NBA All-Star Game in Vegas in 2007?

The league has more or less said that Vegas will host the (probably) 2007 All-Star Game. Now at what point do they place a team here? Could the Hornets (who are showing every day that moving to New Awlins was a dumbass move) head out there first? Or maybe Donald Sterling (Clippers owner) finally wake up after 20 years and realize that LA will always follow the Lakers and that he needs to move the team elsewhere? I'm sure the city could finance a new arena on the Strip easily and build it quicker vs. trying to get an MLB Ballpark built. I'm sure a team could play at the Thomas & Mack Center (UNLV) or MGM Grand Arena for the short term until a new arena got built.

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LAS VEGAS -- What happens in the Vegas Summer League doesn't have to stay here.

Does it?

Let's dribble around before someone tells us differently.

• It took less than a week for this 16-team extravaganza to establish a summer-league record for NBA owners watching in the stands.



Gavin Maloof, Vegas supporter.
Sacramento's Joe and Gavin Maloof are virtual Vegas residents, so their presence was expected.

Scratching the Maloofs from consideration, the list is still extensive and impressive: Portland's Paul Allen, New York's James Dolan, Dallas' Mark Cuban, Cleveland's Dan Gilbert and Denver's Stan Kroenke. We've also seen the bashed brothers who should be trying to move their teams here: New Orleans' George Shinn and Donald Sterling of the L.A. Clippers. Two prominent ownership partners -- Boston's Stephen Pagliuca and Phoenix's Dick Heckman -- have also been spotted.

What does it all mean?

To a giddy Gavin Maloof, it's more proof his peers want to make this city a full-fledged NBA outpost by putting a team here someday soon.

"The summer league should always be here, over and out," Maloof said. "I think the NBA All-Star Game should be here every year, but we're just happy if we get the first one.

"I don't think there would be much opposition from NBA owners to have a team here in Vegas. I think it's a question of whether the casino owners would make the commitment to take the sport off the book. We took the NBA off the [sports] book at the Palms and it didn't hurt our business."

It's only a matter of time, people. The 2007 All-Star Game is all but officially Vegas-bound, and Maloof -- though quite aware of commissioner David Stern's reluctance to sanction an NBA franchise in a city that allows NBA betting -- predicts that the success of that event "will change all the negative attitudes about having a team here."

Chances are they won't change so drastically that the not-exactly-glitzy Shinn or the L.A.-obsessed Sterling would be willing to relocate to the Strip. And Maloof, insisting "we'll never take our fans for granted," reiterated for the umpteenth time that "it won't be the Kings." But I'm betting on an existing NBA franchise's relocating to Vegas before we see new ones in Europe.

 

While Vegas brings in a shitload of tourism, are there really enough people that live there to support a team?

 

the area has nearly 2 million people

 

Damn... I never realized that many people lived out there.

 

but do hookers and strippers care about the NBA...just kidding

CSI the show is based on the Vegas crime lab because is the largest/busiest in the country

the NBA players would probably love it. I dont think they have state tax ala Florida , Texas..Baron Davis and Gary Payton live there in off season

 

The cheerleaders should be topless.

 

Vegas is strange, cause immediately off the strip, its actually a pretty conservative town. I dont think the NBA would work. I mean, you cant have 40 celebs on the front row, and empty stands in the background.

Then again, if the NBA can thrive in UTAH, then anythings possible.

 

Vegas would absolutely be able to support a team. If I was Bob Johnson, I'd have put a team there instead of here.

Vegas is just bad ass. They should build a big assed dome and have every super bowl, All-Star Game, and Final Four for the rest of history. There is not another city that could handle these things better than Vegas.

 

and celine dion can fuckin sing o canada

 

Why would the stands be empty, the market is twice the size of Charlottes?