Reporting from the NBA All-Star Game

Author:
Logan Schayes
Publish date:
Feb 25, 2013

For all the basketball fans out there, you will love this!!!!!

Houston Rocks! I had a great time all weekend at the All-Star events. It seemed like the whole city was decorated for the games. There was cool stuff to do all day long. Many events that I went to were at the arena called the Toyota Center. The arena is really big and boss music was playing all the time. Not only did I get to go to the great events but I got to meet and interview many of my basketball heroes!

The first night we went to the Rising Stars Game, which was played by the young guns: rookies and second-year players. Not only was the game really cool, but I got to interview Charles Barkley after halftime. He is one of the biggest TV people in the world and was teammates with my dad on the Phoenix Suns. He spent almost 30 minutes talking about all kinds of stuff, and at the end gave me a lesson on how to be a great TV guy. He gave me tips on interviewing people, using the microphone the right way, and how to listen to the answer to help make the next question. Wow, what's cooler than getting a lesson from Charles Barkley! He was so nice!

During the days I got to go to the player interviews and talk to my heroes. I interviewed Blake Griffin, Chris Bosh, Kevin Garnett, Chris Paul, East Coach Eric Spoelstra, David Lee, Ryan Anderson, James Harden, Rick Fox, Kyrie Irving, and even got a fist bump from LeBron James! All the guys were really nice. I almost got crushed a few times by all of the reporters trying to get in position. One time LeBron stopped all of his other interviews and let me ask him a few questions. He took good care of me!

Then came All-Star Saturday Night with the Skills Challenge, 3-Point Shootout, and Dunk Contest. What a show! The music was great, the crowd was roaring, and the dunks were amazing! The guys jumped really high and the dunks they did were really new. Last year’s champion Jeremy Evans of the Utah Jazz did a dunk by jumping over retired Jazz player Mark Eaton, who was sitting down. Standing up Mark is 7'4". He is one of the biggest men I've ever met. Then Jeremy finished with a dunk where he jumped over a painting covered by a cloth. Then he pulled the cloth away and it was a painting of himself doing the dunk he just did! It was like a magic trick! Terrence Ross of the Toronto Raptors finished with a dunk where he jumped over a ball boy, put the ball through his legs and then slammed it. Holy Cow was it great! Both guys were boss and Terrence won in the end.

Sunday went nonstop. We started at The Legends Brunch where the Retired Players Association hosts a huge brunch. All of the Legends were there and they honored many of the Houston Rocket greats since they were the host team. They honored Hakeem Olajuwon, Calvin Murphy, Dikembe Mutumbo, Rudy Tomjanovich, Robert Horry, and Yao Ming. Wow is he big, 7'6" tall! He is even bigger than Mark Eaton! Crazy huh? I was so lucky to meet Magic Johnson and many other legends. Then we went to a concert by Ke$ha, and others. After that we went to the All-Star Game. The arena was sold out and very loud. The players put on a great show with lots of big dunks, great shots, and passes. Kevin Durant was making 3's and dunking his way to 30 points, and Chris Paul won the MVP.