Aw man first off I just wanna say that the opening ceremonies last night were phenomenal despite the technical difficulties at the end with the pillars of the indoor cauldron, and also the somber news of Georgian athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili's, death in an accident on the luge track during training but much love to the IOC and VANOC for handling the situation in a truly Canadian way.
As great as the opening ceremonies were I was constantly flipping back and forth to the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge that started NBA All-Star weekend in Dallas. It was a great game although the sophomores let me down and lost to the rookies 140-128 for the first time in 8 years.
Dejuan Blair grabbed a record 23 rebounds and scored 22 points for the first 20-20 game in the Rookie Challenge, leading the rookies throughout the game and was co-MVP thanks to a kind gesture from his co-MVP Tyreke Evans. "He started getting the rebounds for us. He did what he said he was going to do," said Sacramento's Tyreke Evans, who had 26 points and was the game's MVP. "That's why I wanted to share the [MVP] trophy with him." Russell Westbrook of Oklahoma City scored 40 points for the sophomores (6 shy of the record set by his teammate Kevin Durant last year), and was one of seven players on the second-year team who were handed consecutive losses in this All-Star Weekend event (they lost as Rookies last year). The sophomores had won seven straight games and eight of 10 since that format was adopted in 2000.
Blair had one of the highlight plays after a turnover by the Sophomores in the first half. Stephen Curry flipped the ball to Blair, who threw it off the backboard and grabbed it out of the air before slamming it home. And in the closing seconds of the game, Blair chased down a ball in the corner and scooped it underhand and backward to save it from going out of bounds. After getting back on the court and begging for teammates to get him the ball, he scored despite being tackled by New Jersey's Brook Lopez under the basket to end with a 20-20 performance. Both players were smiling in a pile on the floor after the ball fell through the hoop at the American Airlines Center, the Dallas Mavericks' home arena.
Evans, the league's top-scoring rookie and 14th overall with 20.3 points a game, made 11 of 15 shots to go with six rebounds and five assists. Milwaukee rookie Brandon Jennings had 22 points and eight assists, and James Harden from Oklahoma City also had 22 points.
For the Sophomores, Miami's Michael Beasley, who scored 29 points in last year's game, had 26 points this time. Golden State's Anthony Morrow had 15 points and Minnesota's Kevin Love, who had predicted a lopsided victory for the sophomores, had 12 points and six rebounds. O.J. Mayo from Memphis had eight points and 10 assists.
Although the Sophomores let me down, Raptors rookie DeMar DeRozan did not as he beat the L.A. Clippers' second year guard Eric Gordon in the first ever Dunk-In to become the 4th contestant in the Sprite Slam Dunk contest later on tonight, by garnering 61% of the fan vote.
Here are the video highlights of the game via NBA.com:
And here are the highlights of the Dunk-In, also via NBA.com:
Peace and Much Love to Ya :)
*note: it seems OKC's Russell Westbrook will replace Derrick Rose in the skills challenge
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