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ALL STAR GAME FEBRUARY 7 - 9
By Steve Pate |

First time Norm Sonju ever heard the word “sesquicentennial,” it sounded like something in a tongue-twister. Like, She sells sesquicentennial shells down by the seashore.

As he recalls: “I had no idea what the word meant.”

Once he found out-and, considering his inquisitive mind, it didn’t take long-Sonju began rolling the Texas Sesquicentennial around in his brain.

Before he could even pronounce the word, much less spell it, Sonju was linking Texas’ Sesquicentennial celebration with the NBA All-Star Game. From the first time he had heard of a sesquicentennial, Sonju knew he wanted the National Basketball Association’s elite to visit, and accept, Dallas.

Sonju, of course, is to the Mavericks what da Vinci is to art. He painted the original picture. Quite possibly, only he understands its flaws and only he appreciates its greatest beauty. Sonju wasn’t just the general manager of the NBA’s newest franchise that day in 1980, he more importantly masterminded the early politicking that soon created a marriage between the NBA and the city of Dallas, Texas.

That relationship, in such short time, has proved to be one of the most romantic, as well as one of the most important, for the NBA in the past 10 years. If just one-half of the NBA franchises were as healthy as the Mavericks entering this season, pro basketball would have reached its advertised dream of being The Sport of the 1980’s.

It might make it yet, and Dallas might be a reason. No pro sport – not football, not baseball, boxing, ice hockey or auto racing-matches basketball for its ballet, for its poetry in motion. Pro basketball. at its highest level, is a dance to be appreciated by Nureyev or Barishnikov.

Along with the hectic schedule and the 6 a.m. wakeup calls comes the ability to soar through the air switch angles and effortlessly swish the 10-footer.

During those early Maverick days in the year 1980, Sonju ate at a lot of luncheons and banquets. If he wasn’t courting somebody, somebody was courting him. Having lived primarily in Illinois and upstate New York, he had little first-hand knowledge of Texas, very little understanding of the state’s history. But Sonju knew of Dallas’ future. He knew where the city was headed, he could foresee the growth. Sonju was among the first to realize the mechanical crane was replacing the mockingbird as Texas’ state bird.

At one of those luncheons in 1980, Sonju sat next to Chris Semos, a member of the Dallas County commissioner’s court and, at the time, the chairman of the Texas Sesquicentennial Committee, which was already preparing for the state’s 150th birthday in 1986.

What was that, asked Sonju? “Sesquicentennial,” replied Semos. “Texas’ 150th birthday, it’s coming in 1986.”

Sonju was sitting down when he heard the news, when he first got the flash, when strange visions began bouncing around in that rather active brain of his.

Back in 1980, “sesquicentennial’ was not exactly a household word in Texas neighborhoods. Mention of the upcoming sesquicentennial was likely to be met with all the eagerness of a yawn. But Sonju looked at it from a different angle. What a perfect time, he thought to himself, to have the NBA All-Star game in Dallas.

Damned if it didn’t happen. In fact, it’s happening this month. The NBA’s 36th Annual All-Star Classic will include a weekend of ambitious entertainment Feb. 7-9, compliments of the NBA and its 23rd franchise, the Dallas Mavericks.

This may be the most extravagant weekend in the history of the affair. Only in the past half-dozen years has the event bloomed into a true showcase for the league.

“I feel certain the NBA would have let us host the All-Star Game two or three years earlier if we had wanted,” Sonju says. “But, I felt it fit in perfectly with the Sesquicentennial.

“We actually began planning for the event four years ago when I started sending people to other NBA All-Star Games so that they could prepare us for this one. I took the manager of Dallas’ Hyatt Regency Hotel to three All-Star cities, as well as members of my staff, and we studied what made the other ones work so well.”

Rick Welts, the NBA’s vice-president of marketing and public relations, has done most of the planning for the weekend in Dallas. In fact, he has already begun preparations for next year’s game in Seattle’s Kingdome. Sonju insists the weekend’s schedule of festivities is staged by the NBA, that it is not a Maverick event (’All we are is servants, helping to make it happen,” he says). But, Welts has a different perspective.

“This is a nice opportunity as a league for us to show off a franchise that has been 100 percent successful from a financial standpoint, as well as successful on the court,” Welts says. “The Mavericks’ staff has worked hard with us, and their constructive criticism and suggestions have been taken on almost every turn. We’re looking forward to a great weekend.”

There’s only been one glaring drawback. Reunion Arena seats 17,007, and at least twice that many are needed for both Saturday and Sunday. When the NBA first began considering Dallas as a host city, no one dreamed the Mavericks would be overwhelmed by 14,000 season ticket holders in 1985. The Mavericks cannot even accommodate all of those season ticket holders, much less the other multitudes of basketball fans in this area. To start with, the NBA takes 6,000 tickets.

“What they did at Indianapolis’ Hoos-ier Dome last year was sensational,” Sonju says. “They had a parade, they had Mary Lou Retton, and they had 40,000 people watching. We can’t do that because our arena just isn’t that big. It’s a shame. We wish everyone could get in. We know we’ll be criticized; but, this event is good for the league, and sometimes you’ve got to put the league first.”

Sonju does admit, “It’s going to be an exciting weekend.”

Here’s a sampling of the events:

THE WELCOMING PARTY (Friday, Feb. 7) – Imagine live horses inside the Hyatt Regency.

The NBA’s All-Star contingent-including league executives, staff, guests, celebrities, CBS television and the media-needed 625 rooms two years ago in Denver. Last February in Indianapolis, 880 rooms were required. This time, 1,300 rooms have been set aside. Media credentials alone have vaulted from 510 a year ago to a cut-off point of 600 this season.

All NBA members and guests will be welcomed to town by a Friday night party at the Hyatt Regency. The setting- surprise, will be country-western. But this will not be your typical C&W motif. A Hyatt ballroom will be converted into an Old West setting, includ-ing live horses hitched to posts outside of make-believe store fronts.

EASTWEST ALL-STAR PRACTICES-k It’s the day before the All-Star Game, and yet Saturday’s long list of events is becoming as talked-about as the game itself. Because national sponsors underwrite each activity, the ticket price for Saturday is only $5. Gate receipts go to the NBA Legends Foundation, which helps ex-players in need. First come the practices. The East All-Stars will work out at 10-11 a.m.; the West 11-noon. Less than 10 years ago, practices were closed to the public, mainly because there was no assurance that enough players would show up to warrant a workout.

“When I first came into the league (1968), players were boycotting the game,” says Mavericks coach Dick Mot-ta, who coached the East All-Stars in the 1979 classic. “I was negative toward it, too. The event wasn’t run properly, and there wasn’t anywhere near the interest. Now, the hoopla has doubled.

It’s a nice break from the regular season schedule, and players enjoy it more. They used to skip the practices; now they don’t.”

THE SCHICK LEGENDS GAME-Some of the NBA’s greatest names, all of whom were once participants in the All-Star Game itself, will recreate their glory days with this third annual affair beginning at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

Bob Cousy, Walt Frazier, Pistol Pete Maravich, Slater Martin. Calvin Murphy, Walt Bellamy, Dave Cownes, Nate Thurmond and Elvin Hayes are among the legends who had signed up early.

THE AMERICAN AIRLINES LONG DISTANCE SHOOTOUT-This is a new event, and NBA officials are curious to see if it will become a permanent All-Star fixture. The top eight 3-point shooters in the N BA. based on their ac-curacy this season from the 23-foot stripe and beyond, will display their longrange skills directly following the Legends Game.

THE GATORADE SLAM DUNK CHAMPIONSHIP-It all started three years ago in Denver, which once upon a time had been a member of the now-defunct American Basketball Association (ABA). While hosting the final ABA All-Star Game more than a decade ago, Denver staged a legendary slam-dunk showdown that highlighted the amazing Dr. J, Julius Erving.

When the NBA All-Star weekend hit Denver three years ago, Nuggets officials suggested a similar event. It turned out to be another classic, with Philadelphia’s Erving and Phoenix’s Larry Nance literally soaring into the finals. Nance won that one, and Atlanta’s Dominique Wilkins captured bragging rights at last season’s event in Indianapolis.

“The slam-dunk contest has made All-Star Saturday an institution,” says Welts. “It and the Legends Game has caused the nature of the weekend to change. This used to be a nice little game, but nobody tried to expand it until that year in Denver.”

SATURDAY NIGHT’S NBA GALA PARTY-At $25 a ticket, the Dallas Convention Center will turn into one large party of 8,000 beginning at 9 p.m. Earlier in the evening, seven seperate banquets will be held throughout Dallas, then all will merge into one at the convention center.

“We wanted to do something different,” says Sonju. “A banquet’s a banquet. This will be different. This will be the first All-Star gala.”

It’s only fitting that singer Willie Nelson would highlight the event. Seven years ago, when Sonju was first rounding up investors for the NBA expansion franchise, Shotgun Willie was among a large list of entertainers who committed to put money into the club (others included James Garner, Glen Campbell, B.J. Thomas, Clint Eastwood and movie producer Ray Starck). That original deal fell through, however, when NBA owners changed the conditions of the expansion agreement.

Sonju, forced to hit the streets again in search of investors, was then bailed out by Donald Carter, president of Home Interiors and Gifts, Inc. and now one of pro basketball’s most successful majority owners.

SUNDAY’S 36TH ANNUAL ALL-STAR GAME-Beginning at 12:30 p.m. at a cost of $37.50 per ticket, this is the head-liner, the weekend’s own slam dunk.

“I would say in the last half-dozen years, the All-Star Game has grown in stature within the basketball world itself. If you take it for what an All-Star Game issupposedtobe-a showcase-fans will love it.”

Known around the league as a genuine maverick who prefers not to rub shoulders with league officials, will Mot-ta attend the other NBA functions?

“Oh, I’m going to go to the things my wife likes to go to,” he says. “As long as we don’t have to get on a plane and go somewhere, I don’t mind.”

“I do know this: Norm has been working his tail off, and when he goes that hard you can plan on it being good. It’ll be better than the last one, and they say the last one was great.”

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