New Orleans Gets By Without Tracy McGrady

The 2008 NBA All-Star Weekend in New Orleans is finished and New Orleans is still standing, despite prognostications last year after the Las Vegas debacle. The 2007 All-Star Weekend went down as a thug Club Med. The "thugs" scared the suits and it was capped off with NFL cornerback Pac Man Jones's involvement in strip club shooting that left a bouncer paralyzed and introduced "making it rain" to the vernacular.

Even some of the NBA ballers were worried about New Orleans hosting the All-Star Game. Houston's Tracy McGrady and Rafer Alston both verbalized their qualms.

"If I don't feel like it's going to be safe, if I'm on that team, I will think about not going," said McGrady as the Houston Rockets were preparing for tonight's match-up with the visiting Toronto Raptors.

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Alston said if he did make his first all-star team next season he would likely go, but likely would go alone.

First off, karma's a bitch isn't it McGrady? He didn't make this year's squad. I know he qualified his statement, but really he probably shouldn't have tempted fate. And, Alston, he has a better chance of being the U.S. President than he does making an NBA All-Star team.

By all accounts, though, the New Orleans All-Star game went down better in Chocolate City than Sin City. There weren't the claimed multitude of criminal elements or criminal acts and people seemed to enjoy themselves without fear.