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| supraman |
 Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 1:54 am |
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| TheRoxRedGlare |
| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 9:12 am |
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Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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Location: Let The Good Times Roll!
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Actor Jet Li and the Rockets' Yao Ming work in the NBA's program to aid New Orleans.
DAVID DOW: NBA VIA GETTY IMAGES
Feb. 16, 2008, 11:12PM
New Orleans' plea: Bring it on
Residents say glitz helps restore hope that ailing Big Easy craves
By FRAN BLINEBURY
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
NEW ORLEANS — Huge purple banners wrap the Sheraton Hotel on Canal Street like it's a giant gift box, missing only a pretty bow. Police barricades establish a security perimeter, television lights create an aura of excitement and there is even a red carpet to welcome smiling royalty from the basketball hardwood and Hollywood.
Barely a mile away, beneath an overpass of Interstate 10, squats a filthy, crowded tent city of the displaced and dispossessed, grimacing against a cold wind, sleeping without blankets on thin sheets of cardboard.
The four-story visages of Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and Dwight Howard stare down from a display for the athletic shoe company Adidas and the promotional slogan asks: "What do you bring?"
From the bustling French Quarter to the busted Lower Ninth Ward, from blighted Gentilly to the blooming Garden District, from the trendy Warehouse District to troubled Treme, the answer is always the same: Hope.
"We want America, we want the world, to come back to New Orleans so that someday, maybe, the old New Orleans can come back to us," said Nathan Spears, 53, a taxi driver who conducts informal tours of the devastation.
It's been more than two years since Hurricane Katrina swept in, the levees broke, the streets flooded, more than 1,500 were killed and the iconoclast of American cities was brought to its knees.
Now the NBA's All-Star Weekend has descended like a glitzy, star-studded tornado to help New Orleans onto its feet.
"When it happened, I was watching TV in China," said Rockets center Yao Ming. "I could see that it was very bad here, all of those people staying in the big stadium. So many people lost a lot. They have to start all again. ... The people in this country need to help them."
It would seem to be an incongruous — if not uncomfortable — match, the conga line of stretch limousines depositing the millionaires in designer clothes and shiny jewelry onto streets where many have no toilet facilities and line up daily for food served from the backs of trucks from charities.
"No, we need all of the attention from all of the visitors that we can get," said Louie Congemi, 29, a musician and college student who waits tables at Pascale's Manale.
"There is no resentment from the locals," Congemi said. "So much of this town depends on tourism, and the money that people bring in will only help us put things back together."
Big events, bigger money
The city took a huge step forward last month when it played host to the Sugar Bowl and college football's BCS championship game; both were contested inside the refurbished Superdome, which had become a shelter for thousands who were washed out of their homes and which was a leaking symbol of the breakdown in governmental bureaucracy.
Those two marquee games brought $400 million to the city, according to estimates by the University of New Orleans.
The economic impact of the NBA All-Star Weekend is estimated at between $80 million and $90 million.
New Orleans is a city that has hosted nine Super Bowls, four men's NCAA Final Fours and three BCS football championship games since 1999.
"It's what we know, these big events and all of the parties that go with them," said Harold Songy, a ranger at Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. "You add in Mardi Gras and Jazzfest, and these big sports events give the people who stayed and the people who might be thinking about coming back a sense of normalcy.
"If a lot of these national events bring more tourists in, that's good too. ... I don't think you can get a grasp of the impact of Hurricane Katrina unless you see it firsthand."
Spears makes a left turn past a patch of weeds in the Upper Ninth Ward and stops his taxi in front of the remnants of a tiny, brown brick house where the roof has caved in.
"That was my home," he said. "I took over the note from my mother and was within a couple of years of paying it off. Now it's uninhabitable, and the government won't let any of us back in here to rebuild, even if we could afford to."
The address is 2911 Abundance St.
"Yeah," he said. "There's a lot of irony around here."
The Upper Ninth is filled with blocks and blocks of ruined houses, many showing the high-water marks on the outside and numerical codes painted by recovery teams to indicate the bodies found inside.
Occasionally, you'll hear the whir of an electric saw or the tapping of a hammer by someone trying to rebuild. Musician's Village — funded by Habitat For Humanity to provide affordable housing for musicians and artists — is several blocks of freshly painted, pastel-colored homes that serve as a reminder of how things once were and the possibilities for the future.
Washing away despair
Across the canal, below a levee break, is the Lower Ninth Ward, where the water wiped away wood-frame houses, leaving behind only cinderblock piers and concrete foundations. It's here that actor Brad Pitt and the Make It Right Foundation have a goal of building 150 houses.
"It's private citizens, whether they're celebrities or just people with money who care, that have done the most for the recovery," said Sandy Wennemann, a hotel concierge who has been living in a FEMA trailer for more than two years while trying to rebuild her home in Algiers.
"And big events like the NBA All-Star Game definitely help. The next step is to get companies to come in, develop malls, open grocery stores, all of the things you need for everyday life. We won't get more people moving back or moving in until that happens."
The city's pre-Katrina population of 462,000 has been reduced to an estimated 300,000, which raises the question of whether the city can support an NBA franchise.
The New Orleans Hornets returned this season after playing two years in Oklahoma City and rank next-to-last in the league in average attendance at 12,645 despite a 36-15 record that is the best in the Western Conference.
The team and the state of Louisiana announced a lease extension at New Orleans Arena through 2014, but it allows the Hornets to leave after next season if the attendance average does not rise to 14,735.
Still, it would cost Hornets majority owner George Shinn nearly $100 million in repayments to leave.
"I do not want to leave New Orleans," Shinn said. "I want to be a part of the rebuilding of this community."
The NBA awarded the All-Star Weekend to New Orleans as an assist and is holding "NBA Cares" events — rebuilding playgrounds, schools, community centers — all over town. But NBA commissioner David Stern knows the league's place.
"A good manufacturing plant with 3,000 jobs is much more important than any sports team," Stern said.
Yet the bling-bling of the arriving stars is seen as impetus to the clang-clang of shovels and rebirth.
"We want our city back, and that means we need our parties back," said Spears. "In New Orleans, it ain't just about life. It's a lifestyle."
fran.blinebury@chron.com |
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| TheRoxRedGlare |
| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 3:42 pm |
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Joined: 05 Nov 2006
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Location: Let The Good Times Roll!
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All-Star Notebook: Yao, Mutombo provide assist in New Orleans
Feb 15, 2008
NEW ORLEANS -- Between brush strokes, Yao Ming heard a familiar voice critiquing his work as he applied paint to a wall inside a New Orleans elementary school.
"Come on Yao, reach the ceiling," Dikembe Mutombo shouted with a chuckle.
Yao took the playful jab from his teammate in stride.
The Rockets stars, after all, didn't want to leave any blemishes in their efforts to help repair the city of New Orleans.
Yao, Mutombo and the rest of the world's biggest basketball stars took a moment away from the glitz and glamour of the NBA's All-Star weekend on Friday to help rebuild New Orleans from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The NBA's collection of stars joined 2,500 league volunteers at project sites throughout the city in the NBA Cares All-Star Day of Service.
In 2005, the city endured one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history as floods destoryed the region surrounding the city.
Yao and Mutombo were sent to Capdau Elementary School, where they helped repair the school yard and painted a lunch room. Yao planted sod with Chinese action star Jet Li on a once-baren playground.
"We have to do something for the people that live here," Yao said. "They have paid a lot for Katrina. It's time we gave back to them."
Yao watched the devastation unfold after he returned to China for the summer in 2005. He was shocked by the images.
During his ride to the project where he would be working, Yao could see that the city still needed more help.
"It looked very bad here," Yao said. "People were losing homes. People were staying in the big stadium. Right now, they return home, but some people lose a lot. I think they're trying to start again. I think people who live in this country need to help them."
Mutombo spent the afternoon painting with three of his children by his side. The Rockets center, who has been widely recognized for his humanitarian efforts in Africa, wanted his kids to see that there are also people in the United States who need assistance.
But as he painted inside the lunch room of the school, Mutombo wondered why the city's recovery has been slow.
"I don't know how to express myself," Mutombo said. "I knew that things were bad here. But I didn't know it was this bad. I got a chance to look around. Some people are still sleeping in the street. There are no houses with anyone living there. Two years later, this city is in the same condition that it was two years ago. My quesion now is why?"
Mutombo hopes that the NBA's presence in New Orleans this weekend will raise awareness that there is still work to be done in the city.
"By having all these NBA stars here, I think it will raise awareness for the situation here in the city of New Orleans," Mutombo said. "Maybe we did come here for the game. But being here is an opportunity to see the pain and suffering of the people here. I think this should be the main focus of the NBA."
Dream Finalist
Rockets great Hakeem Olajuwon was named one of 15 finalists for the Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday.
Olajuwon's chief rival from his NBA days doesn't think "The Dream" shouldn't have any trouble being elected into the Hall of Fame as a first-time nominee.
"He was so strong and well-balanced," former Spurs star David Robinson said. "I always had pride in myself as a good defensive player and Hakeem -- when he was on -- was really not stoppable. He had everything from that fadeaway, fall-away jump shot on the baseline to the hook shots in the paint. You could take one thing away, but you couldn't take everything away. During the playoffs in 1995, it was a level of frustration I hadn't really experienced before that."
Olajuwon guided the Rockets to back-to-back championships and carried the University of Houston to three straight Final Four appearances. The NBA's MVP in 1994 is the league's all-time leading shot blocker.
The Hall of Fame Class of 2008 will be announced on April 7.
Yao serves as commentator
Rockets center Yao Ming is lining up his next career after basketball.
The six-time All-Star served as a television analyst for China's national television network during the third quarter of Friday's T-Mobile Rookie Challenge and Youth Jam. |
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| TheRoxRedGlare |
| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 3:46 pm |
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Location: Let The Good Times Roll!
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Scola enjoys first experience in Rookie Challenge
Sophomores 136, Rookies 109
Damien Pierce
Rockets.com Staff Writer
NEW ORLEANS -- Before taking the floor in the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge on Friday night, Luis Scola had a feeling that his game wouldn't mesh well into an event that tends to transform into a slam dunk contest.
He was right.
The Rockets rookie had a relatively quiet night in the opening event of the NBA's All-Star weekend as he scored four points and collected three rebounds in the Sophomores' 136-109 victory over the Rookies at New Orleans Arena.
Cleveland guard Daniel Gibson, who had 33 points after netting an event-record 11 three-pointers, was named the game's MVP by pacing the Sophomores to the win with his hot shooting. Rudy Gay added 22 points for the Sophomores, while Seattle's Kevin Durant led the Rookies with 23 points in a game that didn't feature much defense.
Since he's not exactly known for dazzling dunks or his cross-over dribble, Scola didn't have high expectations for himself coming into the event. He ended up watching the game's more athletic players turn the event into three-point shooting performance that was sprinkled with dunks. But even with that being the case, the Rockets rookie enjoyed his experience in New Orleans.
"I like to be part of it," Scola said. "I wish the game would be a little bit different. The people have fun, but if we play a real game and really compete, I think it will be a better show. I like to play real games."
Scola would still like to play in the event -- real or not -- again next season.
The main reason? The Rockets forward didn't to get a chance to share the floor with Memphis' Juan Carlos Navarro.
Before the game, the Rockets rookie was hoping to play with Navarro since the two former stars of the Spanish League never had a chance to share the floor with one another in Europe. Unfortunately, the two rookies never had that chance on Friday night.
Navarro had 14 points in 19 minutes of action off the bench.
"I didn't play any minutes with him," said Scola, who started for the Rookies and played 16 minutes. "(Before the game, the Spanish media) kept asking me what the best thing of the weekend is and I kept saying that for once in my life, I'll be able to celebrate a Juan Carlos basket. I have played against him so many times and suffered against him so many times. But now that I have a chance to play with him, I didn't play a minute with him." |
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| pryuen |
| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 4:24 pm |
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Joined: 25 Feb 2003
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Location: Hong Kong
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So right after the NBA All Stars Saturday activities, David Stern hosted a NBA All Stars China Night/cocktail......and a lot of China and NBA-related personalities were there including David Stern, Tim Chen, CEO, NBA China, Mark Fischer Senior Vice President, NBA China, Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian, Deke Mutombo, Luis Scola, Dwight Howard, Jet Li, Georghe Muresan, Detlef Schrempf..........
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| supraman |
| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 7:58 pm |
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Joined: 12 Dec 2003
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| supraman |
| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 8:14 pm |
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Joined: 12 Dec 2003
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Pryuen can you post a few more photos of the cocktail party thrown by David Stern particular the ones with Dwight Howard and Yi JianLian in them, Thank You. |
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| pryuen |
| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 10:08 pm |
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Joined: 25 Feb 2003
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Location: Hong Kong
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| Rick_Hunter |
| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:09 pm |
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Joined: 07 Nov 2003
Posts: 933
Location: Australia
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| is it just me, or is yao basically getting no playing time at all? just like the first 6-7min of 1st and 3rd quarters, then benched. Now i can understand if he wasn't a starter, but as a starter, won't fans want to watch your favourite player that you voted vigorously on the court for a bit more than 13min for the whole game???? not happy. |
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| Tang Man |
| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:23 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2007
Posts: 7505
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Rick_Hunter wrote: is it just me, or is yao basically getting no playing time at all? just like the first 6-7min of 1st and 3rd quarters, then benched. Now i can understand if he wasn't a starter, but as a starter, won't fans want to watch your favourite player that you voted vigorously on the court for a bit more than 13min for the whole game???? not happy.
The fans may vote for the starters but its the coach who decides on PT. It was for this very reason why I didn't want Yi to get voted to start in this year's ASG. He would've set the record for least minutes played in an ASG.
However earlier this season I got a whole bunch of posters who got on my back because they believe they not only have the power to determine who starts but how many minutes the player plays. Well dream on bro! |
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