[espn]Kenny Smith organizing hurricane relief all-star game

oh ya..stackhouse sang the natl anthem...initially very funny..but then this guy can actually sing..so everyone was cheering their asses off at the end...i myself was rather impressed

 

The Roc is in the building!

 

most well spent 25 bucks of my life! it was nothing short of a dream come true sitting in row 2 that close to all these stars. if shaq and yao had participated it would have honestly been 'the' allstar game, thats how well it was done. the players even played in their actual team jerseys...except for tyrone lue who played in a pistons uniform and his name taped on the back (pretty hilarious). Kanye West sat right in front of me and my brother also...overall just an INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE!!!!

 

Half court jumpers...

But what's important is...

PA guy goes... "The Roc is in the building!"

 

My friend and I went. Sat second row and got lots of pictures which I'll post later. I had an isle seat and Mike James came into the stands in the second half and I got to shake his hand...then he got mobbed.

Dwyane Wade threw his jersey into the crowd about 5 seats to my left and 1 row forward...a little girl got trampled and was crying but looked to be ok.

First half was VERY slow at times...they were trying to make too many passes, and people were actually playing defense. The second half was better and there were plenty of nice plays...just wish they wouldn't have fumbled the ball around so much especially with a running clock. It just seemed about a quarter too short.

For $25 I couldn't be much happier though.

Oh yeah, saw Kenny Smith in the will call area but didn't say anything to him because he looked busy, and Slim Thug was like 3 rows in front of us and got mobbed on the way out of the place. Some little girl ran up to him with a ball that was signed by all the players and got him to sign it. Talk about ruining a great souvenier. Not that Slim Thug isn't a worthy signature...but I wouldn't put it on a ball with those other names.

 

yeah it was well worth the money. the $10 seats were amazing.........the real season needs to be that low with the prices. it was great seeing jerry stackhouse sing the nation anthem, the players were all cracking up when stack was singing his heart out. also good to see that tmac is still sharp on his game.......he damn near throw down the best off-the-glass-to-himself dunk of all time.

during the first the players looked very rusty missing a lot of open shots and even lay-ups. i dunno if they will show it on tnt but during halftime, RUBBER BOY stole the show! that man is one flexible human being. the best part was when they showed the rections of the players on the big screens........hillarious stuff. i can't wait to see how it turns out on tv.

 

Yup the 25 bucks seats was more then worth it........have never sat so close at a game ....got my seats row 6 near the tunnel.....btw sat near Kanye West and his girl is smoking hot......

 

Absolutely insane. I got first row tix behind the East bench for $25 each. Got Wesley's autograph and JR smith was awesome with his dunks! And ya know how those kids come out and do flips and jump rope stuff? Francis joined in and started jumping double dutch. It was soo much fun. The Harlem Globetrotters came, that really skinny flexible dude was there, Kanye West started rapping!!! Slim thug walked right by me at the front entrance and i grabbed my camera, turned it on and got a pic of the back of his head. It was insane and soo worth 25 bucks and such a great cause! Amarosa was also sitting infront of me.

 

Sat courtside literally next to the media table, it was awesome:

-Player meet & greet: players were there all of 20 mins, and many were MIA, but Kobe, Melo, Lebron, K-Mart, J O'Neal, Ron-Ron, Boozer, D Wade, and others were signing. Wifey got her jeans signed by a ton of players (we brought a ball but they didn't let them in).

-Got to give pound to tons of players/ex-players (sitting by the West bench): thanking the Jet for the two trophies and for organizing the event, thanked Super Mario for the trophies and congrats for his coaching career, busted on Avery Johnson for talking to the Refs pre-game, asked Cat if he was looking fwd to playing with Sam, asked Craig Sager where the suits were, congrat'ed Damon Jones on the new contact, talked to Boozer about the Jazz (hoped that the injury bug was past and that Deron Williams looked good in the summer league games). Cuttino Mobley came to me to give some dap , welcomed D.A. and Stro to Houston, pounded T-Mac as he headed to scorer's table, and after his own personal long distance shoot-out.

-Iverson was there in sweats - and a nice watch that must have weighed 25 lb.

-Didn't say boo to Kobe.

-Players (especially Starbury) were grooving when Kanye sang a verse/chorus of Gold Digger.

-Players (esp T-Mac and Garnett) had horrified faces while watching the human pretzel guy.

-Cassell was MIA

-JR Smith and Dahntey Jones played really well.

-Mike James was gunning (and missing) despite being surrounded by all the all-stars.

-80% of the players looked rusty, but were having a really good time. Just about everyone was barefoot after the game cause they all threw their sneakers into the crowd.

-Awesome vibe, the entire show.

-Got a bunch of pics, but will need someone's help to upload/host them.

Evan

 

The power dancers looked different today... they were much skinnier than I remember and definitely better looking.

McGrady was extremely sharp, had his jumper going and threw down the best dunk of the game off a pass from Kobe although JR Smith definitely threw down the most. Artest was back and definitely was shying away from attention. Derek Anderson was horrible as expected, still LMAO at the guys on this board who were saying he was going to bring athleticism to this team. Mike James had alot of facial hair. Taylor has either put on muscle or gained weight... looked monstrous standing next to JO and KG.

There was a 5 minute struggle over a player's jersey (not sure who) that was thrown in the stands after the game. It was pretty intense.

 

I'll speak for Derek Anderson...

Ok I got, he said "Yo I was trying, I'll be fine when the season starts, you'll see."

But yeah, that 5 minute struggle over a jersey was for Mike James' jersey. He was toying with the crowd.

 

That's odd. Most of the girls today were "veterans" - mainly the same girls as last season.

There was another struggle over JR Smith's jersey near the visitor player's tunnel.

 

Agree, the dancers were HOTTT!!

My impressions of the game...

It was a GREAT, GREAT experience! I had tons of fun. T-Mac threw in the nastiest dunk of the whole game, and started shooting reallyyyyyyyy long-distance 3's at the end and made them, which had the crowd and the players themselves going crazy watching the shootout. The crowd was most intense during that part of the game at the end when T-Mac took those shots. He looks sharp. DA was there too but not much from him. Mike James was hogging the ball early on and shooting every chance he got, but then slowed down and played decent throughout. Amare had a few dunks too.

Really great event, and I took some pics which I will post, although the quality is not good (mainly because the camera was shaking and the pictures came out accordingly , but better than nothing I guess. I know, we are amateurs )

Javen't had this much fun in a while, it was an All-Star game in every sense, great stuff. Kudos to the NBA players/Kenny Smith for setting this whole thing up, and the players responded and showed their true character.

 

BTW, NBA TV has been having highlights/player interviews and other highlights from this game. It's been on for a while now.

 

Guys,

I just realized the bandwidth problem, so if there is a site with free picture hosting and I can upload all these pictures to and provide you with a link instead, let me know. Otherwise, this is the only way I can post these pics. I still have few more to go...

 

i usually us

Xs.to or ImageCabin

works for me

 

Awsome game! Here are some of my pics.

 

Just got back from the game. That was the cheapest and best allstar game you can ever go to. 10 dollar tickets were not bad at all. I almost had Franchise sneaker when he threw it. Anyways the game was off the chain. Best moments: Jones choped up Francis, Francis crossed boozer and Mike james, Cuttino making Carmello look like a fool.