All-Star Sneaker Countdown
All-Star 2009 was unlike any other All-Star weekend I’ve experienced. I caught Friday night’s events without sound, sitting in the back of a restaurant in Freeport, in the Bahamas. I was on the last night of a week-long vacation and out for dinner with my parents and some friends of theirs. While the Harlem Globetrotters threw a bucket of confetti at the announce crew, a guy who looked like a slimmed down version of Bleeding Gums Murphy and sang like Al Green was set up one table over from me, covering everything Elvis one minute, I saw D-Wade kick off his weekend of trying too hard, looking like a combination of Urkel and Nelly.
Saturday was a travel day. I caught the first two letters of GEICO/HORSE in the ATL airport, saw the three-point contest in its entirety in Minny’s airport, and watched the dunk contest early Sunday morning on Youtube after getting in late Saturday night.
Jet lag (and possibly a sugar high gone wrong) stole the majority of the second half of the actual game from me on Sunday. I woke up early Monday morning, having slept upwards of 12 hours and thought about what I saw, either live or in highlight format: Dan Majerle shooting from deep; David Robinson back in number 50; Jason Kapono doing the Raps appropriately and coming up short early in the three-point shootout; Krypto-Nate dunking over Superman, and Shaq, Kobe and Phil coming out on top, circa 2000–02. The weekend—the dunk contest in particular—delivered and every moment that didn’t involve Reggie Miller’s voice was fun.
All-Star 2009 was unlike any other All-Star weekend I’ve experienced. I caught Friday night’s events without sound, sitting in the back of a restaurant in Freeport, in the Bahamas. I was on the last night of a week-long vacation and out for dinner with my parents and some friends of theirs. While the Harlem Globetrotters threw a bucket of confetti at the announce crew, Louis Armstrong the next. I saw the announce crew go ga-ga over Michael Beasley’s sneaks in the Rookie-Sophomore game, and I saw D-Wade kick off his weekend of trying too hard, looking like a combination of Urkel and Nelly.
