By Craig Kwasniewski
(Conspiracy theory alert!!!)
Am I the only one who felt that Phoenix getting the 2009 NBA All-Star Game was a little strange? Think about it, much like the NFL and the Super Bowl, the NBA uses its All-Star Game as a sort of leverage or message. Open a new publicly financed arena and your city will get the NBA All-Star game along with the financial windfall that comes with all the week's festivities. Phoenix even hosted it back in 1995 in their newly opened publicly financed America West Arena. Check out the list of recent All Star Games back to the last one to be held in an old arena (Hoops Mecca, Madison Square Garden back in 1998):
1999 - Philadelphia (Wachovia Center, opened in 1996, postponed for lock-out)
2000 - Oakland (Oracle Arena, $121 million in renovations in 1997)
2001 - Washington D.C. (Verizon Center, opened in 1997)
2002 - Philadelphia (Wachovia Center, make up date for 1999)
2003 - Atlanta (Philips Arena, opened in 1999)
2004 - Los Angeles (Staples Center, opened in 1999)
2005 - Denver (Pepsi Center, opened in 1999)
2006 - Houston (Toyota Center, opened in 2003)
2007 - Las Vegas (Thomas & Mack, logistics test for potential NBA franchise)
2008 - New Orleans (New Orleans Arena, Hurricane Katrina)
2009 - Phoenix (US Airways Center, ????)
As you can see, most All-Star Games are rewards for all the public dollars spent on new/improved arenas. So why would Phoenix get an NBA All-Star Game in their older arena before cities like Memphis (FedExForum, opened in 2004) or Charlotte (Charlotte Bobcats Arena, opened in 2005) or even San Antonio (AT&T Center, opened in 2002)? Why?
There's one simple answer:
The 2007 NBA playoffs and Tim Donaghy. As I wrote back in July:
As many of you already know, Donaghy refereed game 3 of the Western Conference Semifinals between the Spurs and Suns. At the time, many watching the game felt something wasn't quite right about the officiating. Add in Amare's suspension and you get the feeling that the Spurs didn't earn their victory over Phoenix, but were rather handed the title.
Giving Phoenix the 2009 NBA All-Star Game is David Stern's way of buying off the Suns' silence regarding all the crap they put up with during the 2007 Western Conference Semifinals against the Spurs. Call me crazy (as many Spurs fans have... Dave!), but I really can't come up with any other reason why the NBA chose Phoenix (outside of Robert Sarver going Olympic Committee on Stern and hiring a year supply of hookers). With this year's Super Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl, it's not like Phoenix is starving for major sporting events. Maybe Stern prefers cigarette smokers, 115 degree heat and melanoma.
All I'm sayin' is that this seems strange.
craig, i don't remember calling you crazy, but i have always believed that it is really neat that a "mentally challenged" person is able to run and maintain this blog. so, way to go, buddy!
before i get into the innumerable reasons why there was not a fix in game 3 of the wc semis, let me offer another explanation as to why the 2009 all-star game is being held in phoenix.
golf!
we all know (and cell phone commercials prove) that all nba players love them some golf. charles barkley plays golf all the time and he is horrible at it. that's why he lives there. michael jordan loves golf (as long as there's money on it). how else are they going to get any of these legends to judge the dunk contest, play the the 3 on 3 game or do something heart warming like race dick bavetta and then make out with him. the answer is golf!
have you ever flown over phoenix? it's nothing but golf courses and swimming pools. there are no houses! everyone lives in underground air-conditioned apartments connected by an elaborate series of tunnels.
it's also the only way arizona can get famous black celebrities to visit (being as arizona was the last state to recognize martin luther king day as a national holiday). they have a lot to atone for. reparations! i want my 3 acres and a mule on a golf course.
charles barkley wants to run for governor of alabama, not arizona, where he lives. sir charles doesn't like arizona, he just likes golf.
now, as far as your wc semis conspiracy theory goes, there was no serious money to be made by throwing that game (no advantageous point spread to beat, no big odds to break). phoenix wasn't even picked to win the game!
tim donaghy made no suspicious calls in the 4th quarter when he could've possibly affected the outcome. i would argue that he made no calls in the spurs favor.
also, there is plenty of video evidence that shows the suns making "dirty" plays throughout the entire game. the spurs got tagged with the brunt of the "dirty" accusations only because horry's foul on nash was so demonstrative.
youtube it, lazy asses!
i'm not saying the spurs are angels, but if you push them, they will push back and beat the pants off of you on top of it.
Posted by: dave | December 04, 2007 at 07:30 PM
Typepad allows the mentally challenged to run a site with little effort... I just hit the keyboard and hope I make sense. Because of this there should be a TON of Spurs blogs.
Anyway, I never really thought about the golf aspect. Maybe Stern decided to go with a safe place (ie. very few places for NBA ballers, entourages and NFL guys to get into trouble.) and chose Phoenix. And come to think of it, it's virtually impossible to get arrested on the golf course.
Plus, there's the added bonus of Vegas being a 30 minute plane ride away.
But I'm still very suspicious that all those new arenas were passed up for next year. Sarver and the City of Phoenix must have rented the Sultan of Brunei's harem for Stern.
Posted by: Craig | December 05, 2007 at 12:46 AM
your freaking crazy man and more than that extremely nieve. a couple years ago they had a 60 million dollar renovation project finished take a look at the arial shot of america west arena and one of us airways center and the builing is bigger now. its had additions made up on it and is much more beutiful than it was before
Posted by: chadillac | February 16, 2008 at 11:23 AM
there was no serious money to be made by throwing that game
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