Toronto Raptors new interim general manager Wayne Embry attends a news conference in Toronto, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2005. Embry's favourite NBA all-star memory stretches back to 1964, when the league was mired in labour squabbles around pensions and salaries, and the game was in jeopardy until literally moments before tip-off.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

TORONTO - Wayne Embry's favourite NBA all-star memory stretches back to 1964, when the league was mired in labour squabbles around pensions and salaries, and the game was in jeopardy until literally moments before tip-off.

For Isiah Thomas, it was 1986, when he celebrated winning the all-star game's MVP award with his ailing mom Mary.

The two Hall of Famers and key figures in Toronto basketball's past and present will be at the Air Canada Centre this weekend when the city hosts the 65th NBA all-star game. They have 17 NBA all-star appearances between them, but there's no doubt which ones stand out.

Embry arrived at the '64 game in Boston three hours before tip-off because of a snow storm, and was soon told the game might not go on. The game's 20 best players that year, including Oscar Robertson and Wilt Chamberlain, voted 18-2 against playing the game to protest the league's labour policy that included no pensions for players.

"Five minutes before game time, the commissioner comes into the locker-room and says 'Alright you SOBs, we're going to take it to the board of governors to give you the pension,'" Embry recounted, with a deep laugh. "Three minutes to tip-off, we go out, very little warmup, and at 8 o'clock they tossed the ball up and the game started."

Embry's East team won that game 111-107, and with the clock ticking down the five-time all-star who's now the Toronto Raptors senior adviser grabbed an offensive rebound and rather than shoot, he let time run out.

Walking out of the old Boston Garden after the game, patrons poured out of a local bar to boo Embry.

"They're just booing me and jeering me and I couldn't understand. . . because I didn't shoot. I'm naive, I didn't know what the hell. I'm a farm boy from Ohio, I don't know what that's all about," Embry said. "So finally some guy says to me, 'If you'd put the ball in the basket, you would have broke the spread.'

"I was like 'What the hell's a spread?' So I got an education on gambling."

Thomas, the Raptors' first GM, played in 12 all-star games, but 1986 in Dallas was special.

"My mom was having a very difficult time health-wise, and she used to always go to every game, my mom went to every NBA city with me, she was an NBA fan, so it was perfect for us in terms of our relationship," Thomas said.

"She was having health problems, we went to Dallas, I won the MVP and I remember her coming out on the court, just bursting through security, and grabbing me and holding me and saying 'I'm so proud of you son.' She really looked into my eyes and said 'I'm so proud of you son,' told me that she loved me. That was priceless."

Both Thomas and Embry said their all-star selections were huge moments in their careers.

"When you walk into that locker-room, you know there's only 24 guys there. And you're one of them," Thomas said. "That's a big statement. And that's a big sense of pride that you take away from the all-star game, you walk away with a different type of feel-good about yourself."

Embry said he carried the confidence of being an all-star through his career.

"Having made that, reached that level, I adopted the attitude of 'Let me continue to play like an all-star beyond the actual all-star game,'" Embry said. "If you're going to be identified as an all-star, be an all-star for 82 games plus post-season."

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