Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game: Arne Duncan’s big night leads East to victory

Kevin Hart passes on the MVP trophy to Secretary Arne Duncan as the EAST beat the WEST 60-56 in the Sprint Celebrity All-Star Game

2014 Sprint Celebrity Game
Final: East 60, West 56

NEW ORLEANS — As usual, Duncan and Jordan were the best players on the floor.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and actor Michael B. Jordan led their respective teams at the Sprint Celebrity Game on Friday, with Duncan’s East prevailing 60-56. Duncan filled the box score with 20 points (a Celeb Game record), 11 rebounds and six assists — the last of which was a sweet, behind-the-head dish to a cutting Skylar Diggans of the WNBA for a critical bucket down the stretch.

A couple of possessions later, Diggins found musician/actor Romeo Miller on the right wing for a 3-pointer that put the East up for good. The West missed six free throws and several lay ups in the closing moments and simply didn’t have the chemistry that the East had with Duncan, Diggins and Miller.

“I’m just happy to get a win,” Duncan said afterward. “This was a really competitive game.”

Beyond the East’s big three, NBA TV’s Kristen Ledlow earned some redemption for her Inside the NBA performance (when she lost a free-throw contest to Shaquille O’Neal) by hitting two first-half buckets that helped the East climb out of a 10-point hole.

“I wasn’t thinking about anything except scoring a couple of buckets in order to redeem myself after losing to Shaq on national television,” she said. “Shaq could not do what I just did. Well, he could at one point. But not anymore and I know that.”