Vegas All-Star game will be a gamble
HOUSTON (AP) - The curtain hadn't dropped on All-Star weekend in Houston, and already players were thinking about next year's game.
Who could blame them? Las Vegas is on the itinerary.
The NBA is taking its midseason showcase to the Strip next season, and it figures to be a good time. The basketball? Maybe not so good.
"We might have to cancel practice next year," Boston's Paul Pierce said.
No matter. All-Star weekend is no longer about basketball, anyway. Rather, it's a chance for athletes and entertainers to party.
The NBA players were hardly the only stars around Houston, not with Eva Longoria, Diddy and Julianne Moore taking in the All-Star Saturday night events from courtside seats, and Beyonce, Jay Z and Terrell Owens out on the town afterward.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said bringing the game to his city will be like "the heydays of a great Tyson fight."
"Hollywood and entertainment people are in Las Vegas on a regular basis," said Rossi Ralenkotter, the president and chief executive of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. "Sports stars and legends from all sports are in our town, and now you bring in the best basketball there is in the world, the NBA All-Star game. Combine that with their legends, it is going to be a tremendous weekend for all the participants."
Commissioner David Stern called the event a "celebration," and no city is more synonymous with living it up than Las Vegas.
"It's going to be crazy out there," Phoenix forward Shawn Marion said.
Marion played in college at UNLV, and he'll be back in the city in July when the U.S. national team holds training camp there.
"They got plenty of venues out there for places to have big parties and just to hang out and do whatever you want to do out there," he said. "Vegas is just a city that never sleeps, so it's going to be a blast."
This will mark the first time the NBA is holding the event outside a league city. While there are risks in holding the game in a city overloaded with temptations, Stern also knows there plenty of rewards are possible.
He praised the job Houston did in preparing for the game but emphasized that Las Vegas, with its 135,000 hotel rooms, can make a big event bigger.
"We were so oversubscribed here," Stern said. "What started out as 13 hotels went to 25 hotels, and on Thursday of this week I got the call that we are still 100 rooms short. I don't think we're going to have a room shortage in Las Vegas."
Ties between athletes and betting have always been a concern, highlighted of late by the gambling ring said to involve an assistant coach on Wayne Gretzky's team and the NHL great's wife. Before committing to Las Vegas, Stern insisted there be no betting lines on All-Star weekend events in 2007.
He said he has no problem with people legally gambling. But he stressed that the presence of gambling is the reason he can't put an NBA team there - even if Las Vegas officials eager for a major pro team hope the 2007 game will make him reconsider.
"We are not going to go there while they have betting on NBA games," Stern said.
There's another benefit for Stern in putting the game in Las Vegas. While some players often find an excuse to get out of All-Star games for a few days off, that seems unlikely next year.
Pierce said he has a house there, so he's ready to go. After Dwyane Wade won the skills challenge Saturday night, he made it clear he's already planning to defend his title in 2007.
"I'm going to be in Vegas no matter what next year," Wade said. "No matter what happens, I'm in Vegas next year. Get the family and let's go. Vegas, here I come."
And Las Vegas is ready for them. Goodman was in Houston during the weekend - though without his showgirls to not overshadow Houston. Still, people notice him, and he said Shaquille O'Neal and Julius Erving were among those who have already talked to him about next year.
"If I'm walking along and somebody's walking behind me, we'll hear the ball players saying, 'There's the mayor. We can't wait to go to Vegas next year,"' Goodman said. "They're all saying that to me. It's just amazing."
HOUSTON (AP) - The curtain hadn't dropped on All-Star weekend in Houston, and already players were thinking about next year's game.
Who could blame them? Las Vegas is on the itinerary.
The NBA is taking its midseason showcase to the Strip next season, and it figures to be a good time. The basketball? Maybe not so good.
"We might have to cancel practice next year," Boston's Paul Pierce said.
No matter. All-Star weekend is no longer about basketball, anyway. Rather, it's a chance for athletes and entertainers to party.
The NBA players were hardly the only stars around Houston, not with Eva Longoria, Diddy and Julianne Moore taking in the All-Star Saturday night events from courtside seats, and Beyonce, Jay Z and Terrell Owens out on the town afterward.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said bringing the game to his city will be like "the heydays of a great Tyson fight."
"Hollywood and entertainment people are in Las Vegas on a regular basis," said Rossi Ralenkotter, the president and chief executive of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. "Sports stars and legends from all sports are in our town, and now you bring in the best basketball there is in the world, the NBA All-Star game. Combine that with their legends, it is going to be a tremendous weekend for all the participants."
Commissioner David Stern called the event a "celebration," and no city is more synonymous with living it up than Las Vegas.
"It's going to be crazy out there," Phoenix forward Shawn Marion said.
Marion played in college at UNLV, and he'll be back in the city in July when the U.S. national team holds training camp there.
"They got plenty of venues out there for places to have big parties and just to hang out and do whatever you want to do out there," he said. "Vegas is just a city that never sleeps, so it's going to be a blast."
This will mark the first time the NBA is holding the event outside a league city. While there are risks in holding the game in a city overloaded with temptations, Stern also knows there plenty of rewards are possible.
He praised the job Houston did in preparing for the game but emphasized that Las Vegas, with its 135,000 hotel rooms, can make a big event bigger.
"We were so oversubscribed here," Stern said. "What started out as 13 hotels went to 25 hotels, and on Thursday of this week I got the call that we are still 100 rooms short. I don't think we're going to have a room shortage in Las Vegas."
Ties between athletes and betting have always been a concern, highlighted of late by the gambling ring said to involve an assistant coach on Wayne Gretzky's team and the NHL great's wife. Before committing to Las Vegas, Stern insisted there be no betting lines on All-Star weekend events in 2007.
He said he has no problem with people legally gambling. But he stressed that the presence of gambling is the reason he can't put an NBA team there - even if Las Vegas officials eager for a major pro team hope the 2007 game will make him reconsider.
"We are not going to go there while they have betting on NBA games," Stern said.
There's another benefit for Stern in putting the game in Las Vegas. While some players often find an excuse to get out of All-Star games for a few days off, that seems unlikely next year.
Pierce said he has a house there, so he's ready to go. After Dwyane Wade won the skills challenge Saturday night, he made it clear he's already planning to defend his title in 2007.
"I'm going to be in Vegas no matter what next year," Wade said. "No matter what happens, I'm in Vegas next year. Get the family and let's go. Vegas, here I come."
And Las Vegas is ready for them. Goodman was in Houston during the weekend - though without his showgirls to not overshadow Houston. Still, people notice him, and he said Shaquille O'Neal and Julius Erving were among those who have already talked to him about next year.
"If I'm walking along and somebody's walking behind me, we'll hear the ball players saying, 'There's the mayor. We can't wait to go to Vegas next year,"' Goodman said. "They're all saying that to me. It's just amazing."