Let me begin by saying that I think the NBA draft has been fixed and may continue to be in the future. Which makes me wonder if I’m ill because I’m about to state in public that I think David Stern is the best commissioner in all of professional sports. That was just one of many startling realizations that came about as I took in the 2009 NBA All-Star festivities.

Thanks to espn.com for this image.

One of the biggest leg-ups the NBA has on other leagues is the visibility of the players on the field of play. You see the sweat, the grimaces, the smirks, the more-often-than-not ripped bodies of the players as they race to the net. Watching the players and player-fans during the coverage of the various events reminded me of two things: NBA players love to show off, and they are in amazing shape. These guys actually look like athletes, unlike a few baseball players we know…and deep down inside still love despite their waaaayyyy underestimated reported weight.

Unlike the judges, I was a bit disappointed by Dwight Howard’s dunks. It would have been way cooler if he had taken Super Man to another level, blazed a new trail. He could have worn a Barack Obama mask and tied the nation’s debt to his ankle. Now that would have gotten a ten from me. But you have to hand it to him, that man is a fine athletic specimen. There’s clearly a lot of effort going on behind the scenes that has this man fit enough to dominate. And he does.

Thanks to dimemag.com for this image.

LeBron James has upped the game on his training regimen with a program that now includes weight lifting and yoga. Yes, that’s right, horror of horrors, until recently he could eat what he wanted and never had to work out Then he decided a pump of iron here and a downward facing dog there would benefit his game. You’d have to be dead to not see that it has.

Thanks to nbcsports.com for this image.

ESPN the Mag’s February 23 cover story is on the affects the three year-old dress code seems to have had on the players both on and off the court. It may have appeared slightly necessary but mostly silly to many at the time, but I have to agree that the boys seem to have grown up before our vary eyes as they proudly don their tailored garb. Sean Avery would be proud.

Even Allen Iverson, a former Exhibit A in David Stern’s case for a dress code, has has gone preppy:

Thanks to nba.com for this hilarious video. We’ll watch it daily.

The celebration culminated with an entertaining game featuring Chris Paul spinning like a whirling dervish (I feared for his groin.), Kobe and Shaq getting all cozy with the co-MVP honors, and LeBron giving us a preview of next year’s dunk contest.

Quite frankly the only detail that seemed to not get its due was the trophy for the winner of the GEICO-sponsored H-O-R-S-E tournament won by Kevin Durant. Maybe they were going for that whole Dancing with the Stars vibe with their version of the cheesy crystal ball, it is GEICO after all. But what appears to be a My Little Pony may not be the image the NBA is looking to project.

I’ll barely mention Shaq-adonna’s dance with the JabbaWockeeZ because I’ve avoided being creeped out today and I want to keep it that way.

My final thought since the conclusion of the All-Star Weekend is that Commissioner Stern is presiding over the professional sport in the United States that can lay claim to having the most exciting talent playing the game today. I don’t need to name them. You know them.

In moving the NBA forward, David Stern has reignited the passion of yesteryear. And in this day and age that is exactly what is needed in sports. The game has gotten better and the fans are starting to notice. Now if he could just do something about the CBA. Or at least convince me the draft isn’t fixed.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 10:20 pm and is filed under Fantoo Blog Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.