Didn't see this posted anywhere. Not good for the NBA image IMHO and I am not really shocked to hear any of this either. http://sports.aol.com/whitlock/_a/mayhem-main-event-at-nba-all-star/20070220103009990001 Mayhem Main Event at NBA All-Star Weekend 'Police Were Simply Overwhelmed' in Sin City By JASON WHITLOCK AOL Sports Commentary LAS VEGAS -- NBA All-Star Weekend in Vegas was an unmitigated failure, and any thoughts of taking the extravaganza to New Orleans in 2008 are total lunacy. An event planned to showcase what is right about professional basketball has been turned into a 72-hour display of why commissioner David Stern can't sleep at night and spends his days thinking of rules to mask what the NBA has come to represent. Good luck fixing All-Star Weekend. The game is a sloppy, boring, half-hearted mess. The dunk contest is contrived and pointless. The celebrity contest is unintended comedy. And, worst of all, All-Star Weekend revelers have transformed the league's midseason exhibition into the new millennium Freaknik, an out-of-control street party that features gunplay, violence, non-stop weed smoke and general mayhem. Word of all the criminal activity that transpired during All-Star Weekend has been slowly leaking out on Las Vegas radio shows and TV newscasts and on Internet blogs the past 24 hours. "It was filled with an element of violence," Teresa Frey, general manager for Coco's restaurant, told klastv.com. "They don't want to pay their bills. They don't want to respect us or each other." Things got so bad that she closed the 24-hour restaurant from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. "I have been spit on. I have had food thrown at me," she said. "I have lost two servers out of fear. I have locked my door out of the fear of violence." All weekend, people, especially cab drivers, gossiped about brawls and shootings. You didn't know what to believe because the local newspaper was filled with stories about what a raging success All-Star Weekend was. The city is desperately trying to attract an NBA franchise, and, I guess, there was no reason to let a few bloody bodies get in the way of a cozy relationship with Stern. Plus, the NBA's business partner ESPN didn't have time to dirty its hands and report on the carnage. I'm sure ESPN's reporters were embedded in the rear ends of the troops -- Shaq, Kobe, King James, D-Wade, AI and Melo. But there were multiple brawls, at least two shootings, more than 350 arrests and a lot of terror in Vegas over the weekend. And the police might want to talk to NFL player Pacman Jones about a nasty shooting spree at a Vegas strip club. Jones and the rapper Nelly were allegedly at Minxx Gentlemen's Club Monday morning shortly before (or during) the shooting. Two victims, male employees of the club, were listed in critical condition at the hospital; a third, a female patron, sustained non-life threatening injuries after being grazed by a bullet. There were so many fights and so many gangbangers and one parking-lot shootout at the MGM Grand that people literally fled the hotel in fear for their safety. I talked with a woman who moved from the MGM to the Luxor because "I couldn't take it. I'll never come back to another All-Star Game." There are reports of a brawl between rappers and police at the Wynn Hotel. Vegas police were simply overwhelmed along The Strip. They were there solely for decoration and to discourage major crimes. Beyond that, they minded their own business. I was there. Walking The Strip this weekend must be what it feels like to walk the yard at a maximum security prison. You couldn't relax. You avoided eye contact. The heavy police presence only reminded you of the danger. Without a full-scale military occupation, New Orleans will not survive All-Star Weekend 2008. David Stern seriously needs to consider moving the event out of the country for the next couple of years in hopes that young, hip-hop hoodlums would find another event to terrorize. Taking the game to Canada won't do it. The game needs to be moved overseas, someplace where the Bloods and Crips and hookers and hoes can't get to it without a passport and plane ticket. I'm serious. Stern has spent the past three years trying to move his league and players past the thug image Ron Artest's fan brawl stamped on the NBA. After this weekend, I'm convinced he's losing the battle. All-Star Weekend Vegas screamed that the NBA is aligned too closely with thugs. Stern is going to have to take drastic measures to break that perception/reality. All-Star Weekend can no longer remain the Woodstock for parolees, wannabe rap artists and baby's mamas on tax-refund vacations. This was not a byproduct of the game being held in Vegas. All-Star Weekend has been on this path for the past five or six years. Every year the event becomes more and more a destination for troublemakers. If something isn't done, next year's All-Star Weekend will surpass the deceased Freaknik, a weekend-long party in Atlanta, in terms of lawlessness. Wide-spread looting and a rape killed the Freaknik in 1999. The NBA's image cannot survive bedlam in the French Quarter. And I'm not sure it can survive the embarrassment of a New Orleans standoff between its fans and the National Guard, either. If Stern wants to continue to strengthen the international appeal of his game, he has the perfect excuse to move the All-Star Game to Germany, China, England or anywhere Suge Knight's posse can't find it.
An excerpt from Simmon's new article (haven't finished reading it yet. Damn this thing is long): http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070220
I'm not saying the article isn't true or not. It's just that the guy loves to throw in totally unrelated stuff to bash ESPN in every article he writes (because he was canned by ESPN). It wasn't ESPN's job to report on local news in Las Vegas. Hell, they weren't the network covering the game or any of the festivities, outside of the celebrity game!
dude needs a chill pill. Superbowl causes even more damage than the All star and New Years day poses even more problems. What do you suggest move these events out of country. This is how society is transcribing these days, face it.
I have to disagree. In NY at 12:05 the cleaning crew comes and everyone go home. No one starts shooting.
Is this the same guy who said he will never step foot in Houston again because after the All-Star game last season?
He was shot in Denver, and it was the result of some dispute at a bar. It really had nothing to do with any New Year's celebrations.
Everything I have read by him seems to be accurate. As with any columnist he shows a bit of bias or contempt for one thing or another but it doesn't negate the facts of the "straight outa compton" weekend that went on.
Well at least when they were in houston all they could complain about was the weather and the traffic...houston 1, las vegas -1.3 But seriously, did anyone hear about any of this happening here in houston last year
I was in the car Sunday night before the game and this was the subject on Sporting News Network. I don't know what show was on. The hosts basically called out Las Vegas because even the mayor said something and the host went off on vegas. some guy called from vegas defending the city basically blaming it on the outside element. but I didn't even think, last season the game was here and there were no problems. so las vegas actually should take a little blame.
Oh please. Everybody knows that 3 black people in one place is a riot, and four is all out war. Why is this surprising? Any large event or party is going to attract tons of crime and flat out debauchery.
It's not a black/white thing. It's about Vegas dropping the ball and not properly handling security and order. Here's what Al Harrington said about LV: http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/da...lumns-0/117177775397300.xml&coll=1&thispage=3 And another quote from Al: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070220
Damn, I didn't know I was a thug..... I was in Vegas from Thu-Mon. Maybe I am a thug because I didn't have ANY problems. I can think of two instances where I walked back to my hotel from the Bellagio, ALONE, in the wee hours of the morning. I never felt threatened, nor did I see anyone else in any kind of danger. I was actually suprised to see so many kids there (in the daytime). The lines for clubs were a little rough at night, just like they were here for All-Star and Superbowl, Superbowl in Atlanta, etc. It took me almost an hour to catch a cab back from The Palms/Rain on Sunday night...just like it took me an hour to catch a cab back from the Palms/Rain when I went to Vegas last summer. Considering that there were more folks in town and it was the player's hotel (attracting more people), I wasn't suprised. Yep, I saw folks smoking weed on the strip, just like I saw folks smoking weed on Bourban during Mardi Gras and the Classic, or any other event in a city where law enforcement isn't high due to the tourist environment. Houston isn't one of those cities...HPD will bust your ass in a minute. The game was in VEGAS, where prostitution is damn near legal. What did folks really expect it to be like? If they didn't expect a happy-go-lucky environment in Sin City, where they advertise "what happens here stays here" then they are idiots. I can understand complaining about folks being violent, etc....but I was there for 4 nights and didn't see anything like that. I had approximately 15 friends in town (male and female) and none of them ever felt threatened either. Then again, all of them were black. And I have also been to two Freakniks as a college student in Atlanta. To compare last weekend to that (where folks were basically having sex in the open) is STUPID. Now I will admit that I saw some bonafide hoochies this weekend....but I saw the same thing in Houston last year....
