We’re not exactly foaming at the mouth when it comes to basketball. But watching the NBA All-Star game is not so much like watching basketball as it is like watching a well choreographed dance scene from the unreleased musical “Grease 3: Dunk is the Word.” 

Everyone is in sync at the All-Star game.  Enemies become frenemies, if only for one night.  And the end result is a treat for all the senses to admiring fans and faux fans like us.

Our hero of the game is not surprisingly the guy who earned the MVP honors.  Lebron James was all over the freakin’ place.  He was setting Dwight Howard up for amazing slam dunks.  And when it mattered most, he put the East over the top with a jaw dropping dunk of his own.

As much as we love Tim Duncan, Chris Paul, and the rest of the players on the West, it was nice to see Lebron finally get a chance to play with NBA caliber talent, unlike life in the pee-wee league in Cleveland.  Hornets coach Byron Scott referred to Lebron as a “freight train when he goes to the basket.”  The kid in us is in awe of his talent, while the slut-bag in us is just waiting for Lebron to yell “All aboard!”

What makes us most proud is not what happened on the court but what didn’t happen off the court.  Unlike last year’s All-Star Game in Vegas which took on a “Wild Wild West”  undertone, there were no reports of major incidents in New Orleans due to the large crowds.  It’s another kudos to the NOPD for being the masters of crowd control.  (Now if only we could figure out how to keep the citizens of the Big Easy from shooting each other.)

Our city had a major opportunity to shine in the national spotlight and did so nearly flawlessly.  Local event planners pulled out their not-so-secret weapons to put NBA fans in a trance at the All-Star game.  We’re talking the Rebirth Brass Band, Kermit Ruffins, and Trombone Shorty.  They may not be household names outside of the Delta, but you’d better believe they’ve attracted a newfound following on the national scene with this weekend’s high energy performances. 

So maybe we were wrong about this all along.  Maybe our hero of All-Star weekend isn’t so much Lebron James.  Maybe our MVP is the ultimate underdog, our beloved hometown.