Stern makes sure NBA matters again
NEW ORLEANS | The Big Easy might want to beg David Stern to stick around and lead the city’s rehabilitation effort. His rehab project with his own league, the NBA, is going better than New Orleans’ recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
The hardest-working commissioner in professional sports got just what he wanted out of the NBA’s trip to the Crescent City.
Stern brought the league’s All-Star Weekend to the French Quarter as a generou$ donation to a tourist city in pain. As the commercials say, “The NBA cares.”
All-Star Weekend New Orleans stands as proof positive that caring can be quite profitable, and doing the right thing is good for business. Sunday’s high-scoring All-Star Game, which the East won 134-128 over the West, was a wonderful exclamation point to a terrific weekend.
The NBA did its best to hit New Orleans like a tidal wave. Stern and his army of players spent the better part of a four-day weekend trying to do real work, including painting houses, and spreading goodwill, including large, individual charitable donations.
The league’s good deeds provided the perfect background music for Stern to sing the praises of the league’s on-court drama as he took mostly basketball-related questions from the media Saturday night.
Stern’s news conference had a far different tone than the one NFL commissioner Roger Goodell held two weeks ago at the Super Bowl. Goodell was peppered with questions about Spygate and Pacman Jones. (Not to mention the NBA doesn’t have a steroid controversy and congressional hearing to steal headlines.)
Meanwhile, Stern used Saturday night to brag about the Western Conference having a plethora of championship-caliber, star-laden teams all within a few games of each other in the standings. He acknowledged that a rash of recent big-time trades have heightened interest in the league. He discussed the possibility of the NBA putting franchises in Europe.
The NBA matters again.
A little more than three years after the Palace Brawl and just a year after the Las Vegas All-Star Weekend mess, the NBA is poised for its best season since Michael Jordan quit being its signature star.
This ASW put the league’s good fortune in perspective and added to its momentum.
Dwight Howard’s exhibition in the slam-dunk contest Saturday night will go down as one of the top moments in all-star history. Howard, the youthful and enthusiastic center for the Orlando Magic, launched himself into superstardom with his Superman dunk.
We will be watching replays of Howard’s dunk for the next 20 years. It will replace Dr. J’s leap from the free-throw line as the dunk-contest highlight of choice.
Watching Howard and Boston’s Gerald Green duel reminded fans of just how fun the NBA can be when the players give their best effort. Green’s “birthday cake” slam — he blew out a candle on a cupcake that sat on the back of the rim — was as creative and spectacular as any of Howard’s jams.
The dunk contest put pressure on the players to give better effort in the game. The normally lackluster game turned out to be extremely competitive and exciting. In the fourth quarter, both teams actually played defense.
Phoenix’s Amare Stoudemire seemed determined to prove he’s worthy of Superman’s cape, too. He dunked on Howard with a ferocity that appeared personal.
The NBA has a great crop of young, in-their-prime stars. They have a healthy respect for the game and understand that it’s up to them to sell the game to the fans with good, consistent effort.
The final 5 minutes of Sunday’s game had a level of intensity of a tight regular-season game. Ray Allen’s three-point shooting kept the East ahead. LeBron James and Dwayne Wade closed out the West with a couple of driving baskets. James dunked on three West defenders in traffic and brought the sellout crowd to its feet. Wade drove the lane, hit a basket and was fouled.
James was selected the game’s MVP, finishing with 27 points, eight rebounds and nine assists. Allen scored 26 points. For the West, Chris Paul posted 16 points and 14 assists.
No one left disappointed. The NBA did everything right this weekend.
•Who says the East is the weaker half? LeBron James scores 27 points in 134-128 victory.
| C3To reach Jason Whitlock, call 816-234-4869 or send e-mail to jwhitlock@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com.
