We the North: The 1st NBA All-Star Game Outside the US

Kobe Bryant's final All-Star Game. #HeDidTheOldManShirtTuckLikeMJ

NBA All-Star Weekend 2016

Toronto, Canada

Feb 11-15, 2016

Off to Toronto for the 2016 NBA All-Star Game. For the first time in its 65-year history, the ASG was held outside of the US. BTW, if you have the choice - fly into Billy Bishop (YTZ), not Pearson (YYZ). Pearson has a knack for making you spend as much time as possible at the airport. That's not a good knack.

Canada, you're so cute. 

Oysters at Pearl Diver. A strong recommendation.

#ImAnIdiot 

Adidas VIP Suite. 

Crew. *James Harden not included. 

Sweet or suite?

Dinner at Byblos. Big on Yelp and locals - it was aight.

My GF is somewhere underneath this jacket. The temps were below 0 at this point. #SheWasntHappy 

This club was called The Nest. Apparently Amber Rose and Demarcus Cousins were here, but honestly - who really knows? #OrCares

After a distinguished interview with Yao Ming about the NBA's growth in China, his Hall of Fame finalist announcement, and Morgan Freeman's voice, Yao ripped my Chinese. Thanks bruh.

Steph gonna Steph... except he lost to teammate Klay Thompson in the 3-point Contest.

The slam dunk contest was arguably the greatest of all-time. Athletically-speaking it's a no-brainer, but the lack of star power is the only thing that holds it back. But Orlando's Aaron Gordon and Minnesota's Zach LaVine were showing out. This is Gordon doing crazy ish with the mascot, Stuff the Magic Dragon. #BestNBAMascotName

Aaron Gordon's underneath both legs dunk was dumbfounding. It left viewers stunned like Vince Carter's elbow-hanging dunk in 2000. It was just something we hadn't seen before. Remarkable and the best dunk of the night on a night of amazing dunks. I have video of this that I originally posted here, but the quality was as lousy as Will Barton's dunks, so I deleted it here.  You see, Will Barton was also in the dunk contest lineup. #HeDidntBelong #HeWasntReady

That said, Zach LaVine did things that no human should be able to do. You can't do windmill dunks from the free throw line. You just can't. 

Dude. 

One of my producers, John Jervay, said it best - Zach LaVine has ruined the free throw line dunk. It is no longer impressive. LaVine jumped from the free throw line and stuck the ball between his legs. Go home, Zach, you're dunk skills are stupid drunk. Zach won (deservedly so), but I feel like it should've gone to Gordon. The two combined for 6 straight perfect 50 dunks. But not all 50s are equal, and Gordon's creativity topped LaVine's otherworldly athleticism.

It was around -29 with the wind chill after the dunk contest. Fahrenheit. Go home weather, you're stupid drunk, too.

CN Tower after dark. 

And we're going to the top of CN!

But first a quick local brew at the hotel. This was a hefe. Solid.

Toronto from 1151-feet. Looks like Los Angeles. HA!

Lion Dance meet NBA All-Star weekend.

I should've filtered this pic!

More.

This dude was the reason I was at the party. Y'all might recognize Brian Yang because he knows everyone ever. He's a bit of a Renaissance man, but he's an actor on "Hawaii Five-O" as well as a producer on the Jeremy Lin doc, "Linsanity."

Your only 65th NBA ASG highlight. #TheGameWasntGood

Squash at some hip Thai restaurant, Khao San Road. This also looks like an antler sculpture in the town of Jackson, WY. #LittleKnownFacts

So we had a $24 voucher for food, but I had already eaten dinner. Of course, I couldn't let the voucher go to waste, so I started ordering ridiculous desserts - like these funnel cake fries with soft serve ice cream and Oreo topping! WTF! Plus a gigantic M&M cookie. Sadly, I didn't eat all of it and much of it was wasted. #NotProud #ButDemFunnelFriesWereLegit

In an odd decision, the NBA booked Sting to do the halftime show. Yeah - Sting... of The Police. Now I dig The Police - didn't really care too much for his solo work - but he did not resonate with most of the young fans, who were wondering why the old WCW wrestler looked so different without his makeup.

De Do Do Do De Da Da Da... is all I want to say to you.

LINKS TO SOME RIDIC ESPN STORIES WE SHOT OUT THERE:

Can NBA All-Stars name 5 Canadians: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=14771437

Who Would You Rather Dunk On? http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=14777169

Final Seconds, Who Should Shoot the Ball - You or Steph Curry? http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=14767907

Toronto: City of Silent Second T's

#TBTFiles
Toronto

Aug. 2011

I was in Detroit to attend the Asian American Journalist Association (AAJA) convention, and at the time I booked my ticket, I wasn't fully employed and quasi-occasionally freelancing for ESPN.com's Page 2, but as luck would have it, by conference time, I had landed a full-time freelance gig in San Diego. Because the economy was in the pooper at the time, I was awarded a fellowship to attend the conference for free, so I immediately put the money I was saving into more travel! Enter Toronto, a city I'd never visited and heard great things about, and less than four hours away from Detroit.

Fun fact: Canadians don't pronounce the second "T" in Toronto. Wheee! You wacky Canadians!

The border. This is not how it was presented in "The Untouchables." 

What is this, Times Square?! Actually, almost everybody from the state would describe Toronto as a clean New York.

Quick detour to Dublin apparently. 

The famous St. Lawrence Market, Toronto's first and largest marketplace. I find it interesting to note that according to toronto.com - the market is open every day except Sunday and Monday. That's almost 30% of the frickin' week! Can you get away with that? You're better than that, Canada.

The Distillery historic district. Some say it's a tourist area. Whatever, it's f'n rad! It's a short walk away from downtown Toronto. The area, established in 1832, was formerly known as the Gooderham & Worts Whiskey Distillery. They revamped the whole place in 2003, but it totally has an old-time feel. Cobblestones! 

Architects gone wild. That's actually a boob. #ItsNot

It's been way too long since I've been here, but I took a picture of it because it had some awesome food. Again, don't know what it is anymore. Cool story, bro.

The Hockey Hall of Fame.

I can confirm the sign says "Hockey" and not a zoomed-in pic of "Shockey" - a tribute to the former Saints and Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey.

The guy who inspired me to get '93 Hockey on my computer. My hockey knowledge was never so great. Tomas Sandstrom and Kelly Hrudey all-day long! 

My boy Ojima has zero slap shot skills.

I, on the other hand, have clearly embarrassed that virtual goalie. Who is that, John Vanbiesbrouck?

I was concerned this would be difficult, but they shoot the pucks out of this thing at like 5 mph (and that's like the superstar setting). I made me feel like Goldberg the goalie from the Mighty Ducks.

There are plenty of interactive things to do at the Hockey Hall, which is way better than the basketball HOF. Maybe I'll post those pics in a future blog. It would be filled with pics of me taking disappointed selfies.

Ahhhh yes. The finest trophy in all of sports, Lord Stanley's Cup.

So we went to the CN Tower to do the edge-walk, shown below, but it cost almost $200 and decided against it. The CN Tower is 147 floors. Now most of you know this is exactly the type of adrenaline-type attraction that I normally pony up for, but at this time I was unemployed (aside from random freelance gigs) for nearly 7 months! Brother had no cash left! 

This is a sample of what the CN Tower walk was like. I guarantee if I were up there, I would walk off the edge or try to jump off, because I'm so securely harnessed. That's the type of thrill I love - when I can pull some crazy shit and not worry about dying! Dying sucks.

Lot of Gretzky in Toronto.

The legendary improv club, the Second City - which helped launch careers of Bill Murray, John Candy, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, etc, etc, etc.

We ate and drank here with a local pal. It was good. That's all I got.

The CN Tower at night.

Pravda, vodka house. This place was sick. Had this crazy old school Russian decor. It's where I stereotypically imagine KGB agents and spies cavorted when discussing how to foil James Bond.

We opted to do a little tasting. We may or may not have ordered from a Russian tasting menu, as well. I don't remember. That's the problem with these TBT blogs!

We didn't taste all of these.

Post-tasting vision. Out.