All-Stars strive to impress

PHILADELPHIA - The city of brotherly love gave the NBA's best and brightest the freedom to be showy, clownish and silly Sunday night at the All-Star game.\nWith spectators such as lovebirds Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears, the "Greatest," Muhammad Ali, P. Diddy and Magic Johnson, the East and West stars battled for who-can-be-the-most-impressive. \nTracy "T-Mac" McGrady stole the show, Kobe Bryant directed the scoring for the west and got booed in the process and Michael "Air" Jordan did his best to keep up with the young guys.\nBut the East was unable to repeat last year's comeback performance and lost 135-120. The East was down by as much as 24, but made various rallies throughout the game.\n"A lot of players, when they play in the All-Star game, they try to be too cool and they don't play hard," West coach Donn Nelson said. "They just want to run up and down, and it's an offensive game, and that's really not the way it should be. It should be that your priorities are still on the defensive end."\nIn front of a sold-out crowd of 19,581 at the First Union Center, the East turned the ball over 15 times, while the West was one shy of that number.\nBut how the West won was getting the boards. The West ended with 63 rebounds, led by San Antonio's Tim Duncan, who had a game-high 14. \n"One thing Coach Nelson said coming into the locker room (was), 'Remember what happened last year and we don't want to have that happen again,'" Duncan said. "We really did want to win, but it was great that we put a performance like that together; and really, we ran over them."\nBut aside from the numbers, the participants in the game used the opportunity to use some moves that aren't brought out during the regular season.\nThis was most evident with McGrady, who had 24 points off the bench, including a game-sealing dunk. \nMcGrady entered the game for Jordan with just over a minute left in the first half. And early in the second half, he brought the crowd to their feet by lobbing the ball against the backboard, and while the defenders were standing around, McGrady grabbed the deflection and slammed it in.\n"He threw it and I saw him catch it," teammate and Indiana Pacer, Jermaine O'Neal said. "That was one of the best dunks I have ever seen in a game. I have never seen anything like that."\nBut one of the worst dunk ideas came when Jordan attempted one on a breakaway and missed completely. \nFollowing the game, Jordan attributed his age to being one of the main factors he was unable to complete the dunk.\n"I laugh at myself," Jordan said. "It was one those situations where you've got a wide-open dunk. I guess every athlete who loves to create loves that opportunity. It's been awhile since I was in the circumstance. (But) I did dunk one. It was fun."\nBut while Jordan was having fun missing dunks and McGrady was having fun creating new dunks, one player was not having as much fun.\nBryant, who earned the game's MVP honors, was booed at the beginning, middle and end of the game.\nThe Philadelphia native had 31 points in 30 minutes, but it was not enough to convince the disgruntled fans who have the 2001 NBA playoffs still fresh in their minds.\n"The Lakers got them last year in the Finals," teammate, Chris Webber of Sacramento said. "I told him to enjoy the boos, because that is a sign of respect. I would love the whole city to boo me because I knocked them out of the playoffs. Obviously, they feel he is the reason they did not get a championship."\nBut despite the booing, each of the participants reflected positively on the weekend.\n"It's a wonderful time to just get away," O'Neal said. "You've been playing basketball for so long, it's almost like you have blindness towards everything. You see the same guys all the time, the same city; this is good to break up the monotony. It's like a big party, and everyone is having a good time. It gives you a chance to rejuvenate"