The Intern’s Take On: NBA All-Star Weekend

VIVVVAAAAA LAS VEGAS

Sunday night brought close to a momentous event in a very anti-climatic way. There were lots of ups and a lot of downs. The exciting 3-point competition was capped off with Hibachi shooting from behind the arc with one arm but there was also the less then stellar rookie game. Mark my words next All-Star weekend we will see history in the making as the Oden-led rookies will walk all over the sophomores. It will definitely be a sad state of affairs. It will also be the first time the sophomores will have lost since the league instituted this format.

Then there was the joke of a celebrity game which included an insanely juiced up Carrot Top. Seriously, what the hell is that guy on? Then there was life-sized “Ken” doll known as Wayne Newton; I haven’t seen that much plastic since the last time I took out the recycling. Finally, the exhilarating dunk-off showcased Gerald Green performing a Dee Brown-esque dunk over Nate Robinson: classic. The Judges showed no love for Dwight. Come On! He stuck a sticker of his face on the top of the back board mid dunk and then pulled out a measuring tape to measure how high it was: Classy.

The All-Star weekend’s plateau was the dunk comp because the actual All-Star game was lackluster at best. It really was a showcase of the West dominance over the measly East. It was basically like watching an NBA team play their D-league counterpart; except, at least, the D-League team would actually play as a team. It was actually quite scary how well the West gelled as a team. They set an All-Star record with 52 team assists and Kobe was still able to get his 20+ shots. Damn, I love watching west coast basketball. My major gripe with the game came at the hands of King James. Throughout the second half Lebron was playing like he really wanted that MVP trophy. He would march down the court not make a single pass and then jack up a shot. Good job James. What he failed to realize is that his team was down by 20 and he had no chance at the trophy.

On a different note, there were a couple of instances that did bring a smile to my face. Two of them included the big Diesel himself. The first one was when he followed up a missed dunk with a monster slam and finished with a kiss T-Mac’s forehead. Classic Shaq. Second was when point guard Shaq tried to take Memnut Okur off the dribble and threw up the ugliest shot of the night with Memo laughing at him the whole time. Finally, the highlight of my evening came with Agent Zero doing a through-the-legs dunk off the trampoline with all the dunking Elvises. It’s safe to assume that Eddie Jordan wasn’t too pleased. Consequently, Gilbert didn’t see the floor again for the rest of the evening. Yet again Gilbert Arenas’ hi-jinx made my day.