BASKETBALL

It was All-Star weekend in the NBA.  This year the game was in the new, magnificent Dallas Cowboy stadium.  They had a whopping record capacity for an NBA All-Star game at 108,000 people.  Many people don’t realize just how huge an event All-Star Weekend is.  It doesn’t draw as many as the Super Bowl, but it squashes other major sports All-Star events.

Saturday night was the always thrilling slam dunk contest.  Participants included Toronto’s DeMar DeRozen, the Lakers’ Shannon Brown, Charlotte’s Gerald Wallace, and the defending champion from the NY Knicks — Nate Robinson.  Typically, this is the event that electrifies the crowd.  But, this year, it was rather lackluster.  The first round saw very uncreative dunks, with the only reasonable highlights coming from the rookie DeRozen and last year’s champion Nate Robinson (who stands all of 5’6, so any dunk he does is pretty special).  Well, in the second round DeRozen had a nice dunk off an alley-oop pass off the side of the backboard, but Robinson stole the show once again.  He started off hanging out with Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, then threw an alley-oop to himself off the backboard and finished with a reverse jam.  And, once again, Robinson is the slam dunk champ.  That’s his 3rd victory.  Can we expect him next year?

And Sunday night marked the main event. East v. West, in the most exciting exhibition game in all of sports.  Sure, the players don’t exactly play “good” defense, but they sure do put on an offensive show.  While the game was close, most of the highlights came from the East.  LeBron James and Dwayne Wade were dunking and alley-ooping out of their minds.  The West, on the other hand, were without their marquee player:  Kobe Bryant.  Towards the end, Chauncey Billups put up a key shot to tie game, but when the buzzer sounded, the East had a 2 point lead and took the bragging rights.  Dwayne Wade finished the night with 28 points and 11 assists and was named All-Star MVP.

Finally, there’s a little drama between Orlando’s Dwight Howard and Cleveland’s Shaquille O’Neal.  What’s the controversy?  Their nickname:  Superman.  They, um, both have it.  In a contest last week, the Cavs beat the Magic, and Shaq said, “You tell me who the real Superman is”.  Howard was offended by this, and said he wished Shaq would have been supportive of him and realized that Howard is just trying to get to the superstar status of Shaq.  Instead, Shaq put him down.  Howard said he’s just trying to have fun out there and do his own thing — not try to be Shaq.  Most likely, this heat will go nowhere, but the NBA’s melodrama is unpredictable.