With NBA All-Star weekend 2018 officially underway, we recap this year’s NBA All-Star Celebrity game, which featured Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry for the third straight year.
As if you weren’t already aware of it by now, NBA All-Star weekend 2018 is officially in full force.
For the second straight year, all fans of the Milwaukee Bucks are ramping up their excitement with superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo slated to take the big stage once again in this year’s NBA All-Star Game, which tips off at 7 PM central time in the Staples Center on Sunday night.
However, Antetokounmpo wasn’t the only person representing the Bucks for the league’s biggest midseason event of the year as co-owner Marc Lasry took part in his third straight NBA All-Star Celebrity game Friday night, with this year’s edition being represented by Ruffles.
Lasry had big expectations to live up to following his very solid performance last year in New Orleans as his nine points played an integral part in his squad, Team East, crushing Team West 88-58 on the opening of last year’s All-Star weekend.
With this year’s event as star studded as ever and featuring former NBA players as well as stars from the WNBA, it was curious to see what kind of role Lasry would play under Team Lakers coach, ESPN’s Rachel Nichols.
As he has the last couple of years, Lasry came off the bench and got his first run for the game midway through the first quarter. But it was slow going for the Moroccan Freak throughout the quarter and the first half as whole, though we did see some brief glimpses of him running the point or at least initiating the team’s offense.
Lasry running point. #RufflesCelebGame pic.twitter.com/Lg9woSQ6oC
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) February 17, 2018
While the third quarter didn’t feature any sighting of him, Lasry made sure to go out on a high note when he checked back into the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter as he quickly knocked down his only shot of the night, a mid-range jumper, and went 1-of-2 in his lone trip to the free throw line.
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All in all, the Moroccan-born Lasry finished with three points on 1-of-4 shooting from the field (0-for-1 from three), three fouls and two rebounds in nine minutes of play in Team Lakers’ 75-66 loss to Team Clippers.
With the loss this year, that brings Lasry’s All-Star Celebrity game record to 1-2 now.
It remains to be seen whether Lasry’s performance lived up to the goal he set before the game as he relayed to Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
"“I think really all you want to do is you don’t want to embarrass yourself,” Lasry said. “I wish it was more complicated than that. You want to make sure when you shoot they’re going in. My goal this time is to try to get double figures, so we’ll see if that happens."
Of course, Lasry played a small part in the night’s festivities, which was headlined by the likes of Justin Bieber, Eric Bishop, Tracy McGrady, Paul Pierce, Candace Parker and many more.
This year’s Most Valuable Player honors went to Quavo of the rap trio Migos, who certainly lived up to the hype of his mid-week inclusion as he scored 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field, also racking up five rebounds and three assists in his 36 minutes of action.
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Even with only getting a limited shine compared to years past, Lasry certainly didn’t ruffle (cough) any feathers and I’m sure Bucks fans will tune in to what he’ll have up his sleeve next, should he continue the tradition in future editions.