With attendance hurt by today’s mandatory player’s union meeting (Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony), illness (Zach Randolph), and reasons unknown (O.J. Mayo, Tony Allen), Rudy Gay’s charity exhibition game at the Desoto Civic Center Tuesday night wasn’t quite as star-studded as planned. But it was still surreal to see one of the game’s two biggest stars, Lebron James, hooping it up in a half-full gym in Mississippi with the likes of Memphis natives and borderline NBA ballers Lester Hudson and Terrico White.
James led his Blue team to a 158-151 win over Gay’s White team, scoring 43 points — no box score for this one — on a series of power dunks and three-pointers. Like most games of this kind, it was essentially a collection of fun highlight plays breaking up minute-long stretches of torpor — lots of long threes, little defense, almost no fouls. James’ thunder dunk in traffic off his own backboard pass was the second most memorable play of the night. The best came from White, whose legs seem to be springs, when he caught an alley-oop pass in the middle of a mid-air 360 spin and hammered it home. Easily one of the best dunks I’ve ever seen in any game at any level. White might be the odds-on favorite for next year’s D League dunk title.
In addition to James and White, the blue team included Hudson, former Griz point guard Kyle Lowry, former University of Memphis Tiger Tyreke Evans, and long-retired local legend Penny Hardaway, who wasn’t moving well compared to his younger teammates but who knocked down several mid-range jumpers to the crowd’s delight.
