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My First All-Star Experience

by Becky Hammon
My first All-Star appearance was in 2003. I was coming in off the bench for New York at that point and I was having a great season before I blew out my knee. The coaches voted me in and put me on the team and that was a big honor to be selected.

It was very special, the game that year was at Madison Square Garden and the fans were awesome. It was just really cool and it meant a lot to me that the coaches put me on the team knowing I couldn’t play.

We had so many elite players playing in the game. We had Sheryl Swoopes in her prime, Lisa Leslie, Tina Thompson, Teresa Weatherspoon, Dawn Staley was there, there was just so many great players that I grew up watching and admiring. It was a “pinch me, is this real” kind of moment and it was just awesome.

The first All-Star game that a player is involved in, obviously you’ll never forget it, but especially with the circumstances that I was selected I definitely won’t.

I actually went to the first ever All-Star Game and Whitney Houston sang the National Anthem. It was just so cool because I was a big fan of hers. Over the years there have been some really cool moments and we just want to make it really special and exciting for the fans this year in San Antonio.

But the All-Star game is just about fun and the talent level is just at such a high level you see more parity as a whole. It’s always a battle when it’s East versus West. I’ll pick the West though.