Throwback Thursday: 2008 NBA All-Star Game in NOLA & Regular Season Recap

The city of New Orleans will host their second NBA All-Star Game on February 16, 2014.  New Orleans hosted it February 17, 2008 when the Eastern Conference defeated the Western Conference 134-127 in the 57^th All-Star Game.  This was the first major professional event held in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 besides regular season games for area teams.  LeBron James, of the Cleveland Cavaliers, won the All-Star game MVP scoring 27 points, with 9 assists and 8 rebounds. This was James second All-Star Game MVP trophy.  Ray Allen, of the Boston Celtics, came off the bench to score a game-high 28 points, a game-high 5 three-pointers. Also, Allen scored 14 points in the 4^th quarter to help lead the East to victory.

Carmelo Anthony (Denver Nuggets), first-time All-Star Brandon Roy (Portland Trail Blazers) and Amare Stoudemire (Phoenix Suns) led the West with 18 points each.  Chris Paul, of the host New Orleans Hornets, making his first All-Star appearance had 16 points and a game-high 14 assists and 4 steals; Carlos Boozer of the Utah Jazz had 14 points and game-high 10 rebounds for the West.  Kobe Bryant, of the Los Angeles Lakers, only played three minutes for the West due to a torn ligament in his right pinky finger and Bryant was the leading vote-getter in the West.  Allen Iverson, of the Denver Nuggets, scored 7 points, had 6 assists and 4 steals; and Steve Nash (Phoenix Suns) had 8 points and 6 assists for the West.  The West had six players in double-figures compared to the East with seven players in double-figures.

The East was coached by Doc Rivers, of the Boston Celtics, and the West was coached by Byron Scott of the New Orleans Hornets.  There will be five players from the East (Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh and Joe Johnson) and it will be four players from the West (Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Dirk Nowitzki) that will be participating in this year’s All-Star Game.  Only Wade, Kobe, and Nowitzki are still with the same team when the 57^th game was played.  A lot has changed in the NBA since NOLA hosted the game six years ago.  All-Stars Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen help led the Boston Celtics to defeat Kobe and the Lakers to win the 2008 NBA title.

Kobe led the Lakers to back to back championships from 2009-10, beating Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic in 2009 and Doc Rivers’ Boston Celtics in 2010.  Nowitzki has led the Mavs to their first championship in 2011 when they defeated the Big three in Miami.   James and Bosh joined Wade in Miami and have won back to back championships.  Ray Allen signed with the Heat last season and won a title also. In 2008 Kobe was the Regular season MVP, and Kevin Durant, of the Seattle SuperSonics was the Rookie of the Year. Kevin Garnett was the Defensive Player of the Year.  Kobe is no longer the best player in the NBA. The torched has been passed to LeBron James and Kevin Durant is the second-best player in the league.

Kobe will not play in the ASG this year due to injury, NOLA is the only city that doesn’t get to see him in ASG action and his competiveness will be missed.  James hasn’t won a ASG MVP since 2008 and will look to snap the East three-game losing streak against the West.  Durant, James, Anthony, James Harden (Houston Rockets), Paul George (Indiana Pacers) and first year All-Star Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors) will look to lead the East or West to victory and possibly win the 2014 ASG MVP trophy.

Photo Credit: NBA.com, Theonba.com