Vegas buzzes over stars

LAS VEGAS – Even a city that spares no expense for a good time has never seen anything like this.

The NBA All-Star game today may be meaningless, and after three nights of parties might be sloppy. But try telling that to people paying top dollar for a chance to see it.

“This is the biggest event that ever hit Las Vegas,” said Gavin Maloof, whose family owns the Sacramento Kings and the Palms, where the players are staying. “No question about it, bigger than any fight. Let me tell you why. The tickets, they’re brokering the tickets 10 rows up, five rows up for $27,000 a ticket.

“There’s never been an event that I know of in the history of the world that goes for $27,000. I don’t care if it’s World Cup, I don’t care if it’s the Stones, Super Bowl. There’s never been an event that a broker has charged that kind of an amount for any ticket, not that I know of. It’s just incredible.”

Maloof has had a big hand in it. He said he and his brother, Joe, were talking about the idea of a neutral site All-Star game and pitched the thought of it being in their city to commissioner David Stern, who told them to bring it to Mayor Oscar Goodman on one condition: No betting on the game in the sports books. Being an exhibition that doesn’t get heavy action anyway, that was no problem.

“If you bet the NBA All-Star game, you might as well get a life,” Gavin Maloof said.

Besides, after all those parties – Maloof said his casino will host about a dozen, featuring everyone from Shaquille O’Neal to Dwyane Wade to Diddy – who can predict which players will have energy left to play well tonight?

“There ain’t going to be no sleep, I’ll tell you that,” Wade said. “There’s going to be a lot going on.”

The timing of this experiment couldn’t be better. After an occasionally rocky first half that featured headaches from the ball to the brawl, the NBA could use a few days away to blow off some steam.

Is there a better place for that than Sin City?

“I got married in Vegas a couple of summers ago and it was pretty crazy, so I can only imagine what it is going to be like with all the celebrities and an event this big,” said Washington’s Caron Butler, a first-time All-Star.

Goodman called the combination of NBA stars and his city’s entertainers “a perfect honeymoon.”