Well, the 2009 NBA All-Star game was not the most exciting basketball game I’ve ever seen, but it did feature two images that we will see for weeks and months to come this season.
The Western Conference beat the Eastern Conference 146-119, and a most unlikely duo ended up sharing MVP honors: Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Kobe scored 27 points to lead all scorers and Shaq had 17 points in only 11 minutes. Reunited and playing for Lakers coach Phil Jackson, Shaq and Kobe teamed up for some key buckets early in the third quarter to push the West to an insurmountable lead.
The awarding of co-MVPs to Shaq and Kobe was clearly a PR move by the NBA to symbolically bury the hatchet between the two long-feuding stars. Shaq, of course, now says that it was all just a ruse they played on the media; and while that’s an entertaining story now, he isn’t fooling anyone. These two formed one of the most dominant duos in the history of the NBA and there is no telling how many more titles they could have won together. Only pretty significant personality disputes could break that kind of duo up — and it did.
Either way, now that they have officially been photographed accepting the MVP award together, the Shaq-Kobe feud is officially over. Halelujah.
Anyway, the other highlight from the 2009 NBA All-Star game was Shaquille O’Neal’s awesome pregame dance with The Jabbawockeez. Robert Littal over at Black Sports Online emailed me the video earlier tonight, and it is definitely worth sharing with you here:
LOTD: Shaq Gets His “Two Step” On With The Jabbawockeez..Classic Video
Also from BSO: Kobe, Lebron & Jay Z Together? Also Did I Mention Vanessa Bryant is FINE!!!
Leave it to Shaq to breathe some life and excitement into an otherwise pretty uneventful night. Now the next question is where will Amare Stoudemire be going…
Now some other links for your Monday morning viewing pleasure before I had to bed on what has been a surprisingly productive Sunday for me:
Some great behind-the-scenes quote from White Sox Spring Training — (Scott Merkin’s blog Being Ozzie Guillen)
May the best man (occasionally) win — (Sox Machine)
First Annual Ben Wallace Award — (TalkHoops.net)
Allen Iverson cuts his trademark braids — (NBA FanHouse)
Boom Goes the Dynamite 02.15.09 — (Rush the Court)
Separated at Birth: First Gentleman Trey Wingo — (Hugging Harold Reynolds)
Mike Tyson to publish tell-all book — (The World According to MoonDog)
Ballroom Dancing, now with more crotch exposure — (Deadspin)
Marshawn Lynch arrested and ESPN actually gives PFT credit — (ProFootballTalk)
Have a great Monday everybody.
About Jerod Morris
