I'm a Baller

It’s no secret that I’m a baseball girl. But this weekend I found a little place in my heart for basketball. I’ve always liked going to basketball games but I ended up at the NBA All-Star stuff this weekend with my friend Scott and found several reasons to love the game. We weren’t at the All-Star game itself but rather the festivities on Saturday night. Those festivities included the Slam Dunk contest, the 3-Point Shootout, the Shooting Stars and the Skills Challenge. For the basketball-impaired, like I was prior to Saturday night, here’s the break down of each:

Slam Dunk Contest:
Best of the best try to out-dunk one another. They were all pretty cool but Josh Smith (the big winner) was un-freakin-beliveable. See www.nba.com for cool highlight pictures. He decided to pay homage to Dominique Wilkins by putting on one of his old-school jerseys before one his dunks. It was a perfect 10 dunk and I looked over at Scott who had ripped off his button down shirt to reveal the exact same Wilkins jersey that he’d purchased earlier that day. Thankfully he had a t-shirt underneath so it wasn’t totally white trash. But our entire section went nuts seeing Scott’s jersey. He was a hit.

3-Point Shootout:
Guys made a bunch of shots from the 3 point line. This was cool because Kyle Korver, Creighton alum, was in this contest. He didn’t win but Quentin Richardson did which gave Brandy (semi-famous singer and his fiancé) an opportunity to jump up and down in support and flash her HUGE diamond engagement ring. He won $25,000, which is good because Brandy’s now used to the fancy bling.

Shooting Stars:
They take an NBA player, a WNBA player and a retired NBA player and they all have to make a series of shots from around the court while being timed. There were teams from Denver, Detroit, L.A. and Phoenix. Phoenix killed everyone by finishing in 28 seconds. There isn’t much I can do in 28 seconds, so I was impressed.

Skills Challenge:
I think they should spell it "skeelz" as that’s what these guys had. Basically there’s an obstacle course set up and they have to showcase their skills while being timed. I was rooting for Earl Boykins, the only NBA player who is as tall as I am, but Steve Nash ended up winning by basically sprinting through the course while executing each station.

Other highlights: Seeing Kelly Clarkson perform during the show, seeing Nelly sitting courtside (I soooo wanted to ask if it was hot in herrre…but we were sitting too far away for such nonsense.), watching Charles Barkley do commentary for TNT which was close to our seats, and seeing Scott’s face as we walked towards the Pepsi Center and he saw two big-name basketball dudes. I don’t know who these guys were but Scott sure did and I thought he was gonna have a stroke as they passed by us.

And some Lowlights: The fact that beers were $8.25 each…I thought Scott was gonna have another stroke when the lady told him the total for our 2 beers. Seeing the Goo-Goo Dolls perform the half-time show (is it half time in the NBA?)…seriously, I didn’t realize that we were going to be transported to the 1995 NBA halftime performance. Goo-Goo Dolls, really? No one else in music was available to perform? Really? The girl sitting in front of us who had on unfortunately low jeans with a bright red thong. Scott and I named it the “threads of naughtiness” undies.

In conclusion, it was a fantastic time! Learned a few things about basketball, saw some famous people and saw the finest the NBA has to offer. Plus, who knows when I’ll be able to see the Goo-Goo Dolls again?