Bill Plaschke: The stars did not align for L.A. this All-Star game
LOS ANGELES_The NBA will hold its season's biggest party Sunday at Staples Center, the 67th All-Star game, and the building will be filled with the cacophony of glamour.
There will be bursting fireworks. There will be thumping music. There will be deep-throated ooohs and aaahs as the $1,800-a-ticket crowd connects with the millionaire basketball magic.
Listen closer. In the distance there will be scratching, and squeaking, and maybe a little bit of whimpering.
Can you hear it? Can you see them? Outside, standing on Figueroa, noses pressed against the window, their hands flattened to the glass, will be a couple of locals awkwardly locked out of their own house.
The Lakers and Clippers are hosts, but they're not invited.
It's a celebration of Hollywood, but no player from Hollywood's teams were deemed cool enough to warrant entry. In one of the bleakest moments in this city's NBA landscape in two decades, the best players
