DALLAS, Texas (AFP) – A record crowd of 108,713 turned out for the NBA All-Star game at Cowboys Stadium, where Dwyane Wade led the Eastern Conference to a 141-139 victory over the West.
Miami’s Wade had 28 points and won Most Valuable Player honors, and Dallas Native Chris Bosh made the winning free throws with five seconds to play.
The Western Conference had a chance to win the annual mid-season exhibition, but Carmelo Anthony misfired on a three-point attempt.
The biggest cheer of the night came when Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, and Jerry Jones, owner of the NFL’s Cowboys, took the court to announce the record-setting attendance.
“It’s meant to be a party,” Cuban said. “We say we’re going to throw the biggest party like you’ve never seen before and that’s exactly what it turned out to be.”
In addition to being a record for a basketball game, it was the largest in the short history of the Cowboys’ billion-dollar home, which opened prior to the 2009-2010 NFL season.
Wade, who earned MVP honors when Miami beat Dallas in the 2006 NBA finals, added 11 assists and six rebounds. Cleveland star LeBron James scored 25 points while Bosh had 23 and 10 rebounds.
The undisputed star of the show, however, was the building. The NBA had predicted a crowd of about 90,000, but the hopes of Cuban and Jones to reach 100,000 were more than satisified.
The attendance figure easily broke the previous record for the largest crowd to watch a basketball game of 78,129, set for a university contest between the University of Kentucky and Michigan State University at Detroit’s Ford Field on December 13, 2003.
The record was certified by Guinness Book of World Records, and there were already T-shirts marking the feat.
The crowd was larger than any of the NFL games played in the stadium last season.
The Cowboys drew 105,121 for their first regular-season game in the venue – against the New York Giants last September – to set an NFL regular-season attendance record.
“I’m pleased looking at it,” Jones said. “The atmosphere, if you had had a highly competitive situation where these teams were playing for the world championship, imagine this 100,000 people being completely nuts.”
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