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The 700 Level's Vegas All Star Weekend Wrap Up (It took a Week to Recover)

My flickr set: NBA All Star Weekend 2007 - Las Vegas

I've written about my adventures in Vegas in multiple smaller posts, so I'll link to them first all in one place for posterity's sake.

• In Search of Stephen A. & Elvis
• Philadlephia Freedom in Vegas
• Bill Walton Takes a Stroll on the Strip
• Reggie Bush Can Shoot the Rock
• Shaq vs. LeBron Dance Off
• Stadium seats do not consider people like Manute Bol
• NBA/TNT Party at Rain
• Nate Robinson is Short
• Gilbert Arenas Dunks off Trampoline at All Star Game
• An Interesting View of Christina Aguilera
• Shaq Diesel
• Leaving Las Vegas
• What is Missing from this Photo? A.I.
• The Seats: Michelle Wie
• How Many Celebs Can You Spot?

Perhaps you've read Bill Simmons or Jason Whitlock's take on the debauchery that took place in Las Vegas less than a 10 days ago.  They seemed to think it was Gangbangerpalooza, a black eye on the NBA.  I don't know, I didn't have that kind of experience.  Mine was all positive.  I'm going to take you on a walk down memory lane here -- or lack of it.

The trip kicked off on what you would have thought to be a bad start, being delayed for 5+ hours in miserably cold Philadelphia on Thursday night, but alas, we were going to Vegas, a little delay shant dampen our spirits.  That's what the Jet Rock Bar in terminal C was made for at PHL.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Jet Rock Bar, they serve some of the largest, coldest, tastiest beers a guy delayed from going anywhere could ever ask for.  We closed down the Jet Rock bar and moved on to some Asian bar that's open all night.  Next thing I knew, it was 4:00am and I'm in Vegas.

We had tickets to every NBA event in Las Vegas last weekend and we made it to a good portion of them.  The two we missed which may or may not have been fun were the Rookie Game and the Legends Brunch.  Missing the rookie game was a calculated decision, no regrets there.  Missing the Legends Brunch on Sunday morning was more a choice made by God and Red Bull.  I'm sorry I missed that one.

Friday: We hit up the celebrity game and the NBA Jam Session.  The celebrity game wasn't anything worth writing about.  It can be described with the image of Bobby Flay crossing up Carrot Top.  Reggie Bush was impressive.

I played some three card poker at Mandalay Bay and my first and perhaps best celeb sighting of the weekend took place here.  After getting TWO straight flushes in about a 30 minute span, I'm up about $1,500 (which lasted all weekend) I see 'Nique strolling toward me by himself in a full 3 piece grey suit.  I'm in the middle of a hand, look up and make eye contact with Mr. Wilkins, give the head nod and he did the same in return and even mouthed a "how you doin."  He was actually friendly.  It was cool.

The Jam Session at Mandalay was actually pretty fun, we played some of the hoops challenges.  Saw Jason Kidd, John Starks, and BJ Armstrong.  Fun Mike's form was a little rusty.

We got hooked up with tickets to Elton John's Red Piano concert at Caesar's Coliseum.  Say what you will, but Elton rocked and this is where we first learned that all of the events we had tickets to all weekend would be open bar.  Dangerous.  Interesting note: the Elton John concert was the only place in the entire city of Las Vegas where you couldn't find any black people.  True story.

Following the Elton show, we were fairly banged up and decided to hang out in the war zone: The Strip.  We didn't realize the danger we were in until we read Simmons and Whitlock days later.  Although we were literaly within stones throw from the shooting outside Caesar's Friday night. Hanging at some outside bar in front of Caesar's on the strip was AWESOME.  A constant flow of interesting people coming by, a good buzz from the open bar at Elton, and Bill Walton strolls by bombed.

Saturday: we were back at it around 9:30 on Saturday morning to head back to Mandalay (home base was Monte Carlo) with tickets to watch the All Star's practice.  This was pretty fun actually, Gilbert and Shaq made this worth all our while.  See: Shaq vs. LeBron Dance Off.  Perhaps my favorite picture of the weekend is LeBron mid-dunk.

I was trying to ask Tim Legler about his Eagle's cheerleader girlfriend but he kept ignoring me.

 

Everything starts earlier in Vegas and the Saturday night festivities -- Skills, 3 point, Dunk contests -- started at like 4, so we headed over to the Thomas and Mack for that.  Poor Manute Bol couldn't even fit in his seat.

I was impressed by Nate Robinson and Dwight Howard, not so much with Gerald Green.  This turned out to be a fun event.  The dunk contest definitely had some flair to it.  I was pulling for Gilbert in the 3 point shoot out, but he wasn't feeling it.

Following the dunk contest we headed over to the Palms for the NBA/TNT at Rain party where we ran in to Mike Miller and Nate Robinson.  Nate doesn't like people from Philadelphia which is shocking.  Despite having a really laid back vibe to it, we had a blast at this party.  I got to chat with David Aldridge and saw The Tark.  This is where the open bar and Red Bull really started to go in full effect.  We spent a couple hours at this party.  A little inside, a little by the pool, another Red Bull/vodka and we were rockin.  The Goo Goo Dolls played which was cool.  The events that took place between the time we left Rain and Sunday morning are the only portions of the weekend I will not tell you about.

Sunday: Fun Mike could barely move and I wasn't fairing much better.  We didn't make it to the NBA Legends Brunch unfortunately.  The guy I sat next to at the game on Sunday night said this was the best event of the weekend.  All the old timers are nice and available and will talk to anyone.  This is Vegas, you can't win 'em all.

The one thing every single person who was in Vegas experienced was the gridlock.  Getting anywhere was a mess.  Taxi lines were not fun.  On Sunday, while waiting in a Taxi line to the game, a limo pulled up and gave us a ride to the T&M Center for $10 bucks.

The seats I had were absolutely sick, next to Michelle Wie and about 20 feet from Terrell Owens.  I'm not going to lie and say the game was the most exciting aspect of the game because it wasn't.  People watching, being so close to Christina, The HOF, Wayne Newton, it was an experience.

The highlight on the court was clearly the show Gilbert Arenas put on during one of the timeouts with the flying Elvi.

I hit up the NBA post game party at Tao at the Venetian.  A pretty posh spot, ducked out pretty quickly to get some final gambling in and saw Rodman walk by with a couple of porn star looking chics.  That's about it.

Vegas.  Sick.  I had an absolute blast and I think I had some good material on The 700 Level for you people.  As far as entertainment value, I'd put my Walton, Shaq/Lebron, and Gilbert Trampoline up against anything ESPN or any big name site showed you.  Little people can have fun too, just ask Nate.

Feel free to ask me questions in the comments, I'm sure I forgot lots of fun details.  What do you want to know about Vegas?  Also check out my full flickr set.

My Photos Cause a Stir

So the fun little photo I took of the crowd at Sunday's All Star game in Vegas has drawn a bit of attention.  It started over at Deadspin and people have been leaving notes on the picture like crazy.  I've deleted some and left some up for comedic purposes.  The D.C. Sports Bog confirms that "Jamie Foxx" is indeed a Wizards PR guy.

How Many Celebrities Can You Spot?

Click on the picture for the celebrities pointed out.  Flickr will allow you to see a much larger version.  Also, maybe you can spot more.  Another celebrity shot, including Arnold's bad socks.

Simmons on Vegas

Per usual, Simmons sums up Vegas quite nicely.  My All Star weekend partner in crime will most certainly agree that Red Bull and vodka get a thumbs down:

To the Red Bull and vodka drink, which needs to be outlawed for everyone's safety. If you drink more than four of them, smoke a couple of butts and stay out too late, there's a 100 percent chance you'll sleep for about three-and-a-half hours and wake up terrified because your heart is tap-dancing like one of the Hines brothers in your chest, complete with the requisite, "Good God, I think I'm going into cardiac arrest, this is what happened to Len Bias!" moment. Bad times. I'm predicting the first-ever celebrity heart attack from an overdose of Red Bull and vodka and cigarettes within the next two years.

Also, I saw the scene of the shooting outside of Caesar's on Friday night and also saw the dead body that was hit by a car on the strip outside the Monte Carlo.  Scary stuff.

The Seats

I think it's safe to say I attend a good number of events.  I've had my fair share of nose bleed tickets -- my Villanova 5 pack this year is in the last row of the Wachovia Center -- and I've gotten lucky a couple of times and sat at the 50 yard line in the the first row at an Eagles playoff game.  You can enjoy an event from the first row or the last row, but denying that where you sit affects your experience is just wrong.

The tickets I had for Sunday's NBA All Star game in Las Vegas were likely a once in a lifetime type deal.  I was 5 rows off the court behind the basket, next to Christina Aguilera's stage.  I was sitting on the aisle of my row.  On the other side of the aisle was Michelle Wie.  In front of Michelle, with the bald head, was Louis Gossett Jr.  The East bench was about 20 feet away.  Terrell Owens was sitting as far off from the court as I was but about 30 feet closer to mid court.  A kid in the row in front of me asked a huge black guy for his autograph.  It turned out to be Slim Thug.  From the look of the game ticket the kid got autographed, he signs his name as such.

It was an amazing experience.  I cannot thank David enough for an amazing weekend.

What is Missing From This Photo?

Here is a shot of the West's practice at the Mandalay Bay Jam Session.  The West squad lacked the goofiness of a Shaq/LeBron/Dwight dance off or Agent Zero doing his thing.  For the most part, it was a practice, nothing more.

But if you take a closer look at this photo of the Western team, you'll notice one thing missing.  Surely you can see Yao Ming and maybe even Steve Nash and Carlos Boozer.  Those three players were all injured and didn't play in the All Star game.  But they did show up at practice.  Yes, we're talking about All Star practice.

I have no idea why Allen Iverson wasn't there.  Sure, he was hurt and wasn't playing in the game on Sunday, but Yao, Nash, and Boozer still came to practice.  Thanks for giving back to the fans, Allen.

Leaving Las Vegas

The scene at McCarren today is unlike any I've ever seen at an airport.  I'm just happy I'm on US Airways and not Southwest.  The line for Southwest spanned for blocks and blocks outside of the airport.  If this kind of crowd was in Philly, they'd be lined up all the way to Prospect Park.

Many more pictures, videos, and stories to come at some point once detox is complete.

An Interesting View of Christina

Christina Aguilera impressed me.  Tony Braxton, not so much.

Here is a quick video I shot of the view I had of the show.  I was literally four seats away from the stage.  A picture after the jump.

Gilbert Arenas Dunks Off a Trampoline at All Star Game

With the NBA All Star Game finishing up as a blowout and Gilbert Arenas having an off night, he decided to put on a show.  During one of the commercial breaks, a group of flying Elvis guys game out to put on one of those dunking off trampoline shows.  During the whole performance, Gilbert and Vince Carter were eyeing up the trampolines and looking mischievious.  When the Elvis guys finished, Gilbert decided it was his turn.

This is the kind of stuff that has made All Star Weekend in Vegas such a damn good time.

Much more on the game to come at some point.  As you can, tell I had sick seats.

UPDATE: From Gilbert's own blog:

We were sitting there in the timeout watching them Elvis guys dunk, and my big mouth, I was like, “Man, I can do that better than them.” And then they missed a couple so I was like, “When they finish up, I’m going to go do it.”

Shaq was like, “Yeah, right.” He said, “I’ll put $100,000 in your foundation.”

I was like, $100,000 or get in trouble by David Stern?

$100,000 or get in trouble by David Stern?

Oh man, I’ll take that fine. So I did it for my Zer0 2 Her0 charity.

It was great though. Between the legs…Yea-ahhh!

I used to practice those trampoline dunks back at Golden State. I can flip and everything. But I didn’t want to flip and crack my neck.

 

Nate Robinson is Short

I was awfully bitter last year when Nate Robinson beat out Andre Iguodala to win the dunk contest.  Time heals and I am now thoroughly impressed with the little guy.

Dwight Howard, Nate Robinson, and Gerald Green stepped it up a bit this year to put on a great show for those of us in attendance.  Howard's sticker dunk was a tremendous display of athleticism.  I thought the most exciting dunk of the evening was the one pictured where Nate Robinson hung in the air.  He also threw down a sick final dunk on his absolute last chance.  Video of that dunk below.

NBA/TNT Party at Rain

The atmosphere was much more David Stern than Dwayne Wade.  It felt like an after work party you go to where everyone is kind of laid back and enjoying the food and booze but not really letting loose.  As far as crazy Vegas parties go, Rain didn't really have that kind of vibe to it, but was a great time none the less.

The spread was quite impressive with all the food and drink you could want.  Like the Elton John concert on Friday night, the party at the Palms was open bar.  open bar + bars open all night in Vegas = dangerous

The Goo Goo Dolls put on a show which went pretty much how you'd think a Goo Goo Dolls show would go.  It being a TNT party, I was hoping to see Sir Charles make an appearance but never saw the speedy guy.  No big name celeb sightings.  Jerry Tarkanian and John Salley were rocking the pool bar.  Mike Miller and Nate Robinson were chilling in the Palms lobby.  I can indeed confirm the fact that Nate Robinson is short.  I am officially impressed with Nate.

The Inquirer's David Aldridge was there and I actually got a chance to talk to him briefly.  He mentioned he had already seen my Walton post early in the day -- pretty exciting for a blogger.  He spoke highly of the Philadelphia fan and says he loves writing for such a passionate audience.  David even mentioned he hopes to get a chance to write about the Phillies a bit more this season.  Definitely exciting to meet David who was a nice guy.

Who can spot Waldo?  Craig Sager loves those horrible suits, with sneakers taboot.

Stadium seats do not consider people like Manute Bol

One of the more exciting sightings of the Saturday night festivities was Manute Bol.  He can barely fit in his seat.  Poor guy.  Manute was also at the Palms after party.

Shaq vs. LeBron Dance Off

Both the East and West teams held practice on Saturday at Mandalay Bay as part of the NBA Jam Session experience.  The West's practice was rather boring and uneventful, but the East squad did not disappoint.  Led by the usual suspects in Shaquille O'Neal and Gilbert Arenas, the East's practice was highly entertaining.

With practice winding down, the highlight of the event was when Shaq challenged the rest of his teammates to a dance off.  LeBron and Dwight Howard gave Shaq Diesel a run for his money.  But Shaq would not be out done.

Before the dance off, there was a half court shoot out.  The first player to shoot was Agent Zero who hit nothing but net.

And of course there was some dunking.  Lebron:

Reggie Bush Can Shoot The Rock

The Celebrity game at Jam Session on Friday was a tremendous display of basketball ineptitude, except of course for Reggie Bush.  It's not surprising really that a guy who can do it all on football field can do a little bit on the hardwood as well.  Behind the back dribbling and a sweet touch from beyond made Bush the most exciting thing about the celeb game.

As it turns out, Bush apparently sprained his ankle.  I was not aware of this at the game.

Bill Walton Takes a Stroll on the Strip

In the span of about 15 minutes, after leaving Elton John's Red Piano concert at Caesar's, we bumped into Dr. J. with Bill Russell, Bill Lambier, and the drunkest of the bunch, Bill Walton.  The Doc and Russell were leaving the Elton John show outside of Caesar's Coliseum just minding their business.  Noteworthy: the acquaintances that the Doc had on his arm couldn't have been older than mid twenties.  Great work.  Bill Lambier was HUGE.

While sitting on the strip outside of Caesar's enjoying a beer around midnight, a wobbly 7 foot man comes strolling down the sidewalk looking rather lost.  Bill Walton was doing the same exact thing I was doing on Friday night, boozing and wandering the strip.  But, at least I wasn't alone (Update: someone tells us that the short lady is Bill's wife, so maybe he wasn't alone, but he certainly was wandering off by himself) and had my cohort Fun Mike to badger the NBA legend with questions.  "Are you Bill Walton from the NBA?" ... no response.  "Bill! I'm a big fan!" ... no verbal response but some sort of thumbs up was given.  The NBA legend seemed toasted and appeared to have no real good idea where he was going.  The big man was certainly throwing it down on Friday night in Vegas.

I can't recollect exactly what Fun Mike is saying to Walton in the below photo, but I'm guessing it was something like, "What Dude!?  Unbroken Chain from the Spectrum in '95 was awesome!"

VIDEO REMOVED

Day 1 of our Vegas adventure was sick.  We hit up the Celebrity game, Jam Session, Elton John, etc.

The Celebrity game was rather lackluster, except for Reggie Bush, who showed he can ball a little by hitting some three pointers from almost half court.  The celebrity game could be summarized with a single image: Bobby Flay being guarded by Carrot Top.

Other celeb sightings on Friday included Dominique Wilkons, Jason Kidd, Sir Charles, John Starks, BJ Armstrong, etc.   I've got plenty more pictures that need to be uploaded.