One of my favorite days of each year is when the NBA unveils its lineup of celebrities for the annual All-Star Celebrity Game. The 2016 edition, scheduled for February 12, is no exception. With All-Star Weekend heading to Toronto, the league gave a Canadian flair to the rosters. This has resulted in the single most important development in recent Celebrity Game history, at least since Arne Duncan became the first active member of the Presidential cabinet to participate in an NBA All-Star event back in 2012.
The 2016 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game rosters are loaded
Team Drake has Win Butler and Jose Bautista. But Kevin Hart’s squad has an actual NBA franchise owner.
Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
Win Butler of the Arcade Fire is going to play.
Butler, the indie rock icon, is a known basketball fiend and supposedly a sharp player. He’ll play for the team coached by former teen actor and current Raptors employee Aubrey Graham, anti-war activist Steve Nash and bat-flipping enthusiast Jose Bautista. Joining Butler on the team are Tracy McGrady, Rick Fox, WNBA star Natalie Achonwa, and the dudes from HGTV’s hit house-flipper show The Property Brothers. (I’m real disappointed the NBA couldn’t manage to bring Hilary and David from the original Love It or List It back into our lives.)
The other team will be coached by eternal Celebrity Game ne’er-do-well Kevin Hart, who is short. Team Hart will feature Chauncey Billups, Hakeem from Empire, Michael Jordan (oh sorry, Michael B. Jordan), actor Anthony Anderson, Muggsy Bogues, Elena Della Donne (the best player in this game, and it’s not close, no offense to Chauncey, T-Mac or the Property Brother with the beard), sneaker enthusiast Jason Sudeikis, and -- in a stunning development -- Milwaukee Bucks franchise owner Marc Lasry.
That’s right: Lasry has achieved something all NBA franchise owners dream about: playing basketball for Kevin Hart.
Lasry is actually high on the list of NBA franchise owners will a shot at being not-embarrassing in the Celebrity Game, trailing the actual Michael Jordan and tall human Mikhail Prokhorov. We’ll see if Jason Kidd teaches Lasry any dirty tricks for the game. (Who are we kidding? Of course he will.)
You might notice the lack of a certain President on the roster. Some Celebrity Game aficionados held out hope President Obama would more fully embrace his YOLO attitude of the final year of his tenure and play in the game. It was not meant to be. But there is always 2017. As such, I have written a We The People petition to lobby the President to play in the 2017 Celebrity Game, which takes place a month after he is scheduled to leave office. Please sign and share it. We need this.
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