Most of the All Stars arrived fashionably late to the Rookie Challenge game last night. In fact there weren’t a lot of people in attendance who weren’t kids. The entire lower bowl was filled with local kids all in matching pink jerseys. Still, it was kind of cool watching Daniel Gibson nail eleven 3’s on his way to being named MVP of the game. I hate to say it, but Peja’s got his work cut out for him. Kid was hot.

Here are some of the spectators. The zoom on my camera isn’t that great, and we were up top, so you will notice that I have neatly labeled the people in the front row. Because otherwise you probably wouldn’t be able to figure it out.

I’d skip right on over to here for Hornets.com coverage of the All Star Weekend, which is right now featuring All Star Diaries from David West and Peja Stojakovic (man, despite this blog’s families having originated in Croatia and Poland, that one still gives me pause… and believe me when I say, we’ve got enough Eastern European extraneous letters around this here apartment to float alphabet soup).

I thought this article was going to be the same old crap, but it ends on an up note and for that I respect them.

T.P. Watchdog Effort: Seriously respectable sports section today. CP3’s picture was in it no less than four times. I think only three pages didn’t have Hornets content. Of course, much of it was All Star content, but they did a good job with the Hornets-oriented All Star articles. T.P. Watchdog… keeping the media responsible & buzz-friendly since 2007.

Went to Hornets night at the Jam Session on Wednesday. If I had kids or was the kind of person who doesn’t mind waiting in lines to participate in contests and activities (I’m not), it would have been more fun. But the store rocked. Picked up two T-shirts, the mug (with the crawfish All Star logo!), and the bead (indecent to live in New Orleans and pay for a bead, let alone $8 for a bead, but come on… All Star bead!) I was disappointed you couldn’t buy a West West jersey in small sizes. In fact, they should have had an altogether better selection of stuff for the Hornets all stars. That’s what the people were there for. Give the people what they want!

All Star coverage on ESPN right now is mildly hilarious. CP3 calling Deion Sanders old, a chef from Galatoire’s cooking stuff up on the spot, and Amare Stoudamire is currently getting his tarot cards read. You should turn it on.

This blog has tickets to the Rookie Game, the Skills Competition, and the All Star Game on Sunday night. So watch for updates on famous people sightings! (But don’t get your hopes up. I am notoriously bad at spotting famous people. I once poured water for Peyton Manning without looking up under the baseball cap, no joke.)

Everyone knew Chris Paul was going to be named to the All Star reserves. But Tyson Chandler and David West were sort of on the bubble in the very talented Western Conference. And Byron Scott was one win away (or one Dallas loss) from coaching the game.

Yesterday this all played out nicely, as CP3 and D-West were named to the All Star team. Congratulations to both of them, especially West, who very quietly outplays other teams on a nightly basis and just does what has to be done. It’s like, “How many ‘Most Underrated Player’ lists can the man make before he ceases to be underrated and gets rated already?”

Before the end of the night, Coach Scott’s All Star appearance was also clinched, thanks to a little help from our friends… er… rivals. Dallas’ loss to Boston in the final seconds ensured that, with us holding the tiebreaker, they couldn’t catch us for the best or second-best record in the West. (Second best because Phoenix doesn’t count– their coach was in the All Star game last year so he can’t do it again.) Speaking of which, three hours later we got a little more help from the Spurs coming back to beat Phoenix, which once again flip flops us back on top of Phoenix percentage-wise.

There appear to be FREE Hornets tickets available! Click here!

Also, have you voted for the Hornets All Stars today? Only 8 days left.

The Saints have Who Dat? I think Hornets fans need a catch phrase. Maybe even a secret one, so if people see it around town, they’ll be like, “Huh? What’s that? Clearly it must be some super amazingly cool thing that I am missing out on.” I don’t know what it is yet. But when I find it, I’m thinking of putting it on stickers and flyers and going viral with it. That’s what the Hornets need: viral grassroots marketing.