It’s no secret that Nick just doesn’t play basketball. He even went to the length of imprinting it on a t-shirt that he wore in warm-ups for last years NBA All-Star Celebrity Game.
Which is makes even more puzzling especially to Nick why he’s been invited back (and will play in) to this years NBA All-Star Celebrity Game.
“I think there’s anybody who’s played in more NBA All-Star games than me,” Nick told USA Today. “Especially no one who is as bad at me in basketball. I scored like two points every year.”
Nick highlights a celebrity list that includes rapper Common, Little League sensation Mo’ne Davis, Michael Rapaport, Memphis Grizzlies owner Robert Pera, Ansel Elgort; Anthony Anderson and Nick’s on-court foe and Real Husbands of Hollywood co-star Kevin Hart.
Knicks assistant General Manager Allan Houston, Chris Mullin; gold medal-winning U.S. Paralympic athlete Blake Leeper, Kristen Ledlow; Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan and WNBA stars Tina Charles, Skylar Diggins and Shoni Schimmel will also be in the lineup.
One notable absence in the celebrity lineup is Drake, who Cannon said he thought would be playing too.
“He probably got scared,” he laughed.
Even without Drake, Cannon counts on all of them to be better than he is at the game on February 13th.
“It’s not even about my ability, it’s my drive,” he conceded. “I don’t have any heart out there on the court. Coaches hate me because I’m like ‘hey I got stuff to do after this’. I wish I cared about it a little more.”
That happy-go-lucky attitude “always” gets him in trouble with his more competitive teammates. Cannon recalled a time when Queen Latifah confronted him in the locker room after one of the celebrity games because he had played so badly.
“I’m the one always getting yelled at in the locker room, (my teammates) are like ‘Come on Nick you have to take this seriously,’” he said.
This year, Cannon will play for a team coached by ESPN’s Mike and Mike or Carmelo Anthony and Spike Lee. He’s hoping for Lee. “He’s an amazing director and I’m an actor,” he said. “Maybe I can act like I can play basketball and maybe I’ll score some points.”
