Monday, February 16, 2009

Shaq and the NBA All-Star Festivities - Random thoughts

Not sure if you all watched the NBA All-Star game last night, but the Shaq intro was one of a kind. It's becoming more evident that 2009 will be the final season for the future HOFer, and he went out with a bang bringin Jabbawockeez into the fold. The routine was priceless and I gotta say, Shaqtus looked like he was a member of the group. Perhaps they'll rename the group "Shaqawockeez". Here's the video...and if you're wondering, the routine was done to the instrumental of the new Nas track "Hero". The video for that is below, as well. Solid track.

Shaqawockeez:



Nas - "Hero":



By the way, I had my brother DVR the slam dunk contest from Saturday night and I had a chance to watch it before the game tonight. Rudy Fernandez got jobbed. The contest is becoming similar to voting for Gold Gloves in baseball...if you won the year before, or if you're name is synonymous with it, you get a pass. That's essentially what Dwight Howard and Nate Robinson got. It was evident in the judging and in the commentary by TNT. The line that bothered me the most was when one of the color guys said, "No one in this building knows who Fernandez is except for the Fernandez family..." Moments later, they mentioned that it was supposed to be Rudy Gay but he got injured and THE FANS voted in Fernandez. So hold on, the fans vote him in, but no one knows who he is? How does that make sense? Then he tosses it behind his back off the backboard and throws it down hard and gets a luke warm reception from the commentators. The fans loved, they went nuts, and then he got a 42. Check out the video below that shows both his dunks and listen to the commentary. They absolutely hated on Fernandez and it was b.s. and unprofessional.

(Note: I had not seen this part of the dunk contest until Besse posted it. That is incredible. I normally like those guys, Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, and Kenny Smith, but come on. Did they do any homework? Harlan says Fernandez was only in the contest because he was voted on after the Gay injury... well that's half right. Rudy was voted on (beating out rookies Russell Westbrook and Joe Alexander), but well before Rudy Gay got hurt. Why was J.R. Smith invited then? Oh right, to replace Gay.

And then how about a round of applause for Miller and the Jet for not knowing who Fernando Martin was, who Fernandez wore a jersey of his in his tribute, then proceeding to make fun of the guy until Harlan told them he was not only the 1st Spanish player in the NBA, but died in a car accident. Tough effort TNT.)



-Bess

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well done on the Slam Dunk stuff. Rudy did indeed get the shaft from the announcers/judges. There was no way TNT would let anyone other than Nate and Dwight into the finals (for ratings sake). I also enjoy Reggie and Kenny and company, but they sucked on this one.
Lets hope that the rumors of Lebron doing the dunk contest next year will turn out to be true.

Unknown said...

The only concern about Lebron joining is that it's a 4-man show. So with Dwight, Nate and Lebron in the dunk contest next year, who is your fourth guy and who gets the shaft? I feel like there are too many good guys to keep it at 4. I wouldn't mind seeing them making it 6, and i'm not sure if 8 is too many, but I think it'd be fun to watch. Guys like Rudy Gay, Fernandes, JR Smith...even a Gerald Green.