Michael Redd felt honored to get the final play drawn up for him by Eastern Conference head coach Rick Carlisle during the 2004 NBA All-Star Game (West won 136-132).
(via Knuckleheads with Quentin Richardson & Darius Miles):
“We down three, and Rick Carlisle calls the last play for me, which is surreal. And so it was crazy, because he called me off the bench. I think I had like 12 points or something like that in the game and played well. So Rick Carlisle calls this play for me, I’m like, ‘You calling me? You’ve got J. Kidd. You’ve got Vince [Carter]. You’ve got T-Mac. You’ve got all these great players on the East. Paul Pierce. You calling me? Alright. Cool.’ So he called the last play for me, which is incredible. The problem was I had Kobe [Bryant] & KG (Kevin Garnett) jump out at me to contest the three, so it was hard to get it off, but I got it off and I just barely missed it. But it was surreal to be an All-Star, man.”
