Well, I’ve made it back from New Orleans in one piece. The most distinctive city in America hosted this year’s NBA All-Star Weekend of which I was privy to attend to with my buddy Brian Devlin as well as his friend, who naturally became my friend, Ted Heaton.
The boys were both working for the NBA this year participating in numerous events throughout the city that had them arriving in New Orleans on Wednesday, while I touched down at Louis Armstrong International Airport on Friday evening.
Of course that’s when the party truly began for the two American lads and myself.Once I arrived at our hotel in New Orleans gay district, something that we didn’t fully come to realize until our last night there, the party was ready to begin.The three of us headed a few blocks north to Bourbon Street where the night’s festivities were to begin.
Now, everyone has heard of Bourbon Street. Having never been to New Orleans, I was still aware of three areas of the city – Canal Street, Bourbon Street and The Superdome. Outside of those areas, I knew next to nothing about the city.
Anyway, Bourbon Street makes George Street look minor league by comparison. I had always assumed that George Street was probably the most jam-packed clubbing district that there could ever be. I was wrong. Very wrong.Bourbon Street is literally 46 miles long and has 43,000 bars.
Ok, that’s a stretch, but it is much longer than George Street and its total number of bars and clubs greatly outnumber those of George Street. Not to mention that cover is essentially non-existent and that drinking on the street is always encouraged is just fantastic.So we wandered up and down the street checking out the various establishments, making sure to stop and re-fill should our cups ever become empty. Basically, the entire night went very well. All the drinks were great, with the exception of our shots of Everclear, which I can only assume is a southern term that means “gasoline”. So while we were kept steady go on Friday night, we didn’t drink so much that we ended up getting sick, which was a good idea as we all had busy mornings ahead of us.
But I did take away a few tidbits from Friday night.First of all, New Orleans is ready for visitors and tourists again.While Katrina destroyed much of the eastern section of the city, other areas of the city appear to be running at near full steam again. Sure there are a few establishments in the downtown and French Quarter area that are boarded up or closed, but the majority are fully open and appear to be doing well.Second, New Orleans is truly distinctive.The city has a look and feel unlike any other city that I’ve visited. It’s really hard to describe. I won’t even try. The best thing you could do is visit the city and explore it yourself.
Finally, the music. Man the music.The sounds coming out of the French Quarter are amazing. The sound of jazz is floating all around you, everywhere. It’s fantastic. There really is nothing like the soundtrack of that city and it’s something I’ll always remember.
Saturday
Ted was up early and off to work Saturday morning, so Devlin and I slept in a little while longer before heading off to the Riverwalk near the Mississippi River to do a little shopping before he had to bounce.That afternoon marked my first time on Canal Street, which is downtown New Orleans main drag. The street is lined with businesses, palm trees and on this day tourists.
We followed it past the casino (more on that later) and headed to the waterfront to have a look at the Mighty Mississippi River before heading into the Riverwalk Mall.Inside the mall we met NBA Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins who signed a couple balls for myself and Devlin.
Eventually Brian had to take off for some sort of press conference, which left me and my camera to take in The NBA Jam Session at the New Orleans Convention Centre.NBA Jam Session is an interactive fan experience with over 100 exhibits set up for fans to enjoy. Many players are also on hand to meet and greet the fans. During the course of the afternoon I met with Jamario Moon, Dwayne Wade, Jason Kidd, Dwight Howard and Al Horford. Every single player was friendly and eager to chat or sign autographs with the fans.
Overall the event was extremely well run and I enjoyed myself there immensely.NBA Players were rotating at Jam Session throughout the day and when not there were off in different parts of the city aiding with rebuilding efforts.It’s funny though that the public often views NBA players as gangbangers and the problem athletes in today’s sports.Baseball players have a huge steroids issue, NHL players are generally invisible in the North American landscape and NFL Players don’t interact with the public as much. The NBA Cares Charity foundation does tremendous work within each community and at events such as the All-Star Weekend. The young players coming up are all generally great guys (at least in public) and should only bolster the NBA’s image in the coming years.
After Jam Session I was headed back to the hotel where Ted presented me with my pass to NBA All-Star Saturday Night. The 3 point competition and Slam Dunk Competition were to be the highlights of the evening. I ran into Cabbie from “The Score” and “Cabbie On The Street” who got me a little closer look for the Dunk Competition where I was able to get a few great shots and some video.
In the end, the dunk competition was amazing with Dwight Howard and his Superman dunk deserving the title. Although I would agree with Brother Mark that Gerald Green’s “Blow Out The Candle Dunk” was very underrated.
After leaving the arena it was off to the Casino where Mr. Devlin and Ted were quickly down in cash, while I was out and about hob knobbing with Alyssa Milano.
When I did step inside, I sat down at the blackjack table with $25 that was turned into $200 within 20 minutes.We didn’t end up staying too long though as it was to be another early morning for the working gentlemen.Although on a side note, we did walk back to the hotel via Bourbon Street where what appeared to be a young lady had her tits fall out her top to which I exclaimed “That was pretty hot” followed by this exchange Brian: You do know that was a man right?Me: No it wasn’tBrian: Blank StareMe: Wow, I’m gay
Sunday
I spent Saturday night wide awake staring at the ceiling with my asshole clenched in fear.Brian had passed out cold junk next to me and was making sounds that I haven’t heard outside hardcore porn films.I’m not sure what he was dreaming about or who he was dreaming about, but all I can say is that I’m glad he was facing the wall and not me as he is indeed stronger than me and would have made me his prison bitch if he felt like it.Meanwhile on the bed adjacent to us, Big Ted was drifting back and forth between a lumbar yard where his snoring resembled the sawing of a giant red wood, and the ‘Lost’ Island where it appeared that Teddy was running from the monster as he frequently would make screaming and yelping noises that would ever so briefly awake Brian from his erotic slumber.Not to mention the wafting aroma of an open bottle of salsa near my head, coupled with Ted’s snoring nightmare and asshole sphincter fatigue from the constant worry of Brian’s sex dreams made for a restless night.
Regardless, waking up Sunday morning the boys headed off quite early to work which left me to sleep in until 11.After a quick breakfast and shower, I was off to explore the French Quarter and take some photos. I got in a nice few shots of the city which was much more vibrant and bustling than I had thought it would be so soon after Katrina.Soon enough it was Sunday evening and we were headed to the New Orleans Arena for the All-Star game. The arena was mostly filled, but there were some empty seats, likely due to the insane ticket prices that were at lowest $300 for upper bowl seats.
Regardless, the game was highly entertaining with back and forth action, including a furious run of dunks and alley-oops in the second quarter.The game came down to the final minutes with the two best players from the East, Ray Allen and Lebron James taking over for the East and securing the win. Overall Allen and James along with hometown kid Chris Paul were the three best players on the floor.
After the game we headed over to Bourbon Street to enjoy a few drunks and let Brian Devlin fulfill two of his life long dreams.The first of course was to ride the mechanical bull. That didn’t go over well.
His second dream was to do a duet Karaoke of ‘Jessie’s Girl” with me, which of course I wanted to do.Once the evening was all said and done and there were no more 300lb strippers to see, we called it a night and headed back to the hotel. We all promptly passed out, beat out from a busy weekend.
The next morning we got our stuff together, walked around the French Quarter and had a bite to eat.Our flights were all due out that afternoon (although I couldn’t get a seat on my flight, but was given first class tickets in addition to hotel, food and ANOTHER set of tickets for future use) and we were pretty tired.Overall, New Orleans was a great experience for us all I think.Getting to experience such a unique city and unique event with some good friends is always a great time. Hopefully we can pull it off again next February in Phoenix.
All of the photos from this weekend can be found by clicking here
www.flickr.com
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February 22, 2008 at 2:45 pm
[...] Billvin wrote an interesting post today on NBA All-StarHere’s a quick excerpt [...]