Win Butler Plays in Celebrity All-Star Game; Tauk and Umphrey’s Face Off Before Show

Rob Slater on February 14, 2015

Yesterday was a surprisingly athletic night in rock and roll as a few of our favorites participated in games of basketball. First up, Win Butler took center stage at Madison Square Garden, this time not as a frontman but as a power forward in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game. Butler finished with an impressive eight points and 12 rebounds, missing out on a highly coveted double-double by just two points. Butler, along with former NBAer Chris Mullins and Memphis Grizzlies owner Robert Pera, helped their team stretch the lead to double digits several times throughout the game. The three-pronged attack worked well for most of the game and afterwards, Butler (who balled in his Kanye West Red October sneakers) snapped a quick picture with Toronto Raptors star Kyle Lowry.

Let’s check out some of his highlights:

This is an impressive move by Butler, for two of his eight points. Matched up against WNBA star Shoni Schimmel, Butler takes her into the post and executes a powerful step-through to get to the rim for the layup. You can’t teach that type of awareness and agility. The finish with the left hand is the kicker, too.

Former NBA star and Hall of Famer Chris Mullins does most of the notable work on this score but give credit to Butler for finding the open space and going hard to the rim. Mark Jones also gets some love for the “Win Butler is winning right now” pun.

Win was horribly robbed of MVP honors (I mean, who gets a near-double double in a celebrity game?), with it going to Kevin Hart by a popular vote. Since Hart was probably the only person in the game that the general public could name, it seemed obvious that the award would go to him (Hart is a four-time MVP in the game). This prompted Win’s brother Will took to Twitter to appeal to a fellow artist to fix the MVP voting system. Interestingly enough, Win’s DJ set later that night opening up for The Hold Steady started with Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks” and Beck’s “Loser.”

Meanwhile in Norfolk, VA, Umphrey’s McGee and Tauk continued their olympics-style competition against one another on their joint tour. Yesterday, it was a game of hoops in Virginia which saw the much younger and athletic members of Tauk take the victory, one that Ryan Stasik called an “ass kicking” on stage that night. While Team UM may not have won, Stasik did hit this impressive trick shot off the wall of the gym.