FanHouse Nba All Star Game

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Friday, there are 18 days remaining.

Most current players don't last as long as the stars of the 1970s and 80s did. As the game becomes faster and stronger, players who reach their 30s have a tougher time keeping up (with some obvious exceptions). Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had no such problem.

KAJ was selected for all but one NBA All-Star Game between 1970 and 1989, and he played in an NBA record 18 of them. By my count, there's only two current stars who can catch him.

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Monday, there are 43 days remaining.

While Karl Malone's ring-chasing with the Lakers prevented the most prolific Jazz teammates from going into the Hall of Fame together, John Stockton and the Mailman have been honored as a pair before.

At the NBA's 43rd All-Star Game in Salt Lake City -- back in 1993, before the Jazz had ever made the Finals -- Stockton and Malone shared the MVP award as the West won 135-132. While home cookin' was certainly involved in Utah in Stockton's case, it was a nice touch for the media to split the award between the inseparable stars.

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 NBA season. On Wednesday, there are exactly 83 days left.

In honor of the 83 days, I was going to bring you the 83 best National Anthems ever sung, in YouTube form. Then I remembered that all of them are dull and stupid and boring and horrible compared to the sensual heat that Marvin Gaye wrought on our ears in 1983. But it's important to put this important musical moment in some historical perspective -- on February 13, 1983, Gaye stepped into the Forum and shattered America's mind with his performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner." You know that. But do you realize that this was less than six months before he ever performed again?

LAS VEGAS -- Mark Cuban enjoys the attention at Summer League. As he sits in the front row of Cox Pavilion watching games, a horde of kids ask for autographs. This is an unusual occurrence for NBA owners.

Cuban is hoping that his brotherly relationship with his players and relentless desire to bring Dallas an NBA title will encourage Dirk Nowitzki to stay with the Mavericks. Nowitzki has a $21 million player option for the 2010-11 season that Cuban would prefer he accept. If not, Nowitzki will be an unrestricted free agent and part of the elite class that will include LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Cuban has signed Jason Kidd to a three-year deal, traded for Shawn Marion and continues to chase available free agents instead of rebuilding. All of that is a play to convince Nowitzki to stay.

ORLANDO -- Commissioner David Stern made the announcement Sunday that Los Angeles would be hosting the NBA All-Star Weekend in 2011. What he left unsaid was that Orlando will have it in February of 2012.

You can start making reservations. It's only a coincidence that the Lakers are playing the Magic in the NBA Finals this year.

Although no one was talking on the record about it Monday, two sources with knowledge of the talks said that the league has assured Orlando that it would be following Los Angeles in the All-Star Weekend rotation of warm-weather cities. The only thing that could stop it would be a major construction delay of the new downtown Events Center.

The NBA has scheduled a press conference before Game 2 of the NBA Finals, and with such heavy hitters as David Stern, Tim Leiweke, (President & CEO of AEG) and Antonio Villaraigosa (Mayor of Los Angeles) in attendance, you knew it had to be something big -- and obviously, something to do with the city of Los Angeles.

Some had speculated it might be the confirmation of the rumors that the Draft was relocating to Los Angeles, but that's not it: John Ireland is reporting on his blog that the 2011 All-Star game is coming to Los Angeles, and will be played at Staples Center.

The last time Los Angeles hosted the big weekend was back in 2004, when Shaquille O'Neal -- who was still a member of the Lakers at the time -- took home the game's MVP trophy.

The legend of Mike Taylor began with a casual little under the rim, windmill throwdown in the middle of a game the other night. The announcers, at the time, mentioned Taylor was unleashing dunks like that in warmups. They weren't kidding, either. Via Bethleham Shoals at The Sporting Blog comes this clip of Taylor during warmups. Shoals touches on Taylor emerging "organically" (I would point out that "virally" applies here as well) which is a pretty cool concept compared to "expectations" and what not. Consider me doing my part to help over-expose him.

Shaquille O'Neal stunned the world (in a "wow, now I remember why I freaking love Shaq" kind of way) when he broke out in freestyle dance with the JabbaWockeeZ during the All-Star Game lineup introductions. But he wasn't the only one breaking it down with the hip-hop (?) stars (??) over the weekend. Turns out, Kevin Garnett and Kevin Durant both got down too.



Via NESW Sports, courtesy of Mission G ... who has yet to offer me a G Blogger package. Ahem ... No, seriously, Gatorade folks. Hit me up. I'm easy.

Nate Robinson's "Kryptonite Dunk" was not only the dunk that won him the contest, but also one of the highlights of All-Star weekend. So it's not surprising that memorabilia collectors would be willing to pay top dollar to own a piece of the event's history. It's also not surprising that someone would try to sell fakes in an attempt to cash in.

Nate Robinson has been all over the place since his 2009 Slam Dunk Contest win. Thursday he stopped by the set of the Late Show with David Letterman to show off some of what he did during the dunk contest. Here are the highlights: