And I'm back ... fresh from a weekend o' fun with Mom and Dad, and probably ready for a vacation to recover. All in all, we did and saw a lot over the last few days - from a trip down to Newport Beach and its swanky Fashion Island, to the Grove to Universal Studios. We took pictures with the Oscar statuettes in Hollywood, had dinner with my aunt and uncle in Santa Monica, walked around downtown Pasadena, and had at least a couple of nice dinners around LA.
Anyways, wanted to quickly talk about this past weekend's NBA ALL-STAR festivities. Due to the parental visit, I watched most of the events after the fact, but I have to say, this weekend saw some of the most entertaining All-Star games and contests in quite some time. First of all, Dwight Howard totally owned at the Dunk contest. The level of excitement and energy he brought to the event, and the way in which he lit up the crowd, hasn't been seen since the famous Vince Carter-dominated dunk contest of 2000. I mean, let's run it down:
Dwight Howard's first dunk: Comes from BEHIND the backboard, reaches around the rim, and throws it down. DAYUM.
Dwight Howard's second dunk: Rips off his jersey to reveal a SUPERMAN outfit, complete with cape, pumps up the crowd to obscene levels, jams home a thunderous dunk where it really did look like he flew, and elicits unanimous scores of "10" from the panel of all-star judges, as John Williams' Superman theme music plays in the background. An instant classic.
Dwight Howard's third dunk: Gets a running start, bounces the ball of the backboard with one hand, then with the OTHER hand grabs it and throws it down. SICK.
This was definitely a classic performance, and kudos to TNT for making the event so fun, as always. Sir Charles, Kenny Smith, Reggie Miller, et al were in top form, and it was a pleasure to watch all of TNT's weekend NBA coverage. Now, as for the dunk contest, credit also has to go to Gerald Green for his hilarious "blow out the candle" dunk, as well as his "no-shoes" dunk, which technically is ridiculously impressive. And give Green credit in general for overall raising the bar, forcing dunk contestants to use a bit more creativity, showmanship, and humor than they had in the past.
The 3 point shootout and other skills challenges were decent, though it would have been fun to have some of the bigger-name sharpshooters compete such as Ray Allen or Michael Redd.
But about Ray Allen, I was once again blown away by his sheer talent in the All Star Game proper. The guy can flat-out play, and he's got to be one of the best marksmen in the game's history to boot. To me he is definitely one of the most underrated NBA players of the last several years, and it was great to see the UCONN alum force himself into the spotlight with a breathtaking all-star performance this weekend, especially considering that he wasn't even selected to the team to begin with, only getting the nod as a reserve. And yet, with 28 points, including 5 three pointers, Allen was snubbed as MVP in favor of LeBron James, who had a great game as well but wasn't quite as instrumental in orchestrating the East team's victory in the game's latter half. Guess it would have looked bad if a reserve player were to receive MVP honors. Oh well, the players all worked to put on a great show, and some of the high-flying moves from the likes of Dwight Howard, LeBron, Amare Stoudamire, and others made for an exceedingly entertaining game.
Very curious now to see how the second half of the season shapes up. With Shaq on the Suns, Kidd on the Mavs, and Pau on the Lakers, the West is now very interesting. And I'm ultra-curious to see how the Celtics hold up under the strain of the playoffs as well. Great weekend for the NBA and it's fans though - that much is for sure.
- Didn't see most of the new TV from the last few days yet, so I need to catch up on the FOX Sunday night shows as well as last night's PRISON BREAK finale. Stay tuned for reviews of those plus lots more. For now, until next time ...
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