Dime's Favs @ All-Star wkend...

[milkyway21]

i can't help but laugh on some...

Dime's favorites from All-Star Weekend

Now that All-Star Weekend has officially come to a close, the Dime Crew looks back at our favorite things from Denver.
1. The dunk contest
The dunk contest is officially back. After a few down years, it returned with a vengeance in 2K5. We're not sure what it was about this year's lineup, but compared to the majority of past contests, the creativity was off the hook this year.


And the best thing to come out of the dunk contest? Without a doubt, it's Hawks rookie Josh Smith. If you didn't know him before Saturday night, you know him now.

The game
All the parties, all the pomp, dribbling through cones and other contests aside, the All-Star game is what it's all about.

Being out in Denver, with all the other lunacy going on all around you, it's easy for the game to become an afterthought. It's a showcase of the absolute best athletes in the entire world all running at once trying to put on a show — it's an amazing thing to witness in person.

All-Star Weekend is the spot for ballers to flaunt their personal style. The NBA set never, ever disappoints.

Here's some of the stylin' we saw in Denver:

Best bling

The bling king: Jermaine O'Neal (right) sports his jewels alongside Jermaine Dupri. (Ray Amati/NBAE / GettyImages)


Gotta start with the jewels. All-Star 2K5's winner? The Pacers' Jermaine O'Neal, hands down. He popped up Friday at the media event rocking a red gold icy band on one wrist and then an unreal, red gold, diamond-dipped watch on the other. We had to shield our eyes. ...

Shawn Marion was rocking a diamond-encrusted "Matrix" dog tag. ...

Allen Iverson's wedding band? About an inch wide, totally covered in rocks. Absurd. ...

Voshon Lenard wins the Earring Award, with a massive rock in each ear. To name Voshon the winner of this award with famous earring bling kings like Kevin Garnett in the room is a big deal.

The hookup

In a room full of velour sweatsuits, Garnett's was the hottest. Off-white adidas with a crispy white old school adidas T-shirt underneath. ...

Kobe was GQ-smooth in jeans, shades and a purple velvet blazer. ...

Now we know that the Sonics' Vlad Radmanovic isn't from the U.S., so we give him a little fashion leeway, but he's a piece of work. At Friday night's Brand Jordan party, Vlad showed up in a blue pea coat, black jeans, white loafers and a Rolling Stones knit cap (complete with the "Lips" logo). ...

On Friday night we bumped into the Lakers' Chucky Atkins on the concourse of the Pepsi Center. We could barely see him because he was almost completely engulfed by his fur coat. ...

We also bumped into the WNBA's Theresa Witherspoon. T-Spoon was wrapped up in a leather jacket and leather pants.

The accessories

If you watched the rookie-sop re game Friday night, you probably saw Shaq sitting courtside with his black fedora. ...


Manu's Mullett. We got a good look at the Spurs' Manu Ginobili on Friday and if they guy doesn't get a cut soon, he'll be moving into Joe Dirt territory. ...

But 3-point contest winner Quentin Richardson clearly had the best complement. He showed up the Jordan party attached to Brandy. ...

A handful of other observations from the weekend ...


All-Star Saturday night
Sitting down by the floor, we saw some truly amazing things. One thing that definitely wasn't caught on TV was the NBA players' seating situation. They were all bunched on one corner of the floor and there were no seats to spare. When Shaq and his wife rolled in, Rashard Lewis was told to move from his seat. 'Shard did with no fight. ...
It looked like Kenyon Martin moved for LeBron, but K-Mart turned up a few minutes later to help Josh Smith in the dunk contest. ...

Ray Allen? One of the smoothest cats ever. After he realized he was out of the 3-point shootout, he disappeared and re-emerged shortly after in a suit. ...

One of the coolest things we saw was the Sixers' Allen Iverson and Andre Iguodala making a point of supporting Philly teammate Kyle Korver in the 3-point shootout. They were sitting on the baseline and standing every time KK shot. ...


Friday's media day
Seattle shooter (and 3-point contest participant) Vlad Radmanovic had his intro to the annual zoo that is media day right away. There was a guy literally on all fours on the table trying to get closer to Vlad to ask him questions. ...

It must be miserable being Yao Ming's translator, Colin Pine. He had to sit next to Yao to facilitate the interviews, but the crazed media members were literally crawling over him to get to Yao. The poor guy was getting cracked in the head with cameras and tape recorders. ...

There was a crowd five people deep around Shaq's table 15 minutes before he even arrived. And the black fedora Shaq was wearing all day was a sight to see. While he was doing an interview for NBA TV, Quentin Richardson was walking by and when he saw Shaq's hat, he stopped, pointed and doubled over laughing. ...

Overheard
We heard that LeBron and Michael Jordan have never spoken or met. If it's true, that's nuts. ...

[nacho estrada]

What happened when King James met His Airness
http://espn.go.com/nba/columns/stein_marc/1481490.html