This year’s NBA All-Star Weekend officially kicked off Friday night with the NBA All-Star Celebrity game, which featured Milwaukee Bucks co-majority owner Marc Lasry, as well as Bucks legend and Hall of Famer Ray Allen.
The 2019 NBA All-Star Weekend kicked off in style Friday night with the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game taking place at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte.
In the midst of their best season in over three decades, the Milwaukee Bucks are well represented in the Queen City with Giannis Antetokounmpo captaining an All-Star squad that includes Khris Middleton, who’s making his first All-Star appearance this year. Antetokounmpo’s squad will be coached by friendly faces in Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer and his staff, thanks to the Bucks holding the best record in the East (and the league as a whole).
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But that’s not all for the Bucks’ large contingent of representatives as, for the fourth straight year, Bucks co-majority owner Marc Lasry took part in last night’s Celebrity game.
Playing for the away team, Lasry’s squad was certainly loaded with basketball talent, headlined by the likes of Hall of Famer Ray Allen, rapper and last year’s All-Star Celebrity Game MVP Quavo of Migos fame, and WNBA player Stephanie Dolson of the Chicago Sky.
The Moroccan Freak had to wait to make his return to the court as he came off the bench. Upon entering the game midway through the first quarter, Lasry promptly launched a long two that was stuffed by comedian star J.B. Smoove, which unwillingly created Lasry’s own Curb Your Enthusiasm moment.
Despite subsequent attempts, including a nice baseline fake that didn’t find the bottom of the net on the layup attempt, Lasry’s offense wasn’t quite firing on all cylinders for the night.
But to his credit, the 59-year-old adjusted on the fly and took on a more energizer role, especially on the defensive end. Lasry ended up snaring down two defensive rebounds and had active hands to force two steals, as well as using some verticality to alter a shot attempt by WNBA superstar A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces.
That gave Lasry some bonus points in the eyes of his head coach, WNBA legend Sue Bird, and it resulted in Lasry seeing the floor during his team’s late fourth quarter comeback, boosting his plus-minus in the process. In the end, Lasry finished with zero points on three attempts from the field, two rebounds, two steals, one turnover and was a +9 in nearly 16-and-a-half minutes of action.
Of course, Lasry wasn’t the only one with Bucks ties as Allen is still thought highly of for his seven and a half years of service in Milwaukee from 1996-2003.
While he may have hung up his kicks by now and has his name enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame, the 43-year-old looked every bit the player Bucks and NBA fans remembered as he was often seen lighting it up from the Ruffles four-point line.
Allen and Quavo were instrumental in the away team mounting their rally and put the home team back on their heels in the waning moments of the night. But it ultimately came up short as the home team prevailed to win 82-80, as social media influencer Famous Los ended up taking MVP honors for his efficient 22-point performance.
As for Allen, the 18-year veteran posted 24 points on 11-of-21 shooting from the field, nine rebounds, five assists, two turnovers, and one steal in close to 28 minutes of run.
With the loss, that now brings Lasry’s Celebrity game record down to 1-3. While it’s too early to project whether Lasry will make his fifth straight appearance during next year’s All-Star weekend in Chicago at the ripe age of 60 years old, it certainly would be great to see him continue the tradition at Fiserv South.