A Weekend On the Couch

Posted by Keith Haney on February 19, 2008

‘Best of the West (?)’ (Jesse Garrabrant – NBAE/Getty Images)

My sofa has a new imprint from me sitting on it all weekend watching the All Star events in New Orleans. The wife was out of town, so I was allowed to leave my couch only for necessities without being distracted by chores or cuddling. All told, I watched about 20 hours of basketball and basketball related activities from Friday to Sunday. I’m not too proud of myself.

Throughout the weekend, I wrote down a bunch of notes about the festivities. Here were my favorite moments.

Friday Night
The Rookie/Sophomore game. I love the way this is setup. I wish they could do something like this for the regular All Star game. Maybe have youngsters play against veterans. Cut it off at say 5 or 6 years of play to decide who is what. Wouldn’t it be cool to see a team of say Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, and Tim Duncan versus Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade, and Lebron James?

It was fun seeing Brewer sporting the Jazz blue headband, something sloan doesn’t allow in regular games. Maybe the accessory helped him have a perfect night of 6-6 from the field. Hard to miss when all you shoot is dunks though. Can we get Sloan to remove the clothing restriction if we get this type of performance every night?

Millsap didn’t do much in the game. he seemed pretty disinterested. I hope he was headed to a big party or something afterwards. This will probably be the last time he participates in any All Star event.

After the Sophs put the beat down on the Rooks, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley were doing their post-game analysis when Karl Malone entered the stage for an unscheduled appearance. He demanded and received an apology from the Chuckster for constantly making fun of his Draft Day attire. Funny stuff that you have to see to appreciate. It was fun seeing the Mailman. He has surprisingly (to me) disappeared from the NBA scene almost as much as Stockton has.

Saturday Day
The first thing I watched Saturday was the All Star practice. I remember back in 1993 when the game was in Salt Lake. I was about 14 years old and couldn’t afford to go to the game, but I paid to attend the practice. In my memory, it was an awesome event. Watching it this year, I was reminded of how boring it really must have been. The only thing worth mentioning was the impressive half court shots made by Jason Kidd. He made four in a minute – UNDERHANDED!

The D-League All Star game was entertaining for 2 reasons only. Morris Almond and Kyrolo Fesenko. They both showed that they will be playing good minutes in the big time one day soon. Almond’s smooth shot and K-Fes’ post moves really stood out amongst the rest of the players. I was sad that I missed the H-O-R-S-E competition from the night before. I think it was the only event of the weekend that I didn’t catch. Almond didn’t win though, so I guess I didn’t miss much.

Saturday Evening
The Shooting Stars challenge was won by a surprising team of Tim Duncan, David Robinson, and Becky Hammon. But the highlight of the event for me was seeing BJ Armstrong with the Bulls. I never thought it would happen but he doesn’t look like he’s 12 years old anymore.

In between the nights festivities, we got to hear more from Kenny, Chuck, and Ernie. For my money, these guys are the best announcers/sports hosts on TV right now for any professional league. I don’t know why other shows don’t copy their winning format. Some nights I’m more excited to watch these guys talk than an actual game.

The Skills challenge was won by Deron Williams in record time, but my favorite moment was when he was presented with the trophy. Cheryl Miller announced the award for him while carrying a PlayStation 3. It was for a row of fans in the stands, but D-Will looked genuinely sad that it wasn’t for him. Sure, he’ll take the $35k prize, but NO PS3 FOR HIM!
Oh man was the Slam Dunk contest awesome. Best one I’ve ever seen except for MJ versus Nique in ‘88. If I was 13 years old again, I would want a poster of this on my wall.

‘A Bird or a Plane?’ (Jesse Garrabrant – NBAE/Getty Images)

Heck, I’m 31 and I’m still considering getting one when the NBA starts selling it. I gotta say though, the Gerald Green birthday cake dunk was my favorite . Truly more impressive with each time I watch it. It will be hard to top next year.

The dunk contest also brought us to the second Malone sighting of the weekend. He was judging. I was really hoping to see someone throw a hammer dunk down in his honor. Alas, no luck.

Sunday
I knew I had been watching too much basketball when I found myself glued to the NBA Legends Brunch in the morning. I was asking myself why I was watching this lovefest for the NBA Cares program and legends of the past when suddenly the third Malone sighting of the week occurred. He spoke briefly about the responsibility the league has to players past. He was genuinely nervous to be speaking in front of his peers.

Finally, the actual game arrived Sunday night. Kobe Bryant played for a whopping 2 minutes. What a waste. I can’t believe he didn’t just sit out the game with his hurt pinkie so Baron davis or Deron Williams could have played. I also couldn’t believe how afwul the uniforms were. What was the NBA thinking we those multi-colored monstrosities? They were so distracting it was hard to focus on the game at times.

Boozer played a’ight and put up a double double. I was quite surprised at how many minutes he played. It was odd seeing him hook up with CP3 for several easy layups. Hopefully it will be D-Will dishing those balls to Boozer in future All Star games.

The rest of the evening was boring as usual until the fourth quarter when it really got interesting and you could see both teams trying to win. Lebron’s 1 on 4 dunk capped off the night and sealed the victory for the East.

All in all, it was a great weekend for the NBA. The many representatives of the Jazz served Utah proudly. For the first time in many years, I’m actually glad I sat on my couch for three straight days during the All Star break.

1 Comment

Tittle on February 20, 2008 said:

First thing, Did you mean to say “Chores like cuddling”?

I thought the same thing about BJ Armstrong. He finally looks like he should have a drivers license. Think he ever gets stopped by the police for sluffing school?

What is the deal with Sloan’s ban on headbands. Doesn’t make much sense to me. It actually seems like a pratical accessory.

I love watching D-Will own CP3. All the ciritizism of D-Will and how he is not quick enough. Well maybe setting the record on the skills challenge will quiet that a little bit. Is there anything that CP3 will be able to beat D-Will at? Maybe a “Who’s shorter” contest.

Sweet picture of the dunk. I think that will make an excellent poster. I will buy it for my son, but keep it in my living room.

No Pacman Jones arrests this year?

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