Russian Meteor Aftermath; Danica Patrick Races into History; Weekend's NBA All-Stars
SAMBOLIN: Welcome back to EARLY START. People in Russia cleaning up the mess this morning after that massive meteor shot right through the sky.</s>SAMBOLIN: Imagine waking up to that? That meteor triggered a blast that damaged buildings, blew out windows, and injured more than a thousand people, many of them were children. Phil Black live this morning near Chelyabinsk, Russia at the lake where that meteor actually hit. So, how are people doing there today?</s>PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, today Zoraida, they are a little bit curious and inquisitive. They're trekking across this vast frozen lake to get a look at this confirmed point of impact where witnesses say they saw a fragment of that meteor that was still in the sky, bright color, plummet towards the Earth that actually smashed into the ice here. There were reports saying snow with ice thrown up into the area and a big cloud of steam as well just over my shoulder behind me was like too close to it is where there was, a very large hole in the ice. Part of it is too frozen over. Now that the ice is not particularly strong, and it must have been hit by something of great force. Here on the surface, scientist Russians say they have now found 53 individual pieces of the meteorite, so they now know what it was. But at the time, when that thing was hurdling through the sky, all the people across this region had no idea what it was. They were terrified. Many of them are still rattled by it, especially the children.</s>BLACK (voice-over): This small Siberian village is usually a quiet place, one thousand people living just south of the city of Chelyabinsk. But on Friday morning, they, like everyone in the region, were shocked by what they saw, an intense light followed by a trail of smoke across the sky. Kindergarten worker,</s>BLACK (on-camera): Russian scientists believe there might be some bigger fragments of the meteor at the bottom of this lake. Some dyers have been in to take a look. The visibility was poor. They couldn't see anything. They're going to take another look when all these ice and snow melts in the spring -- Zoraida.</s>SAMBOLIN: It's going to be fascinating to see. Phil Black live for us. Thank you very much.</s>BERMAN: That is one of the coolest live shots I've --</s>SAMBOLIN: It is, right? We could watch that for a while.</s>BERMAN: Right. Fifty-two minutes after the hour right now. And Danica Patrick has made racing history before but never like this. Patrick won the Daytona 500 pole to become the first woman to secure the top spot in NASCAR's premier race, but the question is, does this actually increase her odds of actually winning the race?</s>SAMBOLIN: Can we celebrate this victory for a minute?</s>BERMAN: I'm celebrating it. I'm celebrating it.</s>BERMAN: But Joe Carter is here with this morning's Bleacher Report. How good her chances are, Joe?</s>JOE CARTER, BLEACHER REPORT: Short answer would be not so great. I mean, winning the pole to Daytona 500 means that she's going to start in the front of the pack for this big race, but it does not necessarily mean that she's going to win this big race. The last driver to win both the pole and the Daytona 500 was Dale Jared back in 2000, so 13 years ago. But this does certainly increase the sport's popularity. Jeff Gordon saw it his firsthand. That's his daughter. He wanted her to take a picture yesterday next to Danica Patrick. He saw firsthand the kind of star power she brings to the sport. I mean, she's probably like, dad, I don't want to take a picture with you. I want to take a picture with Danica Patrick. So, she addressed that question yesterday. What does this mean, what does this mean to the history of NASCAR and for all her young fans out there?</s>DANICA PATRICK, NASCAR DRIVER: One of the coolest things is to be able to think that parents and their kids are having that conversation at home about it. And to -- you know, I've heard stories about a kid, boy or girl, saying, but mommy, daddy, that's a girl that's out there racing and then they can have that conversation to say you can do anything you want to do and gender doesn't matter. Your passion is what matters and that's cool.</s>CARTER: It is cool. All right. NBA's biggest event, of course, brings out the biggest stars. Last night was the all-star game. We have seen faces like P. Diddy, the king and queen, Spike Lee -- watch the game with a whole of offense and very little defense. Of course, we see a lot of dunks. This one team mates, D. Wade and Lebron James, the off the backboard alley-oop. You know, his head, look how close his head gets to the rim. That guy has got major elevation. More of the same, this time, Carmelo Anthony to Lebron James, the Clippers, Chris Paul actually named game's MVP, scored 20 points, dished out 15 assists. The West beat East in this game. A very close one, as a matter of fact, 143-138. Lots of offense. You know, you can call this an old-school way of motivating a player. Cal head coach, Mike Montgomery (ph), gives Alan Kraven an earful then he pushes his player square in the chest in a time-out. You know, it's an emotional moment, but I think it's sort of -- you know, startled some, but really motivated Kraven, because after the exchange, he returned to the game and scored 14 of his 23 points. He helped his team going to beat USC, 76-68. Of course, for more entertaining sports news, you can go to BleacherReport.com. Watching that video guys is reminiscent of the old Bobby Knight Indiana days. But I got to tell you, just seeing that it proves sports is a very emotional game at times.</s>BERMAN: Sure.</s>SAMBOLIN: Do not approve.</s>SAMBOLIN: Thank you. They're cute, they are cuddly, and causing some costly damage at a major airport. Look at that. How could that cost major damage?</s>BERMAN: They're dangerous.</s>SAMBOLIN: Those are the bunnies. The bunnies attack, that's coming up next.