Lance Stephenson has gone mainstream.
The Coney Island product, enjoying a breakout season with the Pacers, became the latest NBA star to produce a funny video asking for votes for next month’s All-Star Game in New Orelans.
It was a side of Stephenson we’ve never seen before — a funny, humorous side. Playing the role of “Sir Lancealot,” he dons a shabby wig, an oversized bowtie, horn-rimmed glassed, suspenders he frequently snaps and pants he tucks into his socks to go along with loud exclamations such as “He can hold the ball like…” or, after a highlight of a dunk down the lane, “Like the Q train to Coney Island!”
But Stephenson’s is far from the first entry in the video genre of NBA players campaigning for All-Star votes.
The Nuggets recently produced a video for point guard Ty Lawson. In a skit that satirizes the famed “This is SportsCenter” commercials, Lawson is portrayed as more than just a basketball player. He’s a key component in Denver’s headquarters, using his speed to help in the mail room or the accounting department.
Before he joined the Big Three, Chris Bosh was just a lonely, underrated Raptors forward. With country music strumming in the background, he dons a black cowboy hat and portrays a used-car salesman to get to New Orleans for the 2008 All-Star Game.
In 2009, Amar’e Stoudemire started the All-Star Game, yet the following year, while with the Suns, he still went the extra yard, teaming up with actor/comedian (we use the term lightly) David Spade to encourage voters to select him. In the sketch, Spade plays Stoudemire’s Seinfeld-minded “coach,” advising him “the best thing you can do is flop. When a guy just taps you, make it big, like Kramer.”
In a 2011 video, Rudy Gay is cast as “The Most Interesting Man in the NBA,” a slightly less thirsty takeoff on the Dos Equis marketing campaign. “I don’t usually vote for All-Stars, but when I do, I vote for Rudy Gay,” he says at the end. “Keep voting, my friends.”
Even Deron Williams got into the act, back when he was with the Jazz in 2011. In spliced-up press conference footage spoofing the Coors Light commercials that were popular at the time — it was ages ago, we know — outraged fans ask Williams about the All-Star game. One even breaks a bottle and yells, “But you deserve it. … I’m sorry D-Will, but doesn’t that make you upset?”