Garnett is here… (Photo. Land)

Just got back to my room at the Marriott after spending the morning at the NBA’s Jam Session complex for All-Star practice and other things…

At 9 a.m., adidas held it’s “Basketball is a Brotherhood” event: Kevin Garnett (in his Celtics uniform but still injured), Tim Duncan, Dwight Howard, Chauncey Billups and Antawn Jamison playing 5-on-5 with some local kids, just like in the commercial. It was split up into 6 teams, each named after the particular NBA guy’s team, so you had 8 kids on the court and 2 All-Stars. KG couldn’t play and T-Mac wasn’t there to rep the Rockets team, so Jamison and Dwight doubled up and played twice. Funny to see Dwight playing PG, dropping no-look passes and generally clowning around, then Chauncey is out there setting back-screens and rotating on defense. The guys also fielded questions from the kids; Dwight said his top basketball moment was winning the state ‘chip in high school. At some point I saw Mickael Gelabale pop up wearing a glitter hoodie and with a top-notch looking girl on his arm.

After the adidas event, I was walking around the Jam Session (think a county fair buy everything has to do with basketball) and came across an NBA Ballers: Chosen One area that included a fenced-off court and none other than Karl Malone playing some kind of 2-Ball style game where he had to hit shots from certain spots on the court. The Mailman started off right under the rim with a layup, but he missed his first two tries — not even hitting rim on the first one — before making the third. Then he bricked a few free throws before hitting one, and missed about 12 elbow threes in a row before giving up. Some fans came up behind me and I heard this exchange:

Bell: Who is that?
Biv: That’s Karl Malone, I think.
Devoe: No, Karl Malone can shoot.

The Eastern Conference All-Stars held practice in the same building (different court) as the adidas event. Doc Rivers, who was mic’d up, was stuck in this weird place between trying to run a semi-realistic practice buy also having to be a little stand-up comedian and a little bit of camp counselor. KG participated in shooting drills, while injured Caron Butler just rebounded for shooters. I heard a couple of reporters behind me talking crap about KG. Basically along the lines of, “He’s too hurt to play, but he’s out here shooting?”

After East practice, some guy from the Guiness Book of World Records showed up for an official world record try: The most half-court shots made in 60 seconds. Six guys on the East team stepped up and tried for the record. LeBron went first and made 3 shots, which no one could match until the last shooter, Jason Kidd (introduced as “From the East and the West” by Doc) hit two underhand half-court shots and one traditional shots. The West is practicing right now and I’m not sure if they’re doing the world record attempt thing, but as of right now, LeBron and J-Kidd are the official co-world record holders. Of course, I’m sure there’s some 38-year-old guy in Arkansas who can make like 15 half-court shots in a minute, but whatever. If there is, we’ll see it on YouTube eventually.

My new homie Shawn Respert, who works for the D-League, came up to me and told me that while I was at the Rookie Challenge last night, the D-League had its dunk contest: Michigan alum Brent Petway won it (no surprise at all), beating out Iowa State product Mike Taylor. According to Respert, the dunks Taylor was missing were better than dunks he’s seen made in the NBA Dunk Contest.

There was a half-hour media session with the West and East All-Star in between the two practices. Again, Kobe was the star of the show, but Dwight got a lot of love, too. I got a sneak peek of some of the kicks guys will be wearing tomorrow, and I would have taken pics but my camera ran out of battery. Joe Johnson’s Jordans are real nice, as are Dwight’s three-stripes, and I like Chris Bosh’s All-Star Nikes.

Tonight is the Dunk Contest, Three-Point Shootout and Shooting Stars comp, so I’ll check back in with more then. The whole Dime crew has been all over this All-Star Weekend like no one else — and we’re not even to Sunday’s main event yet, so you know we’ll be on top of anything that goes down here in New Orleans.