XPost: az.general   
   From: michelle@michelle.org   
      
   Updated:2007-02-21  01:25:57   
   Mayhem Main Event at NBA All-Star Weekend   
   'Police Were Simply Overwhelmed' in Sin City   
      
   By JASON WHITLOCK   
   AOL   
      
   Sports Commentary   
      
   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.   
      
   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.   
      
   --   
   Support the troops:  Bring them home ASAP.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)