The 1996 McDonald’s All-star game is one of the most well-known games of that era. It wasn’t because of the importance of the game; it was because of the legends who played in that game. The most notable player to play in that game was Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant. But it wasn’t Kobe who was the best player in the game, it was actually Shaheen Hollway who was the MVP.
Hollaway may never have played in the NBA, but he had a great career overseas. After his playing days, he became a coach, and he was well respected. His most recent run as a head coach was for the Saint Peter’s basketball team, which had a Cinderella run at the NCAA tournament. He led the Peacocks to three straight winning seasons, and he led the team to Elite 8. This was the first time an unseeded team had made it so far in the tournament. On their way to the Elite 8, they upset some favorites in the tournament. And all the credit went to Shaheen Hollaway.
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Holloway who played with Kobe Bryant, says the 1996 all-star game was trash
Shaheen was recently on the All the Smoke podcast where he talks about his career, his coaching career, and his thoughts on other topics. Here was what he thought about the all-star game. He said,” You know what that experience was everything. It was the first time all of us really came together. Like everybody heard about each other. Everybody from different places got a chance to play. The game to be honest with you was trash”
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He said the players in the game took it on themselves to prove who was better. There were rivalries in place and those young players wanted to ball out. Moreover, he said even Kobe Bryant wanted to be against another top player. But he says it was fun to play against the top players and get to know each other.
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The best part of Hollaway’s experience was that he got to win MVP over Kobe Bryant and Stephen Jackson, who claimed that he should have won MVP.
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