this was really cool, I remember seeing it when it happened, awesome! I was impressed that Amare would share the spotlight with Nash like that, the entire shaq thing is great, but if you look at it from the amare angle, it's got a couple of things. 1. All important, Amare is playing with more energy and drive than I've seen him play with since before the injuries. 2. The presence of shaq on the bench and marion being gone are a big part of this, but the $1,000,000 question, will the effort and intensity be sustainable for Amare (if so, I'm starting to like our chances much more than before the deal). 3. Amare is actually being overshadowed by shaq and shaq hasn't even played a game yet. To bad marion isn't on the team, he would've been more invisible than ever (lol). But will this start to bother Amare after a while (the shaq circus the media has created)? I think if I was shaq, I might not have said this is the Amare stoudamire project, has hints of "he needs help, he needs rescuing, etc", even though we all know this to be true, I think it's mostly all in 2 areas. Effort (which he has clearly shown recently and has simply played like the mvp of the league the last 2 weeks) and defensive. Which will greatly be improved just by getting him out of the center spot. He's got to be happy about that! I just hope Amare isn't the type (like many players) that start to get really bothered by having everything revolve around nash and shaq. I'm a huge nash fan, but it's pretty obvious to me that nash and shaq are on the tail end of their playing days and amare is just coming into his best days.

Well,

I like the shooting stars, I missed the suns turn though, have to rewatch it online

Nash for being such a great game 3 pt shooter really shot poorly in the competition, makes me wonder if after all the mvp attention if he threw it a little bit. Think about it, (it's unlikely..but for fun, go with this idea) Nash wants one thing more than anything...to win a title. I think Nash (last yr in particular, and to some extent still) has become a target.

Here's the thought, if Nash wins this contest, and the suns get into the playoffs, I think it's an easy jump to make that he'd be guarded tighter than if he bows out like he did...

Alright, Nash just blew it, scratch above,
Kapono was a total stud!

The skills challenge, they need to add some fun stuff to make it better,

My idea...

Forget the side to side avoiding the cardboard players thing, instead, let's focus on fun.

a.I say we have them run twice around the court while dribbling 2 basketballs, at full speed

b.Then instead of 2 passing things, maybe 5 all in a row but with a player in a dunk tank that will get dunked if all 5 passes are made on the first attempt..

c. (back to work...)

all star game is on, I'm working on my laptop with it in the background, and they're playing the canada anthem and the U.S. anthem. why both?? just because of Nash?? Why not play the german anthem for dirk, etc etc.... what am I missing? Of course, never happen, but it would've been funny if they had some bad flute player for the canada anthem and really do up the u.s. anthem with like 100 pro musicians, i did like wallace and lebron dancing to the music, I don't dance, I hate dancing, but, there are times when you have to, 1. at your wedding, or anyone else's your attending as a guest (with dancing..important...don't need any solo will ferrell streaking going on) 2. at the nba all star game in n.o. with music and a show like that, texsun, great points on howard, he's been a favorite of mine for awhile now, I'd swap any player on any team for him, between his break dancing with shaq and other stuff, he seems genuine, where, as you accurately point out, nash looks like he's in pain being there, I haven't seen such an awkward smile since I took my 3rd grade pictures.

seriously, you don't see mlb or nfl doing this, it's got good intentions, but it's painful. Even golfers don't have to do this stuff, they talk with their wallets, all the money golf donates, its staggering, I bet the nba is very small in comparison by percentage...just a guess Golfers and N.O. curious how nba compares...