Fashionably Late
Kobe Bryant (photo. Chris Sembrot)Friday was the busiest day of this All-Star Weekend; in addition to the Rookie Challenge, the Rookie and Sophomore practices, the annual NBA Tech Summit, and the League’s regularly-scheduled All-Star team media availability sessions, it seemed every other company who had a media event going on decided to have it yesterday. In other words, some of the Dime crew was up extra-early for an interview/photo op with Tony Parker, some of us were up extra-early to get up with David Stern, Chris Bosh, Steve Nash and Baron Davis for the tech summit, and all of us were going non-stop with meetings, interviews, business lunches and dinners, parties and after-parties … Last night’s main event, though, was the Rookie Challenge, which Kevin Durant turned into his personal buckets brigade. When the Sophomore team fell behind double-digits in the second half and seemed primed to be a major upset victim, KD shouldered the load and dropped 46 points (17-25 FG) on his way to setting a Rookie Challenge record and copping MVP … If the Rookies had hung onto the lead, Mike Beasley (29 pts) probably would have taken the trophy for sheer numbers alone. Forget needing to score to get his team in the game and occasionally passing when necessary; Beasley was just JACKING. Every time he got the ball he was shooting or looking to shoot. Right before the final buzzer, with the game well out of reach, B-Easy demanded the inbounds, raced upcourt and nailed a long three, smiling and pumping his fist when it went in like he’d just hit the game-winner. The funniest part was that during the Rookie/Sophomore media session, one of the first things out of Beasley’s mouth was that he didn’t care if he scored at all, as long as the Rooks won the game … All-Star Media Day was a zoo as usual. Kind of like everything else this weekend, it was scaled back a little bit — the throng of reporters surrounding Yao Ming’s table wasn’t as massive and aggressive as in years past — but it still had that big-time feel. Shaq had probably the biggest crowd, followed closely by Kobe, even though Kobe showed up 25 minutes into the West team’s 30-minute session. And because Kobe was so late, by the time the East team arrived for their media time, the guy who was supposed to occupy the table left by Kobe, Rashard Lewis, got bumped to a little kiddie table off to the side. Remember that on Sunday when Rashard tries to cram on Kobe or drain a triple in his eye …
Amar’e StoudemireLeBron, D-Wade, KG, Amar’e (”What do you think of the trade rumors?”) and Iverson (”Why aren’t you scoring 25 a game?”) had decent-sized crowds; but LeBron pulled a veteran move by taking 15 of the 30 minutes to pass out gifts to his fellow East All-Stars, essentially killing time and making it so he didn’t have to answer as many questions … On the flip side, the smallest crowds belonged to David West, Danny Granger, Jameer Nelson and Mo Williams … Check out some Media Day pics HERE … Although nothing will top seeing Gheorge Muresan in the Sheraton hotel lobby and Mark Eaton in the men’s room for random sightings of this weekend, this e-mail we got from Dime’s Austin Burton at like 11:30 p.m. was odd: “I just walked past Anquan Boldin completely by himself, looking lost standing on a street corner. No entourage, not one single person with him, and no one recognized him.” … In case you missed it, there was a major NBA trade yesterday: Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks (he’s still in the NBA?) going to Toronto in exchange for Jermaine O’Neal and Jamario Moon. It’s a better deal for Miami, if nothing else because they actually have a chance to do something in the postseason and needed a big man to solidify that. Assuming he doesn’t physically break down in the second half of the season, J.O. can do a lot for them as a shot-blocker, rebounder and scorer in the post. And Moon can be a solid rotation guy, so long as he’s not a starter and doesn’t have to be in the game during crunch-time. The Raps get a great player in Marion, and cap space after the season, but for one of the softest teams in the League with a shaky locker-room dynamic already, do you really want to inherit Marion and everything that comes with him? … Oh, then there was the celebrity game. You can thank THIS GUY for making it unwatchable … We’re out like Eaton …
February 14th, 2009 at 4:24 am
RapsFan says:
Marion will thrive in Raptors uniform..in BC we trust.
February 14th, 2009 at 4:30 am
fLaVa says:
KD is the future!!
February 14th, 2009 at 5:55 am
JT$ says:
Why is everyone picking Nate Robinson to win the SDC??!! Does anyone else remember him botching 87 attempts when he won…it should have a fucking * next to it. Does anyone actually think Iggy didnt get robbed who’s not a total moron? They might as well have had Tim Donaghy judging it there was so much collusion. Kenny Smith should get the Antonio Margarito treatment permanently. And yes DIME, everyone else does think Michael Rapaport is a dough bag. EVERYONE. Anyone who doesn’t also probably thinks Nate Robinson actually deserved to win in ‘06
February 14th, 2009 at 6:06 am
John says:
People, the Heat made the trade to dump Banks salary … Miami will have 52 M to offer to 3 NBA stars in 2010 offseason. Pat Riley will try to get Lebron and Bosh keeping Wade.
Chalmers
Wade
Lebron
Beasley
Bosh
February 14th, 2009 at 6:37 am
Hi, Jurg from Denmark says:
yes and a big hi hi to u fomr raddisson hotel in phoenix arizona. great dane is here for the big one. back in america one more time.
and a big thaiinks to all the party people from phoenix who make me welcome wiht drinks and all good drugs. it is so good to dance with the white lady when you are not paying. yes sir.
and now it is time to get some sleep. because jurgo did not go well with the ladies tonight it is just my hope that room service can take the top off one whilst i am snoring.
happy day to all of you. i love american.
hi hi from jurgo.
February 14th, 2009 at 7:58 am
Sweet English says:
and the award for unitentionally hilarious comment of the year goes toooo……
February 14th, 2009 at 8:17 am
Marci says:
Is there anybody, who’s got a video about the D-League slam dunk contest?
February 14th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Ross says:
What’s Spam Karma?
February 14th, 2009 at 8:27 am
Ross says:
A lot of people don’t realize that Amare wont be as productive of a player without Nash passing to him.
February 14th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Ansonious says:
I would also like to agree about the rappaport ruining the game it was terrible but Owens blowing that dunk was pretty funny too. Remember when TO was trying to sign with the Kings a year or two ago I was like well I’m sure he can play but how good is he? I will admit he’s better than me but playing with a bunch of cats who don’t really play at a pro level anymore I wonder how humiliated he would’ve been getting schooled, dunked on by anybody, I mean seriously I would buy a poster of TO getting posterized, and I would even frame that shit up.
February 14th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Shrink This says:
Colangelo couldn’t have parlayed TJ Ford into anything better than Marcus Banks and an expiring contract? Then again, this Marion thing couldn’t turn out any worse than BC’s JO experiment…Could it?
I personally can’t wait until people stop calling BC a genius…
I mean, why couldn’t the Raptors have hired a coach with an IQ above 80? With all of the real NBA coaches out there we couldn’t do better than a guy who might actually be able to misspell X or O?
February 14th, 2009 at 11:17 am
Max says:
B-Easy was horrible, jacking with no conscience, and whining at the refs several times throughout the game. Yeah, he got a bunch of points, but I just knew I wanted the sophs to win the game once I saw the ease with which KD was abusing everyone, and his hustle (as opposed to Beasy’s obnoxious pseudo-competitiveness).
Rook-Soph game was quite good for that sort of thing.
February 14th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Melo2TDot says:
Thats just Beasley. he wasn’t doin that talking to spite anyone, he was just tryna have a gud time and he did a pretty gud job.
and to those of u who still thinks Colangelo is a savior, have u not noticed that his team progressively gets worse each season. i really dont think hes working out for us
February 14th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
jones says:
Why is everyone hating on Beasley? He doesn’t get to play on Spo’s bench and this was his opportunity to play freely.
The whole team with the exception of Rose were jacking up shots. OJ Mayo, Westbrook, Rudy etc. They all hardly ever passed and Rose (1-7) probably passed because his shots weren’t going in.
Beasley gets hated on far too much than he really deserves.
February 14th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
weezy f says:
so iverson cut his braids off
February 14th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
YOUNGFED..."I got 2 balls I'ma pass'em to ya Baby Mama" says:
FEDRODOMOUS PREDICTS:
Rudy Fernandez will win the dunk contest
I’m out keep it “One Hun-nid”
February 14th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
thomasmmm says:
iggy was robbed. corrupt.
February 14th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Marci says:
Rudy Fernandez will take a layup.
DWIGHT IS THE MAN!
(I’m the only one who is interested in the D-League dunk contest?)
February 14th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Hey!! says:
B-Easy used to be THE MAN in college hoops but is now only the second best rookie on his team. Imagine how frustrating that must be.
It was clear B-Easy was venting this pent-up frustration throughout the Rook-Soph game. It was good to see him heat up in the 2nd half but the 1st half jacking was unbearable.
February 14th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
no j mayo says:
Jodie Fucking Meeks 45 today in a KY win. He can ball.
February 14th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
kg fan says:
horse should be cancelled next year. its pretty boring
February 14th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
pig says:
Man iverson has cut his cornrows
February 14th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
jay says:
it is all good!!! kobe likes to be fashionable late! hey maybe one of the girls was sick..who knows…he made it all good!
February 15th, 2009 at 1:59 am
johnsacrimoni says:
HORSE would be a lot better if K-Love was in it. Also, Durant’s breaking out. Big time. He’s about five minutes away from being top 10 in the L.