The city of Atlanta is the place where the players play and the ballers ball. It was also the place where the 2003 NBA All-Star weekend was held Feb. 7-9.

Every year during the month of February, the NBA’s best of the best come out and party along with many other stars. Last year, this famous event was held in Philadelphia, but traveled down south to the Atlanta this year. The events attracted over 90,000 spectators. However, not all 90,000 went to all of the All-Star weekend activities. Some were there for the fun and the experience.

My experience was the best ever and the most unforgettable ever. For some, this fabulous weekend started on a Thursday night, but for me it started on Friday night when we arrived in Atlanta.

Some of the events held on Feb. 7 included a celebrity basketball game at Morehouse College sponsored by Atlanta-based rapper Ludacris, a party sponsored by Reebok and Allen Iverson, young rapper Lil Bow Wow’s 16th birthday party and many other events.

My friends and I just rode around and checked out a few places that we could go to on Saturday night. We ate at the famous Cheesecake Factory Restaurant in Atlanta and then we checked out a few of the malls on Saturday.

The Lennox Mall seemed to be the place where everyone famous person or not so famous happened to be. Some of the stars that were at the mall included singer Ashanti, basketball players Dominique Wilkins and Tracy McGrady, rappers 50-Cent and Memphis Bleek and others.

Lennox was so crowded that it had to be shut down at about 5:30 p.m. due to the big crowd, which was a shoplifting hazard. They also shut down a couple other malls to get some of the crowd out and then reopened the doors later at certain malls.

We returned to the hotel to get dressed for our long night out on the streets of Atlanta. We headed to the hot spot, downtown on Peachtree Street, where all of the clubs were live. By the time we got out of the two-three hour traffic, club prices were sailing well over the $100 mark. At one particular club called “The Bounce,” rapper Ja Rule and Ashanti, rapper and producer Jermaine Dupri, Janet Jackson and newcomer 50-Cent all made appearances.

After being in traffic for a total of about five hours, we returned to our hotel at about 6 a.m. On Sunday we started our day off by eating breakfast and trying to recuperate from our long night. We went down to Lennox Mall where all of those people were once again. The mall was crowded and it had to be shut down at about 4:30 p.m.

The Atlanta Police Department then began shutting down streets or making them one-way because traffic was veryheavy and people were having a lot of trouble getting to their destinations. The police had advised travelers all weekend to take the Marta, the train system in Atlanta, to their destinations because it would make things a lot easier and traffic a lot better.

We rode around downtown for a while and then we made our way back to the hotel to watch the All-Star game on television. After the game, it had begun to rain. The clubs for the night were Club 112, The Euphoria, Level 3, The Fluid, Club Vision and few other clubs downtown. They were full of famous people who had come out for the game and decided to club on the last night of this spectacular and famous weekend.

Some notable people that were there included rapper Eve, Jay-Z and his companion Beyonce, P. Diddy, Jermaine Dupri, basketball star Dominique Wilkins, rapper Trina and a few other stars.

The 2003 all-star weekend was truly a lifetime experience for my friends and I. Trust me, it’s better to be there than hear about it later.

• Sherita Valentine