During the season, players have to be on their best behavior. When your body’s the reason for multi-million dollar contracts, you have to treat it like a temple. But post-season, all bets are off, and that likely explains Bosh’s Las Vegas party.

Called “The Hangover 3”, the New York Post described it as “a four-day bro-down on the Strip involving guns, booze, red meat and magic over the weekend”.

Bosh’s Las Vegas trip, which doubled as a bachelor party (he’s getting married to Adrienne Williams later in July), had its highlights, including Criss Angel yanking Bosh up onto stage, and later levitating him in front of his guests while backstage. Later they saw a Mark Curry stand-up and took to the casinos. Sounds like a decent Vegas trip.

In all the relentless scrutiny on Bosh’s wild tear through Vegas, both the New York Post and Sbnation’s Andrew Sharp mentioned the absence of LeBron James and Dwayne Wade, wondering why they weren’t on their fellow Miami player’s guest list.

Well, Wade may have been recovering from his hanging out with Kanye West at Paris Fashion Week. As for James, well, who knows? Gives the tabloids something to chew over.

These parties have been heating up, however. With a possible lockout looming on the horizon, some of these NBA parties have the feel of the apocalyptic, a last-ditch celebration in the face of the end of days.

 

Just a few days before Bosh and his posse, including Hornets Jarret Jack and Pops Mensah-Bonsu, scorched around Las Vegas, took in a Criss Angel act and played paintball, others hung out with retired superhero Shaquille O’Neal at Palms restaurant Nove Italiano. Check out O’Neal in that Angry Bird t-shirt, matched with black cap. What a champion.

O’Neal’s retirement party was less wild and more gregarious. O’Neal hugged reporters, chowed down on Italian food, and hung out with guests like Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez and the Bosh-levitating Criss Angel himself.

Let’s hope these parties are harbingers of things to come: this post-season may be the most frenzied post-season in a long time.