When Sports Powerhouses Collide

Cuban, Stern And Jerry Make 2010 All-Star Announcement

Mike Fisher -- DB.com

  Sports powerhouses David Stern, Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban played “Can You Top This?’’ at Thursday’s 2010 NBA All-Star Game in DFW announcement.

  Jones: “For our fans, this has got to be the greatest NBA All-Star Game ever!’’

  Stern: “We’ll have the largest crowd at a basketball game in the history of the world!’’

  Cuban: “This is going to be the biggest event the country has ever seen!’’

  Cuban: “This is going to be the biggest event the country has ever seen!’’Despite the assortment of dignitaries present at the American Airlines Center’s Victory Plaza, no one else grabbed the microphone to claim that the 2010 All-Star Game slated for the Cowboys’ new stadium in Arlington would be bigger than Jesus, The Beatles or Joe The Plumber. The onstage star power said it all.

  Plans are for the game to make available 100,000 seats inside the stadium. That would shatter all previous records. The last football stadium to host the NBA All-Star Game was the Alamodome in San Antonio in front of 36,037 fans in 1996. The largest crowd ever to watch an NBA All-Star Game was in 1989 at the Astrodome in Houston in front of 44,735 fans.

  Dallas, which hosted its only previous NBA All-Star Game at Reunion Arena in 1986, will share the celebration and the venues with the assorted festivities with Fort Worth and, of course, Arlington.

  The sports figures and civil leaders spent the afternoon spreading the credit for the coup. Cowboys owner Jones praised Cuban for having the “passion to go to the edge, beyond the edge. … Mark Cuban is a great sports leader.’’

  “I always thought there were so many great Mavericks fans that there would never be a building to hold us all,’’ said Cuban, who has long used that reason for his reluctance to play host at an NBA-sized arena. “But thanks to Jerry, that’s changed. … There ain’t no party like a DFW party!’’

  DB.com will have much more to come on this story, including exclusive visits with Cuban, former Mavs owner Donald Carter, Cowboys VP Stephen Jones and Mavs legend Ro Blackman.

622pm oct 30 2008