Bob Donnan/USA Today Sports, via Reuters
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Consider the following scenes from the N.B.A.’s annual bacchanal/business convention known as All-Star weekend:
Spike Lee standing on a street corner waiting for the crosswalk signal. Stan Kroenke, whose family owns the Denver Nuggets, holding court in a hotel lobby. Joel Embiid, the star center of the Philadelphia 76ers, making small talk with the governor of North Carolina. An army of personal stylists waiting to be summoned by their clients for some of the flashiest events of the year.
And then there were the agents and league officials and sneakerheads and reporters, some of whom traveled great distances to make unconventional requests of the weekend’s main attractions.