As the NBA season starts to heat up we take a look back at past All Star games and look at what has changed. Can you predict who will be in the All-Star game this year and which athletic shoes will be featured the most?. The greatest all star events from the professional sports world are the NBA hands down. They really put on a show all weekend long and starts with the celebrity game. This year’s game will feature Lisa Leslie, Harlem Globetrotter players, Clyde “the glide” Drexler, Terrell Owens, Chris Tucker, Rick Fox, and my favorite celebrity Dominique Wilkins. Other celebrities will battle it out on the court with a East .vs. West game of basketball.

The West Team was  coached by Magic Johnson and the East Team had Dr. J at the helm for them. After the celebrity game wraps up on ESPN; NBA fans  switched over to TNT to watch the Rookies face the Sophomores in the double header action in Phoenix, Arizona. The Rookie Team will feature players like O.J. Mayo from the Grizzlies and Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls where Adidas shoes had the center stage. Kevin Durant will try to lead the Sophomores with Thadeous Young from Philly and Al Horford from the Atlanta Hawks helping him. This might be a good game for Eric Gordon to show off his skills for the Rookie Team, since not much noise has been coming out of L.A. from this promising rookie.

The weekend wraps up on Sunday with the main event. It’s the best basketball players in the East going against the best talent the West has to offer. If you are a true fan and want to get up on the latest gear without shelling out hundreds of dollars you can search for discount athletic shoes online at retailers like shoebacca.com. They even offer a selection of skateboards shoes for those that are into boarding. This is always a great game to watch and I think the East will win on Sunday in Phoenix. The NBA has certainly figured out this All Star thing and the NHL, MLB, or the NFL doesn’t have anything close to the NBA All Star Weekend entertainment. A great opportunity for all basketball fans across the globe to see the best basketball players in the world having fun and competing against each other.

For years the furniture industry has tried to stay in touch with their customers and always have the latest fashions available. What this caused was an over saturation of stores both brick and mortar and online. As the competition for consumers increased the value and quality of the furniture started to take a hit and customers were not getting what they paid for. When our parents and grandparents purchased living room furniture it was with the intent to hand those pieces down from generation to generation. Now with today’s disposable furniture many companies are not able to develop those long term customers. This is why you see people looking to online vendors to get a better selection and price than what they might see in their local stores. With online shopping you can see a greater selection of sofas and couches than what a typical store may carry. For instance we were looking for a sectional sofa and went online to view all the different styles and types. It helped to see the different styles and materials and shapes that sectionals come in to better plan for our family room.

This years ads promise to be just as funny and cutting edge even though many companies are watching the budgets with the current economic situation. There will be no car ads which makes sense as they are getting a major bail out package. So there will be some new comers to the Super Bowl ads that are sure to amuse and bring back some nostalgia at least for a some of us. We will still see the soft drink and beer ads and a few advertisers are trying out 3D as a means to showcase their products. There were actually commercials that were talking about gold and its increasing value that make it attractive to have IRA gold investments as well as 401K gold accounts. One of the previews that we saw was an ad for changing in your gold where they are featuring Ed McMahon and MC Hammer. What is great about this ad is that these are two individuals that at the height of their career were making great money and seemed to be set for life. Now both of these stars that take us back to the 1980′s are struggling a bit with their finances and this is the comical part of the ad. MC Hammer is selling all his gold chains that he was famous for wearing in his videos such as the classic ” Can’t Touch This”.

With the economy still sluggish people are looking for ways to help make ends meet and they are finding that the gold jewelry that they have laying around could actually be worth something. This is where gold IRA comes into the picture that allows you to diversify your portfolio. The price of gold has held its value and actually increased over the past few years thus making putting a gold 401K option something attractive. This is normal as people lose faith in the stock market they look to invest in more durable goods and precious metals benefit from this down turn in the economy. You can even find information on put gold in an IRA on sites like Gold Coins Gain where they have taken out the guess work and provided real solutions to the small investor in diversifying their portfolio.