The Shactus trying to make his way through the lobby of the Sheraton in downtown PHX. It took about 20 mins for him to make his way through

So we’re all back from Phoenix, trying to shake off the crust and All-Star hangover residue from four straight days of planes, parties, meetings, events and little to no sleep. I was cleaning out one of the Dime cameras and thought we should post a few of the pics from ASW that didn’t make it into our many posts to give you guys some more looks at what happened before we delete them… Read More »

Even though Nate ran away with his second Sprite Slam Dunk trophy with the help of his whole Kyrpto-Nate pefrormance, Dwight Howard still awed the crowd with his Superman antics. The phone booth along with the adidas Tech-Fit tight jersey were a nice touch, but in the end Nate’s presentation was a tad bit better. Read More »

Although this happened during the NBA’s All-Star Saturday Night festivities, I just had to post it and get people’s thoughts on where this ranks up there in all-time dunk contest dunks.

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Shaq + Jabbawockeez = Shaqawockeez. Amazing.

Everybody’s favorite story line

PRE-GAME * U.S. Airways Center, Phoenix — The clock on the scoreboard says we’re 37 minutes away from … something. It can’t be the countdown to tip-off, because the arena isn’t even half-full right now and I know the intros alone are gonna take about 20 minutes. Dwight Howard is on the court shooting jumpers in between the free throw line and the dotted, joined on the East side by Danny Granger and Devin Harris launching threes, and Rashard Lewis working on his mid-range J’s. Tim Duncan was out on the West side earlier taking some jumpers, but as of right now that end of the court is unoccupied. I’ve got my Nate Robinson wallpaper on the laptop, I’ve erased any leftover Michael Rapaport imagery, I’ve got my gum and my water and I’m ready to go … Read More »

I’m not gonna lie; the much talked-about H-O-R-S-E game between Kevin Durant, Joe Johnson and O.J. Mayo was supposed to have happened hours ago, and I haven’t heard one word about the outcome. The NBA didn’t really hype it up at all during this All-Star Weekend; presumably they wanted to play it low-key and see how the first one turned out before getting a lot of people to watch a disaster show. I’m telling you this because as I post these leftover quotes from Friday’s Rookie/Sophomore media session, I have no idea whether or not Durant’s H-O-R-S-E strategy worked out for him. That said, here are the young’uns:

KEVIN DURANT * On his game plan for H-O-R-S-E: “I haven’t thought of any trick shots yet. I know for sure I’ma shoot a couple deep ones, maybe some behind-the-backboard stuff. We play (H-O-R-S-E) after practice all the time. The only difference is the cameras will be on this time.”

* On hitting his stride as a top-flight scorer in the League: “I think that I’m trying to establish myself as more than a scorer, but an all-around player, a guy that can get his teammates involved, a guy that can get rebounds. I’d like to make that my identity as a player.” Read More »

All-Star Saturday Night is cool and everything, but only us chosen media folk get a chance to experience All-Star Friday Morning. This year, my ASFM media pass got me in a 9:30 a.m. sit-down with Tony Parker at a downtown Phoenix Subway. TP was on-hand to shoot around with some local kids and talk about his role in Subway’s 3-Point Play contest, where one fan (and three guests) can win a paid trip to San Antonio to attend a Spurs practice, shoot around with TP, then go to a game. (As well as win a free year of DirectTV service and an Xbox 360.) For more details on the contest, go to www.subwayfreshbuzz.com.

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So here’s the deal: I was supposed to be doing this live-blog of the Rookie Challenge, but due to circumstances I’ll get into in a minute, I didn’t get into my press row seat until just before the beginning of the second half. So we’ll take it from there. Second half about to start, Rookies up 61-58…

* Kevin Durant opens the half with a three to tie it up. Everyone has matching uniforms this year; personally I don’t like the everyone-wear-their-own-uni thing, just because teams like the Lakers with their yellow mess things up. So while I appreciate the uniformity, these jerseys are very, um, busy.

* I didn’t actually think the Rookies stood a chance here, just going by history and common sense (Sophs are a year stronger, more used to the NBA rigors of travel, aren’t burnt out by midseason, etc.), but the Rooks are up seven two minutes into the second half. Chalk it up to some more physically mature guys like Marc Gasol and Rudy Fernandez (more accustomed to longer seasons) and some athletic freaks like Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose. And just by looking at the scoreboard, the rooks are sharing the rock. Everyone on the court right now (Beasley, Gasol, Westbrook, Eric Gordon, Rudy) has between 10-16 points, while the Sophs are being dominated by Durant. Read More »

My head hurts. The NBA All-Star Celebrity Game is underway, and my only regret for deciding to skip out of being there in person is that I can’t hurl a full water bottle at Michael Rapaport. Seriously, the next time my fiancee asks me exactly what a “d-bag” is, I’m going to show her a tape of this game and of Rapaport’s antics. Or at least I would, but I generally try to avoid having this dude on my TV screen at all costs.

I don’t know what’s worse: The pretend-badass act, the fact that he’s spilling out of his uni, the fact that he clearly STINKS as a player, or the grim reality that everyone is buying this and Rapaport is getting exactly what he wants; attention. All game long, the announcers have been talking about Rapaport more than anyone else, an amazing feat considering the game is on ESPN and Terrell Owens is on the court. Read More »

The circus that is All-Star Media Day wrapped a little while ago. Some shots from the two-hour sprint of battling ultra-aggressive reporters from around the world as they literally (at times) try to climb on to tables to get at the All-Stars… LeBron went around to every fellow All-Star and presented them with a gift to commemorate their All-Star experience. We couldn’t get a good angle but, but this is ‘Bron with Paul Pierce. Read More »