NBA ALL-STAR FIASCO IN VEGAS

[DRTYFN]

It's a damn good thing that this columnist is black or we'd be hearing screaming from all kinds of swarthy deniers.

Mayhem Main Event at NBA All-Star Weekend
'Police Were Simply Overwhelmed' in Sin City
By JASON WHITLOCK
AOL

LAS VEGAS -- NBA All-Star Weekend in Vegas was an unmitigated failure, and any thoughts of taking the extravaganza to New Orleans in 2008 are total lunacy.
An event planned to showcase what is right about professional basketball has been turned into a 72-hour display of why commissioner David Stern can't sleep at night and spends his days thinking of rules to mask what the NBA has come to represent.

Good luck fixing All-Star Weekend.

The game is a sloppy, boring, half-hearted mess. The dunk contest is contrived and pointless. The celebrity contest is unintended comedy. And, worst of all, All-Star Weekend revelers have transformed the league's midseason exhibition into the new millennium Freaknik, an out-of-control street party that features gunplay, violence, non-stop weed smoke and general mayhem.

Word of all the criminal activity that transpired during All-Star Weekend has been slowly leaking out on Las Vegas radio shows and TV newscasts and on Internet blogs the past 24 hours.

"It was filled with an element of violence," Teresa Frey, general manager for Coco's restaurant, told klastv.com. "They don't want to pay their bills. They don't want to respect us or each other."

Things got so bad that she closed the 24-hour restaurant from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m.

"I have been spit on. I have had food thrown at me," she said. "I have lost two servers out of fear. I have locked my door out of the fear of violence."

All weekend, people, especially cab drivers, gossiped about brawls and shootings. You didn't know what to believe because the local newspaper was filled with stories about what a raging success All-Star Weekend was. The city is desperately trying to attract an NBA franchise, and, I guess, there was no reason to let a few bloody bodies get in the way of a cozy relationship with Stern.

Plus, the NBA's business partner ESPN didn't have time to dirty its hands and report on the carnage. I'm sure ESPN's reporters were embedded in the rear ends of the troops -- Shaq, Kobe, King James, D-Wade, AI and Melo.

But there were multiple brawls, at least two shootings, more than 350 arrests and a lot of terror in Vegas over the weekend.

And the police might want to talk to NFL player Pacman Jones about a nasty shooting spree at a Vegas strip club. Jones and the rapper Nelly were allegedly at Minxx Gentlemen's Club Monday morning shortly before (or during) the shooting.

Two victims, male employees of the club, were listed in critical condition at the hospital; a third, a female patron, sustained non-life threatening injuries after being grazed by a bullet.

There were so many fights and so many gangbangers and one parking-lot shootout at the MGM Grand that people literally fled the hotel in fear for their safety. I talked with a woman who moved from the MGM to the Luxor because "I couldn't take it. I'll never come back to another All-Star Game."

There are reports of a brawl between rappers and police at the Wynn Hotel.

Vegas police were simply overwhelmed along The Strip. They were there solely for decoration and to discourage major crimes. Beyond that, they minded their own business.

I was there. Walking The Strip this weekend must be what it feels like to walk the yard at a maximum security prison. You couldn't relax. You avoided eye contact. The heavy police presence only reminded you of the danger.

Without a full-scale military occupation, New Orleans will not survive All-Star Weekend 2008.

David Stern seriously needs to consider moving the event out of the country for the next couple of years in hopes that young, hip-hop hoodlums would find another event to terrorize. Taking the game to Canada won't do it. The game needs to be moved overseas, someplace where the Bloods and Crips and hookers and hoes can't get to it without a passport and plane ticket.

I'm serious. Stern has spent the past three years trying to move his league and players past the thug image Ron Artest's fan brawl stamped on the NBA.

After this weekend, I'm convinced he's losing the battle. All-Star Weekend Vegas screamed that the NBA is aligned too closely with thugs. Stern is going to have to take drastic measures to break that perception/reality. All-Star Weekend can no longer remain the Woodstock for parolees, wannabe rap artists and baby's mamas on tax-refund vacations.

This was not a byproduct of the game being held in Vegas. All-Star Weekend has been on this path for the past five or six years. Every year the event becomes more and more a destination for troublemakers.

If something isn't done, next year's All-Star Weekend will surpass the deceased Freaknik, a weekend-long party in Atlanta, in terms of lawlessness. Wide-spread looting and a rape killed the Freaknik in 1999.

The NBA's image cannot survive bedlam in the French Quarter. And I'm not sure it can survive the embarrassment of a New Orleans standoff between its fans and the National Guard, either.

If Stern wants to continue to strengthen the international appeal of his game, he has the perfect excuse to move the All-Star Game to Germany, China, England or anywhere Suge Knight's posse can't find it.
http://sports.aol.com/whitlock/_a/ma...20103009990001

My brother & sister-in-law were down there that weekend and said it was like being at the Monday Night NFL game between the Raiders & the Broncos in Oakland 10 years ago. Long story short - that game was like being in Rwanda during a riot.

[DRTYFN]

Now I'm really pissed. Read below to see why.

Weekend Violence Mars NBA All-Star Experience
Feb 20, 2007 09:08 PM
Even with all of the arrests and several violent crimes related to the All-Star game, the Clark County sheriff would welcome back the NBA event.

He released the total number of arrests and said Metro spent as much money for police protection during the four days as they do during New Year's Eve.

Sheriff Doug Gillespie says his officers performed as they should have and prevented total chaos at the NBA events. He calls the weekend a success from a police standpoint.

There were a total of 403 arrests. "The presence of police officers were very instrumental, I believe, in keeping this event as safe as it was," Sheriff Gillespie said.

Still, there were four shootings related to NBA events. A shooting in front of the Minxx Gentlemen's Club injured three people. Witnesses say a fight inside the club led to the shooting outside.

Estrella, a Minxx dancer said, "A famous rapper, Nelly, came in. He spent so much money that people and customers were just going crazy."

Three people were shot. One still remains in critical condition at the hospital.

General Rudeness of NBA Fans Noticed

It wasn't the shootings, but the general rudeness of the NBA fans which left a lasting impression for some in Las Vegans.

Teresa Frey, Coco's general manager said, "I have been spit on. I have had food thrown at me. I have lost two servers out of fear. I have locked my doors out of fear of violence."I just called and spoke with one of the ladies there. You get one guess as to the race of the ass holes that acted like savages.

"With any type of event you have a percentage of the attendees, or people who come and are not here for the right reasons," said the sheriff.

The sheriff cannot arrest anyone for being rude, but he says officers did their best with an event lasting four days at a number of different places around the Las Vegas Strip.

"There is always going to be issues that arise," said Sheriff Gillespie.

For many people working on the Las Vegas Strip, those issues were enough to hope the All-Star game never returns. For the sheriff, he would support a rematch at the Thomas and Mack.

Prostitution Related Arrests Up Over All-Star Weekend

More than half of the arrests during the All-Star game were by Metro's vice unit. Those are prostitution related offenses.

The sheriff says when big events come to town, prostitution increases in Las Vegas. All-Star weekend was no different.

The Las Vegas community embraced the NBA and fans leading up to the weekend game, but for some businesses it was a bust.

"It was filled with an element of violence. They don't want to pay their bills. They don't want to respect us or each other," said Frey.

Frey says she lost 20-percent of her revenue because of people walking out on their bills. She closed the 24-hour restaurant from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. out of concern.NOW YOU SEE WHY DENNY'S MAKES CERTAIN PEOPLE PAY UP FRONT.

Visitors Notice Different Kind of Atmosphere in Las Vegas

Visitors also felt the different kind of Las Vegas atmosphere. "There was a problem with the people trying walking in front of cars and things like that," said David Hart, visitor from Houston.

"It was very crowded but we did get to where we were going," said Gwen Hart, visitor from Houston.

Gwen and David Hart flew into town on Friday and when they saw the large groups of younger NBA fans, they say they avoided them to avoid problems.Why don't they say "large groups of young "African-Americans"?

That's the same technique David Botero and his wife used. "It was definitely a Las Vegas we had not seen in the past. It was not vintage Vegas at all," David Botero said. He moved from Las Vegas to New York three years ago. His wife surprised him with a 30th birthday trip back to the city they both love. It turned out to be bad timing.

Although many Las Vegans, including Teresa Frey, support an NBA team in Las Vegas, she doesn't want to see another All-Star game anytime soon.

"I know that any amount of revenue I made does not justify me being assaulted," she said.

http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6109396

[KenP]

Typical.

[DennisAJC]

Interesting.

[BlueTJCO]

you guys really should talk to some of the players that were involved in the All Star Game and get their opinions before forming your own. Were any of you actually there yourself?
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[NewHummerGuy]

"All-Star Weekend can no longer remain the Woodstock for parolees, wannabe rap artists and baby's mamas on tax-refund vacations."

[KenP]

Here's another article from Whitlock that starts out a little different.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlot...l/16751499.htm

NBA treading on dangerous ground with All-Star Weekend culture

By Jason Whitlock
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)
LAS VEGAS - For black men and women below the age of 45, NBA All-Star Weekend in Vegas was a calling you felt deep in the pit of your stomach.

You just had to be there, even if you no longer love the NBA the way you did when Magic, Bird, Michael and Isiah ruled the game, even if you had zero interest in the actual game.

All-Star Weekend is the new millennium's "Freaknik," a once-popular, now-canceled annual street party. When Atlanta's Freaknik died of self-inflicted wounds - looting and violence - in 1999, the NBA's midseason exhibition rose in popularity for black people looking for an annual excuse to party on a large scale...