Shaquille O'Neil and Kobe Bryant reunited for one-night only in the 2009 All-Star Game.(Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
What's up folks? This is the second and final part of my stuff on the All-Star Weekend. As expected, it was going to be yet another high-scoring All-Star Game. I was hoping the East All Stars would win but I figured the West All Stars would dominate the entire game due to their size advantage. And that's exactly what happened.
The West All Stars crushed the East All Stars 146-119(!), which ultimately shifts the power back to the Western Conference. Besides the fact that Shaq and Kobe (including Phil Jackson) reunited again in that game, the East squad was literally undersized. Having only one 7-footer in their roster (yes, they have one believe or not), and that's non other than the Celtics' Kevin Garnett. He's actually 7'2" or 7'3" as he is only listed as 6'10" or 6'11" and he usually plays power forward. The only true center perhaps is Orlando Magic's Dwight Howard but other than that, they pretty much lack a big man in the middle and loaded with a bunch of guards and small forwards and LeBron James.
The size advantage of the West squad was an obvious one. Just by looking at West's bench, they are uber loaded with offensive weapons despite the lack of pure small forwards (which really didn't matter) and the big Jabbawockee Shaquille O'Neil. I forgot to mention Kobe and Shaq were Co-MVPs in that game. Speaking of Shaq, I was actually impressed with his performance with the Jabbawockeez. He was bustin' some good moves there. I know some of you might not agree with me or better yet, think it's hilarious(!) but it was entertaining. For his age and size, dude can dance.
For your sheer enjoyment and pleasure maybe, here's the video of the Shaq's grand introduction or whatever y'all may call it:
Shaq pretty much loves the spotlight. Who can forget his play against Dwight Howard when he bounce-passed the ball to CP3 between Howard's legs and finished it with a two-handed dunk of Chris Paul assist. That I believe was just one of the highlights of the whole All-Star Weekend, other than King James giving us a preview of what he can do in next year's Slam Dunk contest. But there was another interesting event though which I'm not sure if it was aired or not. The West All Stars had a little bit of friendly competition that had Shaquille O'Neil and Chauncey Billups in a blindfolded free-throw shooting showdown. Shaq made 3 shots within the 1-minute time limit. The current world record was 5 free-throws. If it wasn't for Brandon Roy's "inadvertent" interference (!), C-Bills would've set a new world record.
Brandon Roy must be kind of bitter that he wasn't in the contest. Well, here's the proof:
Entertaining was very much an understatement, in my opinion about the All-Star Weekend. So glad I managed to watch most of the events (I missed the Celebrity All-Star and the first half of the Rookies-Sophomores games respectively) LIVE here in the Philippines. Looking forward to the next All-Star Weekend in 2010.
The All-Star break is already over. Trade deadline is coming and a lot of names in the trading block could perhaps be wearing new unis a few days from now. Oh well, back to reality around the L. Carry on...
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