Multimedia

The Surfer

Hey now, you're an All-Star, yada yada yada. As the NBA prepares
for All-Star weekend, here are sites that are either generated
by or focused on All-Stars:

www.thedunk.com
This unofficial site for Raptors forward Vince Carter provides a
dunkography of the leading All-Star vote getter: Carter slamming
in high school (we feel for the Orange Park High player now
eternally posterized) in Florida, at North Carolina and in the
NBA--everywhere but at a doughnut shop.

www.slamduncan.com
On the authorized site for Spurs forward Tim Duncan (above),
head to the "Duncan, The Man" link, in which the league's driest
wit offers a self-psychoanalysis, describing "the inner voice
that tortures me so." Warning: Unlike so many jock sites, this
one sends no shouts out and uses the article the.

www.pioneerplanet.com/archive/garnett
The unauthorized site devoted to Timberwolves forward Kevin
Garnett is comprised of an eight-chapter biography, which is
well-reported and sprinkled with family photographs.

www.granthill.com
R&B fans will swoon over photos--including a wedding shot--of
the Pistons forward's lovely bride, four-time Grammy nominee
Tamia. Hill's official site also dispenses quotes of the week,
such as "The best things in life aren't things." It's not
Whitman, but it trumps "Don't fake the funk on a nasty dunk."

www.geocities.com/soho/9038
Mon dieu! La Reponse en francais. Pardon our French, but here's
a site, devoted to Sixers guard Allen Iverson, in the Gallic
tongue. Felliniesque elements include an animation depicting The
Answer brandishing a shovel with the words en travaux (at work)
in the background.

www.jasonkidd.net
Appropriately, the Suns guard's official site is kid-friendly.
The NBA assists leader lends a hand to bored children by
providing mazes and coloring pages. (You'll need a printer.) The
Kidd has manners, too: When you log on, you hear, "Hi, this is
Jason Kidd. Welcome to my site."

www.rasheedwallace.com
If you're expecting a 'sheed screed, guess again. Wallace, who
moonlights as a deejay on Portland's 95.5 FM, reports that he
has purchased, for underprivileged youth, 50 lower-level season
tickets to Trail Blazers home games. Which is why you'll not
hear deejay Wallace give airplay to the lyric "I never promised
you a rose garden."

COLOR PHOTO: DARREN CARROLL

OLD YELLER

No fancy fancier, garrulous Joe Garagiola revels in his role as
Westminster's top dog

This week, for the seventh time, Joe Garagiola will host USA
Network's coverage of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
(Monday and Tuesday, 8 p.m.) live from Madison Square Garden.
Before he ever saw a pointer point, a retriever retrieve or a
Shih Tzu win Best of Breed, Garagiola was acquainted with a rare
variety of pooch. "When I was in grade school my friend had an
Italian police dog," says Garagiola.

An Italian police dog?

"When it barked," says Garagiola, "it went 'Baaa, baaa.'"
Garagiola, himself an Italian Hairless, annually disarms
Westminster with his regular-guy badinage. More than 150 breeds,
and 2,500 canines, will compete. Last year the second night's
ratings reached 4.1, an alltime high for the event. "I react to
what I see more than I inform the viewer," admits Garagiola, who
will turn 74 on Saturday. "I wonder aloud why a guy with a $900
suit puts Alpo in his pocket."

If Garagiola wants to converse more knowledgeably with his USA
on-air partner, David Frei, he can log on to
www.westminsterkennelclub.org. The site provides information and
illustrations on every breed entered. "These animals are true
athletes," says Garagiola, a former big league catcher who was
never best in The Show, "even though lots of folks pay to watch
them compete and say that they're not athletes at all. That's
one thing the dogs and me have in common." --J.W.

WEBWORDS

"Hubert is shooting better than anyone in the league right
now....In 1998 he had one of the great rounds by hitting for 24
points in the semifinals....I'd have to consider him the
favorite."

--Spurs guard STEVE KERR, the 1997 winner, last week on
NBA.com, tabbing Mavericks guard Hubert Davis as the favorite in
the three-point shooting contest on All-Star Saturday (TNT, 8
p.m.)