, Ashanti and Ja Rule.

If you missed A.I. Thursday night, don't worry, he and LeBron have Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Ice on lock as well.

Okay, it's not like Vegas doesn't see parties all the time, and it's not like Vegas hasn't hosted huge sports events. There was never anything, nor will there ever be anything in my lifetime, like a Mike Tyson championship fight in Vegas and all the crazies it attracted. The NBA all-star sycophants, while all fancied up, won't be nearly as, well, colorful as Tyson's fans. I managed to walk a mile or so up Las Vegas Boulevard (a.k.a. the Strip) early Thursday afternoon and didn't see a single person I would immediately and unmistakably identify as a pimp.

Nonetheless, one police official is quoted on LasVegasNow.com as saying that on normal days 150 officers work overtime for special events in Vegas, but this weekend 1,000 additional officers will be used each day in and around the Strip.

Why? Because Thomas & Mack, the arena where the all-star festivities will be held, holds about 17,000 people, and police, local government and casino officials here estimate 200,000 people are coming to Las Vegas because of All-Star Weekend. Do the math.

To most of them, only two results will have mattered by Sunday night: Did they get into a party being hosted by an NBA star, and who won Saturday's match-race between Charles Barkley and 67-year-old NBA referee Dick Bavetta?

Meanwhile, to help make certain everybody has a good, safe time, local and federal law enforcement agents hurriedly implemented something called "Operation Slam Dunk," which was designed to get as many fugitive felons off the Las Vegas streets as possible. So, last week they reportedly hunted down and arrested 140 fugitives who had warrants out for drug dealing, gun running and -- I love this next phrase -- "violent beatings."

There was no count on how many of the fugitives had VIP passes for this weekend's parties. Super Bowl week, as party crazed as it's becoming, is like a 6-year-old's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's compared with NBA All-Star Weekend. While the mayor of Las Vegas and influential local business people stress over whether Commissioner David Stern and NBA club owners will like the city enough to consider moving a team here despite the gambling issues, the players will essentially host what I began calling "Black Thanksgiving" some years ago.

NBA All-Star Weekend merges two of the three most popular cultural components of Blackworld: basketball and music (church is the other). Sadly, for people my age, the great jazz musicians who kept the casino lounges jumping into the wee hours have mostly disappeared and given way to rappers, whose musical skills are mostly nonexistent, but who along with basketballers are the urban icons of the day. When they're together, it's magnetic -- and to people who are white, brown and yellow as well.

Pro football is America's No. 1 attraction, without question. Pro basketball is black America's No. 1 obsession, without question, but All-Star Weekend has always been inclusive.

As of Tuesday, Southwest Airlines flashed a message on its Web site saying there were no more seats available on Thursday or Friday from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Goodness knows how many homies, playaz, slimmies, shorties, pimps, juicies and jeezys are on the interstate driving from Oakland. And lest you think this is exclusively a West Coast affair, consider that Love nightclub in D.C., the people who hosted the big bash for Gilbert Arenas's 25th birthday, are throwing parties here in conjunction with LeBron and TNT's Kenny Smith that are open to regular folks for $100 general admission, in advance.

Thursday night, very late of course, Diddy and Tracy McGrady were hosting a party. Shaq has not only a party scheduled for Friday night at Mix, but comes back Saturday night at rumjungle to co-host with LaDanian Tomlinson. Magic's party on Saturday with Iverson (who clearly has too much time on his hands) features hip-hoppers Biz Markie and Kid Capri. Magic's after-party features Flavor Flav. And the newest craze is to have a celebrity poker challenge, which is why LeBron, Kenny Smith and Michael Jordan each has one.

But the biggest star of the weekend -- and this will surprise some people -- is already Dwyane Wade. Right across from "Carrot Top at the Luxor" and an enormous billboard for "Microsurgical Vasectomy Reversal" is a stunningly large ad for Wade selling T-Mobile Sidekick 3 that spans 28 floors of the Mandalay Bay Hotel. It's twice as tall as any building in D.C.

Yes, there are huge ads covering domes and pyramids along the Strip, featuring Kevin Garnett and Dwight Howard, a medium-size poster here and there with Gilbert Arenas. But Wade is the big deal, his image adorning double-decker buses coming and going along the Strip. It was Wade's Thursday night party at the Mirage, thrown by Converse, and Wade's party at rumjungle Saturday night featuring performances by Rich Boy and Slim Thug that were the most sought-after invites of all.

This weekend includes non-hoops nuttiness, too. The city has been abuzz since Michael Jackson left Michael Flatley's castle in Ireland and reportedly moved to a house on the west side of Vegas. There have been sightings of him everywhere, including Steve Wynn's Wing Lei restaurant, where Mikey was -- according to Robin Leach's must-read "Luxe Life" online column -- dining with Simon Fuller, the uber producer-manager who helped make "American Idol" and was behind David Beckham's recent deal to come to America.

Most of the basketball sycophants here probably would rather see D. Wade than M. Jackson, but the whole rhythm of the place underscores how crazy it is to have the All-Star Game in Las Vegas, -- the first time the NBA has staged the affair outside a league city.

So is the NBA seriously considering putting a team here?

Ghalib Ghallab, the revered jazz musician who has lived in Las Vegas for nearly 20 years, talked Thursday morning about basketball's place in Las Vegas. "It's always been a basketball town," he said. "For the longest time it was UNLV and Jerry Tarkanian. Tark now has a basketball academy here. Basketball is still alive and thriving locally, though not to the level as when UNLV was the flagship. I'd love to see a pro team here.

"Most people would. The all-star game every year? That would be great, too. But we know that gaming is the issue. The mayor is trying every angle, and the town is jacked up. I don't care what the sport is; they bring it to Vegas to see if it will work."

Prophecy · Post by **Prophecy** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 8:32 pm

Anybody else watching the celeb game?

YouTube · Post by **Philaflava** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 8:58 pm

Prophecy wrote:Anybody else watching the celeb game?

amazing how bush has very little skills. you'd think he would be an all-around athlete.

now lt is a baller.

Psychosis · Post by **Psychosis** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 9:27 pm

Bush gets injured lol

Terrorwrist · Post by **Terrorwrist** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 12:29 pm

i tried watching the celeb game...i coudlnt stomach it though....jeeezus...chris tucker is the wooooorst

and seeing Murs at kenny smith's little pre party at halftime was pretty odd

Positive A · Post by **Positive A** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 12:55 pm

Terrorwrist wrote:and seeing Murs at kenny smith's little pre party at halftime was pretty odd

yeah...completely random. Him, Blaze, and Ne Yo...wtf?

bringinoutbangerz · Post by **bringinoutbangerz** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:36 am

<3

no homo

Gregg Popabitch1 · Post by **Gregg Popabitch1** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:29 am

bringinoutbangerz wrote:
<3

no homo

Ahnold: GET IN THE CHOPPAH

wayne newton: Gilbert could use some Botox.

Diddy: TAKE THAT TAKE THAT TAKE THAT TAKE THAT

bringinoutbangerz · Post by **bringinoutbangerz** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:47 am

Gregg Popabitch wrote:
bringinoutbangerz wrote:
<3

no homo
Ahnold: GET IN THE CHOPPAH

wayne newton: Gilbert could use some Botox.

Diddy: TAKE THAT TAKE THAT TAKE THAT TAKE THAT

Wayne looks like a teenaged asian kid

SYM · Post by **SYM** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:35 am

at last exchange.

so what was the deal with the celeb game at the end? any write-ups worth reading?

YouTube · Post by **Philaflava** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:10 pm

A funny read about Bball, Hiphop and drugs.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/st ... ons/070220

SYM · Post by **SYM** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:47 pm

hilarious read.

bringinoutbangerz · Post by **bringinoutbangerz** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:48 pm

http://sports.aol.com/whitlock/_a/mayhe ... 1?cid=2365
Whitlock freaking out about Vegas. What if he were a whitey writing this piece? hmmmm.

Nl5H · Post by **Nl5H** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 3:47 am

yeah i was there last weekend, pretty much on point...i slept like 12 hours the entire trip... went to shawn marion's party at voodoo lounge thursday night at the RIO (he was actually there, as were a few other ballers - gerald green and greg anthony - in my elevator, chris bosh, deron williams, millsap, the linebacker from oakland raiders - morrison, dj sns was on the 1s and 2s)...that was pretty much the only big party i went to and wanted to wait in line for... man dwayne had a party every night pretty much, no wonder his shoulder is fucked up.

and for the record, the MGM was not as bad as jason whitlock make it out to be...i was out there Saturday night at Diego's Lounge and I didn't see that many people blooding and cripping...maybe i missed all that.

i did see Nelly once, with JD at Bellagio at 5:00 am. Sunday morning.

VerbalTec · Post by **VerbalTec** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 2:16 pm

whitlock is a fat fuckin uncle tom.

more of his bullshit

http://sports.aol.com/whitlock/_a/time- ... 4609990001

NBA All Star Weekend Thread

Who will be the 2007 All Star game MVP?

NBA All Star Weekend Thread