All-Star Game Thoughts and Israel Stories

The first part of the subject line refers to the All-Star weekend the National Basketball Association is having in Denver, Colorado. I'll get to the second part later but just want to say that I am listening to the show "Chagigah," on the Emerson radio station, WERS. It plays Yiddish and Klezmer music early on in the show and then moves on to Israeli folk and rock. Hanita Becker of Emerson Hillel is the host. If you want to check out the radio station's website, by the way, it's http://www.wers.org.

Now on to the NBA.

I watched the Saturday night festivities of All-Star weekend last night and was impressed with several things. I have to say I zoned out a little for some reason during the 3-point shooutout, perhaps because I was watching it in a bar and couldn't hear the commentating (I don't get TNT, the TV station the festivities come on). Quentin Richardson of the Phoenix Suns won that one, with a final-round score of 19. The players have one minute to shoot 30 (or maybe it's 25) basketballs from five different locations. At the end of each rack is a money ball, worth two points. It was a close final round--Philadelphia's Kyle Korver was just one off at 18.

The Skills Challenge was sort of exciting, though disappointing for the Washington Wizards' Gilbert Arenas. Big deal. The Challenge sees how fast a player can complete a variety of skills with a basketball, including shooting, bounce passing into a small hoop near the ground and chest passing into a different hoop. Phoenix won this event too, with Steve Nash completing the course in 28.7 seconds over Denver's Earl Boykins, who hit 32.6 seconds in the first round but fell to 37.6 seconds in the finals. Nash is fast! Seattle's Luke Ridnour was third in a 30-something-second time, and Arenas was last in 51.7 seconds. Only two advance to the final round. Enough numbers for you?

I don't know much about the Shooting Stars title because I don't remember seeing it, but it's another timed title that Phoenix won. Shooting for Phoenix were Suns forward Shawn Marion, Women's NBA Rookie of the Year Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury and retired Phoenix Suns legend Dan Majerle. Denver was second.

The event I really wanted to see, for I'm not sure what reason, was the Slam Dunk competition (I would say Sprite Rising Stars Slam Dunk title, but I'm not trying to get Sprite advertising), which I didn't know was going to happen until a couple days ago. The dunking challenge was a battle among four players: Phoenix forward Amare Stoudemire, Atlanta rookie Josh Smith and New Orleans teammates J.R. Smith and Chris Andersen. I can't for the life of me remember what J.R. Smith did (perhaps I was in the bathroom), but Andersen had a pretty sorry performance--and I'm not being mean. He was the token white guy this time, chosen after Lebron James decided playing in the Rookie Game and the All-Star Game was enough for him. What I remember most of Andersen's attempts is he going in several times for a one-handed dunk, only to have the basketball bounce of the rim. Needless to say, he was fourth, and J.R. Smith was third, both eliminated in the first round.

Stoudemire, who most voters considered the favorite to win the title, scored a 45 out of 50 on his first dunk of the finals and then got a 50 when the very same Steve Nash from before bounced the ball of his head to Stoudemire for his second dunk, a 360-degree body-rotation dung. Each player can have one player sit in a chair and feed him "the rock." Unfortunately for Stoudemire, Josh Smith was almost uncanny in the finals. The teenager got into the finals by scoring a perfect 50 on a pass from Denver's (he didn't use a teammate, but a hometown player instead) Kenyon Martin. Smith windmilled the ball into the basket. Smith's firt attempt in the finals was a left-handed dunk, another 50. Finally, he finished off Stoudemire with a "360" reverse slam on his final attempt. Wow! Describing it doesn't do it justice. I've seen better ( Vince "Half-Man, Half-Amazing" Carter, formerly of the Toronto Raptors), but Smith's jams were pretty impressive.

I won't go deeply into the All-Star Game since it hasn't happened yet, but I'll just say I'm rooting for the East, with Arenas and teammate Antawn Jamison, both of whom I'm proud of for making the Wizards proud (see Feb. 10 entry), and Boston's Paul "The Truth" Pierce. Go East! The only thing I can thnk of to complain about now is that forward Chris Webber didn't make the All-Star team out West. I guess Stoudemire has played better than him.

This entry is already one of my longest, but I'll briefly touch on the Israel stories. I'm writing a preview for the local weekly The Jewish Advocate, which is due tomorrow. It's on why Emerson is hosting an event this week at which retired Colonel Miri Eisin, who served in Israel, is coming to Emerson to talk about the media's perception of Israel, particularly in the USA, and what we and they can do to improve it. The two who work on the Chagigah show I mentioned, including Hanita, will be speaking too. My second story will be for my feature writing class, focusing mostly on the group sponsoring Eisin and she and it hope to accomplish by sending her to different campuses.

Phew--time to stretch my fingers and get ready to write that first piece. At least I got up at a reasonable hour. Good day.