A look into the 2009 NBA All-Star Game

If you are a fan of basketball, then you must be excited about this coming weekend since the 2009 NBA All-Star Game is to be played on Sunday, February 15th at Phoenix, exactly at the US Airways Center Arena, which is the house for the Suns.

This is going to be the 58th NBA All-Star game in NBA history, and it is the 3rd time that Phoenix is hosting the event. Other cities who were contenders to host the All Star Game were Toronto, the home of the Raptors, Milwaukee, the home of Bucks and New York, the home of the Knicks.

Time to know the name of the coaches: the Western Conference will be coached by Phil Jackson, the head coach of the Lakers and the East will be commanded by Mike Brown, the current coach for the Cleveland Cavs.

The NBA All-Star Game is not just about basketball: it is also about marketing and TV, and TNT is the one with the rights to broadcast the game. According to David Levy, the president of Turner Sports and Sales, 90% of the advertising space for the game is gone, which is no surprise considering there will be players like LeBron James at the court of the US Airways Center Arena on Sunday.

There is no doubt that people is showing a lot of interest for the NBA lately as many interesting things are happening, with teams like the Lakers becoming stronger with an Andrew Bynum playing at his best level, and a Celtics team that is in the struggle for the second NBA championship ring in a row just to put an example. So, it is an obvious consequence that most basketball fans are booking Sunday to watch the 2009 NBA All-Star Game since we could say it’s the best the NBA has been in a while, and I include myself in such group of NBA betting fans.

NBA: Watch the game, be the player

It’s hard to imagine a follower of the NBA who doesn’t wish he could play well enough to wear a basketball jersey in a game.

That’s the reason why millions of dollars are expended every NBA season buying the authentic jerseys the players wear.

According to espn.com Kobe Bryant from Los Angeles Lakers, Kevin Garnett from the Boston Celtics, LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets, and Allen Iverson of the Detroit Pistons are the most popular jerseys in the NBA.

The five players were voted in as starters of next weekend’s NBA All Star Game, but where not the top vote getters.

Orlando Magic Dwight Howard received 3,150,181 votes even though his jersey is not one of the top sellers.

Despite this fact it’s more than clear that the best NBA players tend to sell more jerseys than the rest.

For example Bryant, James, and Paul seem as mid season candidates to get the MVP trophy at the end of the year.

So there’s not much coincidence in them being part of the top 5 of the best seller jerseys.
The player that breaks the mold is Allen Iverson.

The Pistons guard is averaging 18.0 points per contest and dishing out 5.2 assists, but despite this excellent numbers he is not considered as a front runner to the MVP award.

The fact that his team, the Detroit Pistons, is only four games above .500 (27-23) and currently holds the fifth position for the Eastern Conference playoffs makes Iverson’s performance good but not great.

Despite that people still buy his shirts, because in the end people like what he brings to the court: passion and effort.