While Kobe stole the show on Sunday night with an MVP-performance of 37 points and 15 rebounds, it was the Clippers’ Blake Griffin who everyone wanted to see during All-Star Weekend 2011 in Los Angeles, Calif. Fortunately, for LakersNation.Com’s Editor in Chief, Daniel Buerge and myself (his faithful assistant), American Express hooked us up with two exclusive box seat passes to All-Star Saturday Night, allowing us to see for ourselves, just how amazing Blake Griffin truly is. 
From the moment we escaped the downpour outside of STAPLES Center, the buzz about the night’s final event was insane. Sure, it was going to be funny to see “legends” take the court in the Shooting Stars competition; and the 3-point Shootout is always exciting in the final round. But, the slam dunk contest is what everyone wants to see. Even though the past couple of years have been called watered down, and have even drawn comparisons to WWE events, it’s still the event that everyone talks about. With Griffin – a budding superstar and arguably the most exciting, young player in the NBA right now – everyone (myself included) was eagerly awaiting to see what Griffin would put on for show in the league’s annual dunk-a-thon.
However, like anything exciting, we had to wait to the end of the night to see what Griffin had in store, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Thanks to American Express, we got to see players frantically fire up half-court bombs, Stephen Curry defy physical impossibilities and even better – watch two Celtics lose in STAPLES Center, in the same event!