For his first dunk in the final round, JaVale McGee dunked three basketballs, which is amazing until you consider the he’s over seven feet tall, his dad was in the NBA, and he is the first son of a WNBA player to play in the NBA. Then you figure its just the natural evolution of things.
My entry to the dunk contest: a one-handed nacho dunk while taking photos. My reward: a one-notch belt adjustment in the wrong direction.
Blake Griffin’s first entry to the final round was a page out of Vince Carter’s book: the elbow through the rim jam. You know time is flying when the year 2000 is “old school.”
Blake’s final entry was a dunk over the hood of a Kia. Basketball purists like myself were disappointed (why not over the roof of the car, or jumping the car lengthwise?). But since the contest was decided by the crowd texting in votes, the only way Blake wasn’t winning the contest was if Justin Bieber was the fifth contestant. Also ironic: Kia is the sponsor of the NBA. Exactly 0.0000 percent of NBA players actually drive a Kia.
And it wouldn’t be All-Star Weekend without some crowd sightings. Here’s Bill Walton conferring with some green guy.
Terrell Owens looks exhausted after the Dunk Contest, while NBA rebounding leader, Kevin Love, looks lost.
Yi Jianlin, the Chinese government’s best shot at basketball now that Yao Ming’s bones have proven to be as tough as a Fabergé egg.
The best custom play-on-words jersey I saw all night. I can only assume this fellow was in DeMar DeRozan’s entourage, because DeMar is from Compton, plays on the Raptors, and there were four guys together, wearing the same jersey.
Future former Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton.
After the game I was forced to get a taco from a truck down the street since, apparently, all the Downtown Dog vendors who usually serve outside the Staples Center were rounded up and killed by David Stern before All-Star weekend. It’s basically what FIFA did to the food vendors in South Africa before the World Cup this summer.