Monday, Feb. 19, 2007 | 7:52 a.m.
Friday
All-Star Celebrity Game:
West 40, East 21
Note to Chris Tucker: Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? You must dribble the ball, or it's traveling.
All-Star Rookie Challenge:
Sophomores 155, Rookies 115.
Seven of the nine Sophs scored in double figures. Mayor Goodman finished with nine points in the no-D League game.
Saturday
D-League All-Star Game:
East 114, West 100
Pops was no weasel. Former George Washington star Pops Mensah-Bonsu scores 30 points to earn MVP honors.
Shooting Stars: Team Detroit (Chauncey Billups, Swin Cash, Bill Laimbeer) over Team Chicago (disqualified for shooting out of order). I'm not saying that older men should not wear tank tops, but if you would have put a can of beer in Bill Laimbeer's hand, he would have looked like your crazy Uncle Sid at a Fourth of July barbecue.
Skills Challenge: Dwyane Wade over Kobe Bryant. You call that an obstacle course? They should have made those guys dribble around the cones on Paradise Avenue during drive time.
Charity Footrace: Charles Barkley over 67-year-old NBA referee Dick Bavetta. Sir Cumference outlasted the Zebra and the Las Vegas Boys and Girls Club received a check for $50,000. Or as Barkley put it after being resuscitated, "two hands of blackjack."
3-Point Shootout: Jason Kapono over Gilbert Arenas and Dirk Nowitzki. Kapono's a pretty good shooter, but when it comes to sinking 3-pointers, my money's still on that J-Mac kid.
Slam Dunk: Gerald Green over Nate Robinson. Robinson, last year's champion, missed nine consecutive dunks in the final round and declared he would be entering the Lay-Up Contest next year.
56th All-Star Gane:
West 153- East 132
A good time was had by all, except Paris Hilton, who stayed for all of a quarter and a half.
Although the 2007 NBA All-Star Game is now a size 16 footnote in history, one very pertinent question remains:
How do I get a cab to the airport before the 2008 NBA All-Star Game tips off?
But for those of us who live here or managed to avoid the traffic snarls in the streets and at the high-limit salons, another question lingers, like a last-second free throw that dances on the rim.
Will it finally fall?
Will an NBA franchise call Las Vegas home? And will it happen before Charles Barkley catches his breath after beating 67-year-old NBA referee Dick Bavetta in a foot race for charity on Saturday night?
Not even Ben Wallace's hairdresser knows for sure.
Mayor Goodman, no matter what he says, doesn't know. Not yet, anyway. He might have a better idea after he asks the casino CEOs what they'd be willing to trade in return for the privilege of watching a bunch of 6-foot-11 guys making almost as much money as them give 85 percent on defense.
NBA commissioner David Stern may know, but he's not telling. At least not until the Sacramento Kings get a new arena.
By now, you probably know there are two giant issues that must be considered in handicapping whether we get a team. Gambling and an arena. Label them 1 and 1A on your racing form.
The gambling concern took a dramatic turn for the better on Wednesday when Stern told a packed Chamber of Commerce luncheon gathering that he would be willing to listen to a compromise proposal on legal NBA betting. All concerned were holding their cards so close to their vests that they were getting caught on the buttons. But it could be as simple as dusting off the "UNLV rule" in which games involving the local team would be taken off the board.
Regardless of what the compromise is, that there will be dialogue to arrive at one is a clear sign the NBA has hand a change of heart regarding Las Vegas. Or needs a new arena in Sacramento.
When people ask me when we might be getting an NBA team, I tell them to wait for a photo of Mayor Goodman and any combination of Rory Reid, Rossi Ralenkotter and Steve Wynn putting a shovel into the ground. Then add three years, roughly the time it will take to build a new arena and supplement our fan base, before getting in line for tickets.
I could be as wrong as Ron Artest's Mohawk, but I believe the arena is going to be a bigger tug-of-war than betting. The mayor said he has five proposals on his desk from potential investors but nobody has seen a single promissory note. And without taxpayer money, it's going to take roughly 400 million promissory notes, or dollar bills, to git-R-done (did I just use a NASCAR expression in an NBA story?)
Although betting and a new arena are joined at the hip with our NBA future and may take weeks, months or possibly even years to resolve, at least they have definitive answers.
It will be either "yes" we will come up with a betting compromise or "no" we won't.
It will either be "yes" we will come up with financing for an arena or "no" we won't.
But let's say the answers to both are "yes." Then the question becomes "Will we support an NBA team?"
That answer isn't as definitive.
For a year, yes, without question we will support it. But what happens when the novelty wears off and/or the team starts losing?
There are no guarantees a losing team will draw here. Heck, there's no guarantee a winning team will draw here. Why do you think the Maloofs are so committed to Sacramento? It can't be that the cocktail lounge at the Holiday Inn is a better place to impress chicks than Ghostbar at the Palms. But it might be those 17,310 seats 100 percent occupancy at decrepit Arco Arena that are filled every night the Kings pull off their warm-ups, regardless of how many shots they clang off the rim.
This is putting the cart way, way in front of the horse. But our ability to support an NBA or other major league franchise over the long haul, with the possible exception of the NFL (and you can forget about that because pro football isn't coming), is a concern that shouldn't be dismissed like a midweek game in Boston.
I recently came across an item that referred to a crowd of 14,914 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis as "sparse." Around here, UNLV coach Lon Kruger gets more excited than a Trekkie at a Leonard Nimoy convention whenever 10,000 show up for a Rebels game.
Here's something that's even more eye-opening. The Grizzlies play in a spectacular new arena and play to 80-percent capacity, or an average of 14,765, which sounds pretty impressive.
Not by NBA standards. The Grizzlies' average attendance is next-to-last in the league, part of the reason Memphis would be a prime candidate to move to Las Vegas were it not locked into a long-term lease on Beale Street.
Mayor Goodman truly believes that a successful All-Star weekend and the crucial announcement at the chamber luncheon that preceded it means that getting an NBA team is a "slam dunk." His enthusiasm is so infectious that he even has me believing it.
It's our ability to support one that has my free throw dancing on the rim.
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