Away Game is a periodic on-the-road feature, bringing you behind-the-scenes coverage of some of the world's biggest sporting events. Part 1. Part 2.

So with the 2007 NBA All-Star Game in the books, I thought I'd wrap up my 2007 All-Star Weekend series with a few assorted random tidbits that occurred to me while I was in Sin City, as well as get to answering some of the questions I mentioned at the end of my last entry.

- The teams combined for a total of 285 points last night, which, coincidentally, is the exact same amount of points the Boston Celtics will manage for the second half of the season.

- You read a guy's work for a couple of years, and you begin to draw a picture of him in your head; then, when you see them in person, it's amazing how different they turn out to be. Take ESPN's Page 2 columnist Scoop Jackson, who served as emcee for the NBA Street Homecourt celebrity challenge at the EA Sports party on Thursday night. Now, I'm not going to say the guy is short but, instead of bumping chests when greeting NBA players he knew, my man Scoop was forced to run his chest into at least two NBA crotches that I saw.

- Being a celebrity athlete is awesome. Not only are you paid egregious sums of money to play a game, but companies are ready, willing, and able to toss you tons of free shwag your way. Probably the coolest example of game-related freebies I saw this weekend were these unbelievable laser-engraved, custom PS3s at Sony's PlayStation Parlor in The Palms. We did an interview with the artist that created the designs, which I hope you guys get to see soon, and he told me the actual process of painting and etching the PS3's is not nearly as expensive as you might think--I think he's got a cottage industry just waiting to be exploited.

- On the heels of this, comes this. Now I'm not one to laugh at another person's misfortune. But heh.

- Overhead in an elevator: "Man, he won $10,000. That's good gambling money right there." Only in Las Vegas on NBA All-Star Weekend is ten grand considered gambling money. Anywhere else in the country, that's a down payment.

- Non-NBA related sports note: I think this is the greatest post-Super Bowl news I've heard. Any defensive coach who can't adjust to Peyton Manning's dump-off passes to Joseph Addai deserves to never work again in the pros.

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Now we come to the part where I fix the NBA All-Star Game. As last night illustrated, the All-Star Game is really just a collection of hoops stars running up and down the court and occasionally making a half-hearted dunk or alley-oop. What the sport needs is for the All-Star Game to mean something, for it to provide an incentive for the players on the court to actually get after it and, you know, try. Money's not going to do it, especially in a town where ten grand is pocket change. Bud Selig had it right with Major League Baseball--where the winner gets home-field advantage in the World Series for their league's team. David Stern and his boys need to borrow this idea and make it work for basketball. The question is: how?

So a few nights ago, as I was lying in bed thinking about this problem, the answer came to me in the form of retro uniforms. Now, everyone knows that retro unis are nothing new for sports. Teams have been making boatloads of cash by selling old-school versions of their gear to fans, even going so far as to have retro games where teams don the unfiorms of days gone by.

I love retro uniforms, so here's my plan for next season: The losing conference in the 2008 NBA All-Star Game will have to field their representing team during the NBA Finals in retro gear; more specifically, the lower half of retro gear. Of course, I'm speaking of nutters, the tiny, tiny shorts worn in the 70s and 80s by guys like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Bill Laimbeer, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Think about it. I look back at old footage of those guys jumping around on the hardwood in what amounts to rayon hot pants and the first question that runs through my mind is, "How did they breathe back then?" Those couldn't have been remotely comfortable. Every time I watch footage of Dr. J go up for one of his trademark dunks, I wonder how he managed to avoid landing while cupping himself in agony, his cheeks inflating like Dizzy Gillespie in mid-solo, as he desperately tried to catch his breath.

Think how much harder LeBron and Kobe would have been working last night if they thought there was even a remote possibility that they'd running up and down the court showing off lower cheek come playoffs time? Trust me, they would have been working hard. It would probably improve playoff ratings too.

So yeah, nutters. David Stern's cracked down on player attire before. I just want to see him take it all the way.