Misc. Shiiiiat

While I was watching a little bit of the NBA All Star festivities last night, I realized it was not going to be quite like it was in 2008.  08' featured Dwight Howard's outstanding performance in the dunk contest, topping Gerald Green.  Jason Kapono represented white guys everywhere by winning the 3-point contest.  Deron Williams won the skills challenge with an impressive 25 second time.

Fast forward to this year, and I had high hopes for the weekend.  Friday night started out like it usually does; TO acted like a jackass in the celebrity game, The Rookies and the Sophomores played worse defense than Kyle Damschroder (hopefully, he is reading this), and there was a unique putt-putt set that Stuart Scott made awkward all night.  Seriously, who thought of this?  That it would be a good idea to set up a miniature golf hole in the middle of All Star weekend.  One thing we do know; Tiger Woods may be alone as a great black golfer.  Shaquille O'Neal acted like he would rather win Kobe another ring than be putting on the putt-putt course.  What, ESPN, there was no spitting clown available?  Or a "make it into one hole that then transports it to another hole"?  I'm just saying, if you are going to do it, you might as well go all out.  

So Day Two started and I was hoping it would be a turnaround for the weekend.  The H-O-R-S-E competition was fun, a welcome change from the normal Weekend routine.  Kevin Durant, who dropped 46 in the Rookie/Soph game, won that event.  Durant has been on some kind of role lately, which has given me cause to go ahead and name him the Co-Best Young Player in the Game.  The Durantula is bringing it every night for a terrible team; albeit one that is going to grow by leaps and bounds over the next couple of seasons.  In his last twelve games, he averaged 32 points and 8 boards, with 6 of the games being wins.  This season, he is putting up 25 a game, while grabbing almost 7 boards and dishing 3 assists.  He is doing it by shooting 48% from the field and 43% from the 3-point line, and 85% from the free throw line.  And he is TWENTY!  Lebron better look out, because a young guy with a consistent jump shot is coming for him.  

That led to the "Skills Challenge", which was a complete joke this year.  Every competitor jogged through the routine, making it clear that they could care less about it.  Derrick Rose ended up winning the event, and in his post-win interview he sounded like a scared freshman ... in high school.  If there is one flaw in that guys game it is that he will have trouble taking over a team and a locker room acting like McLovin.  

The 3-point shootout proved what a sad state this contest is in.  Daquaen Cook?  Really?  The really morbid thing about this contest is that it featured one white guy - and either he is really tan or he might be mixed.  If we cannot get 2-3 competitors in this contest we might as well hang out with Stu Scott and practice our putt putt.  Rashard Lewis was the other finalist, and I'm not sure how I missed him in the Mo Williams Snubbed post, but he definitely is not an All-Star.  

That led to the Dunk Contest, the feature event of the evening.  If there was one thing that I noticed right off the bat it was that this event was missing a key contestant. 

To quote the Big Tymers, "The Birdman fly in any weather."  His performance in the Dunk Contest will live in infamy.

So Dwight Howard and Nate Robinson were the front-runners for the night.  The first round showed the Robinson and Howard were above the pack.  The thing about it was that neither was very creative.  I mean, Dwight brought out the phone booth to change into his Superman cape, which was a little funny, but his dunk was weak after that.  In fact, it was just as weak as it was last year.  The guy didn't even dunk it last year!!!!!! He threw the ball in!  How does this fact get lost every time someone talks about this?!  It is not a Throw The Ball In From 3 Feet Out Contest.   Anyways, Howard also brought out the 11-foot rim to do a rim-rattling, gravity-defying....two handed slam.  Oooooooh.  Really thought about that one a while!  Nate Robinson wasn't exactly creative either, as it was much of the same from what his previous dunk contest appearances  have brought.  His signature dunk was changing into some cool kicks and gear and "jumping over" Dwight Howard.  I air quote jumping over because it was more like he climbed over him, and then threw it down.  Overall, the weekend finished with a whimper.  Oh, and there was Lebron saying he was "preliminarily entered" into the 2010 Dunk Contest.  I did not care for this.  It reminded me of when A-Rod announced he was opting out of his contract in the middle of the World Series.  Hopefully the actually game is entertaining tonight to pull this disappointing weekend out of the dog shit that it is in right now.

Some other notes around sports

• Did anyone see A-Rod try to roast himself at his banquet dinner at The U?  He gave almost $4 million to build their new baseball stadium, then laid out gems like "Unless you have been living under a rock or in a cave or under the ocean, you know that I have made mistakes." *Cricket Cricket* Seriously, You Tube this clip because it is one of the most awkward situations I have seen in a long time.  Barack Obama A-Rod is not.  
• The Daytona 500 is today.  In other news, gas prices just went up another 5 cents because of how much we waste on that track.  How much gas do you think these guys go through in a year?  Thanks a lot, assholes.
• Michigan is in a battle with Northwestern right now on The Big Ten Network.  They keep showing a Tom Crean commercial in which at a practice he says "Head on rim, eyes on board." What does this even mean?  I need some coach-speak translation here.  

That's all for today.  I'm going to leave you with this YouTube gem that Bill Simmons laid out in his column on ESPN.com.  Enjoy and NRTTS.

Coach Deuce