Absence of "Stars" Creates Record Crowd at NBA All-Star Weekend

I honestly thought the NBA All-Star weekend was going down the drain with the absence of Kobe Bryant, controversially the best basketball player in the league. That was not the case, however; a record crowd filed into Cowboy Stadium. Why was there a record crowd?

There were 108,713 fans in Cowboy Stadium. The previous record for attendance at a basketball game was 78,129 when Kentucky and Michigan State played each other at Ford Field in Detroit.

Dwayne Wade led the game 28 points and 11 assists, the only double-double in points-assists in the game. Dwight Howard knocked down a three early in the game, asking Coach Stan Van Gundy for more.

"That's one... I got three more." Laughs came from the bench, but Dwight was looking serious.

Mark Cuban and Jerry Jones expected 90,000 plus fans to attend the game, but it was a Valentine's Day surprise for the two of them. Jones talked about Cuban during the game on the intercom:

"He's the engine and he's the man who made this happen. He's always said if he couldn't get his fans in, he didn't want it, but he made it happen. He's a tremendous influence on me, and when he said we can do this, I immediately brought in."

This was the first All-Star Game where neither Kobe or Shaq have participated in since 1997. Bryant was a rookie and didn't make the team, and Shaq was having injury issues.

Bryant didn't seem to care whether or not he could play, he was just content with attending the program. In the celebrities game, stars from all over the world came including music's Usher and Ludicris. He was caught with wife and speaking with some of those musical athletes.

It was 2010, Cowboy Stadium, the center of the world. And it didn't disappoint.