Last month, the NBA All-Star Game took place in Las Vegas. Even though Vegas doesn't have a team, (Although Mayor Goodman wants one) it seems natural to host the game in a city like Vegas, which is used to hosting major events and sporting events like last weekend's NASCAR race.
The game aside, it turned out to be a giant debacle, with it being Chinese New Year (big gambling weekend) and other large conventions in town. But it wasn't the conventioneers that caused the problems, it was people in town for the All-Star game that turned the city into a near war zone.
There were major incidents:
-Tennessee Titan (NFL player yes, but in town for the game nonetheless) player Pac Man Jones and his entourage were involved in a shooting at a strip club that left one bouncer paralyzed forever.
-A shooting at the MGM Grand that left one dead, and evacuated the casino.
-Shootings on the strip that closed sections of Las Vegas blvd multiple times.
Beyond those we have all heard about, there was just a general pandemonium that made it awful for the casual visitor to be there. Someone I work with (a Vegas vet) says it was the worst weekend he's ever experienced. He heard the gunshots, and was one of those evacuated from the MGM.
Now that the word is out, search any media outlet, and you will get hundreds of stories about the weekend. For example, a Google news search on NBA All Star Las Vegas yields 607 results. By contrast, a search for NASCAR as Vegas gets you 10...most of the referencing the NBA weekend.
Cab drivers are usually a great source of (possibly apocryphal) information, and we tried to ask every one this past trip on their thoughts on the weekend, and their responses were overwhelmingly negative. I managed to record a couple on my iPod, but the audio isn't tremendously clear, so here are a few of the points brought up.
(Again, take these with a grain of salt, but the sentiment still prevails)
Driver from Bellagio to Downtown Listen Here
This guy said he will never work another NBA weekend again, he was personally stiffed twice, but didn't do anything about it because there were no police anywhere, and those that were on duty had better things to be doing
Driver from Downtown to Bellagio Listen here
This guy went off! He was a deputy sheriff for 27 years, and never saw anything like that weekend. He knew (through connections...again, grain of salt) of 10-12 more shootings and 29 rapes. He went on to talk about Waitresses getting slapped around, a fight at the Wynn that spilled over to the Venetian and closed the strip for 4 hours. The interesting point here was that most of these incidents happened on hotel properties, thus they are being kept VERY quiet, as no hotel wants to be known as the scene of a crime.
Driver from Bellagio to Luxor.
Listen Here
On a lighter note, this guy tried (repeat: tried) to compare the NBA crowd to German Shepards that can't check for drugs. Still not sure what he was talking about.
What is really disturbing is the initial lack of media coverage. Stories eventually began to trickle out due to the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the weekend. Due to the major media outlet's (such as ESPN) affiliation with the NBA, much of this was kept hush-hush until it simply couldn't anymore. For example, ESPN, which is quick to jump on any story related to an athlete in trouble with the law, took until THURSDAY of the next week to even report on the Pac-Man Jones incident.
Needless to say, we won't be booking our tickets for the All-Star Game in New Orleans next year...
Whew! That was a close one, we could have actually gone 4 entire months before heading back to Vegas, but thanks to an offer from Wynn Las Vegas, we have booked our next trip. 
