Raised In The Wrong Era

Look, LeBron haters, there goes the last bullet in your gun.

With LeBron James finally winning his first NBA championship, his well-known vocal detractors will spend this offseason looking for new material to hold against the self-appointed "King".

No more witty Facebook/Twitter memes with Kobe and MJ about LeBron not having a ring.

No more talk about LeBron shrinking in big moments.

No more nonsense about LeBron James being Dwyane Wade's sidekick.

The Miami Heat is LeBron James' team and the NBA is now the property of "The Akron Hammer".

Of course, that didn't stop the anti-LeBron crowd from rushing to make excuses.

"Oh, it was a shortened season. They should have a asterisk."

Try telling that to Tim Duncan when he won his first title in the strike-shortened 1998-99 season. Also, would you be so quick to discredit this year's Finals if the Heat had lost? I'll answer that for you: No, you wouldn't.

"Derrick Rose was hurt. LeBron got lucky!"

Injuries are a part of the game. The Bulls were a 1 seed with last year's MVP missing almost half the season. Would having D.Rose have gotten Chicago out of the first round? Absolutely. Would it have guaranteed the Bulls getting past Boston? No. Lest we forget, LeBron beat these same Bulls last year in the Eastern Conference Finals, and did so by stifling Rose for most of the series. What exactly made this incarnation of the Bulls different from last year? The signing of Richard Hamilton?

"Well, it took LeBron much longer to win a ring that it should have. Kobe and Jordan did it way sooner."

Kobe had Shaq from the minute he laced up a pair of shoes for the Lakers. Jordan didn't win his first until '91, at the age of 27(same as LeBron), and needed a Hall of Famer like Scottie Pippen and one of the greatest coaches in any sport in Phil Jackson to do so. Maybe it's because LeBron blew through the regular season so effortlessly that we are lead to believe that those Cavalier teams he carried were stacked. Truth be told, neither Kobe or MJ would have beaten teams like the "Big Three"-led Celtics with guys like Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison as the leaders of their supporting cast. Jordan's last title came on a Bulls team with Pippen, then one of the NBA's 50 greatest players, and Dennis Rodman, one of the game's best rebounders and interior presences, entrenched as sidekicks. Those six Bulls title teams featured some excellent role players with guys like Steve Kerr, John Paxson and Horace Grant. Why are we so quick to assume Jordan was the sole reason for that Bulls dynasty. As for Kobe, he had the game's best big man and one of the five greatest centers of all-time in Shaquille O'Neal. His supporting cast had clutch shooters like Glen Rice, Robert Horry and Derek Fisher. When Shaq left, he was replaced eventually with an All-Star forward in Pau Gasol and eventually joined by Ron Artest, the game's premier perimeter defender. This wasn't two legends winning titles with school kids.

It's the Jordan comparison that brings us to why we are here. Since he was a junior in high school, the bar for LeBron James' expectations were to be the "next Michael Jordan", which is funny because we were always lead to believe there would never be another Michael Jordan. All of the criticisms laid upon King James could have just as easily be laid upon His Airness.

LeBron's a me-first showboat. He's selfish(not true on either side, but probably more true for Jordan as LeBron is one of the best passing forwards to ever play the game). He's too commercial, too focused on globalizing his own brand.

While, this piece will inevitably come off as another me resurrecting my role as a "LeBron apologist", I will say that LeBron did spend a lot of his career hot-dogging and being a bit over-celebratory for his achievements. I'll also re-state that I hated everything about the idea of "The Decision", which is something I wrote on here shortly after it happened.

With all that said, this is my retort. LeBron James came into this league as a 18-year old phenom. He grew up before our very eyes. He didn't have the luxury of going to a great basketball institution like North Carolina and being mentored by a legend like Dean Smith. He rushed into the NBA because that's what the people in his ear kept telling him he had to do. It turns out that wasn't a mistake from a basketball standpoint but it hurt him from a maturity standpoint. Michael Jordan would have never done anything like "The Decision" because he was smart enough and mature enough to know better. He didn't have people in his corner telling him it was a good idea when it wasn't. LeBron made a mistake. He apologized for it. Some may never forgive him and that's fine, but the reaction over that debacle, two years later, is a bit overblown.

My other response is two open-ended questions, which I am asking honestly to get an answer from the anti-LeBron movement, but also am willing to offer my own take on.

My first question is, if LeBron James didn't get his need to pound his chest after every dunk and market himself as a brand from the great Michael Jordan, the man he grew up(like most kids) idolizing, who did he get it from? Did he get it from the father that was hardly there throughout his life? His mother? His friends, who didn't possess an eighth of his talent?

You see, we spent so much time during the 90's being in awe of the greatness of "Air Jordan" that we never contemplated the effects of the seeds that were being planted. We never thought about what kids growing up emulating their role model would be like when they become adults who follow the same path to the NBA. LeBron James is a product of the Michael Jordan experience. So was Kobe Bryant. So was Harold Minor, J.R. Rider, Tracy McGrady, Gerald Green, and a slew of other young athletes who grew up wearing Jordan's sneakers and working on their vertical while sticking their tongue out during every jam, They are like his illegitimate children. Some went on to lengthy careers. Some flamed out. But they are all trees that grew from the seed of America's Jordan obsession.

Now, Jordan wasn't a complete hot-dog. Sure, he stuck his tongue out a lot and shrugged his shoulders when he put up ridiculous shooting performances. He raised his fist in the air after clutch moments or jumped into the air swinging his fists like after he hit "The Shot" against Cleveland, but Jordan mixed a whole lot of flash with hard work and professionalism. That's why Kobe draws more of a comparison to MJ than LeBron does. Kobe has made a career of walking like Mike, talking like Mike, acting like Mike, cheating on wife like Mike and using Mike's career as the bar he tirelessly works to surpass. LeBron took the other stuff from Mike. He plays with his mouthpiece, yells to the heavens after thunderous dunks and seemingly does everything with the idea of the best possible marketing effect in mind, hence "The Decision".

However, from a potential standpoint, LeBron has a chance to surpass Kobe and even "His Airness" in terms of legacy and THAT is why LeBron haters(who are also Jordan lovers) come out of the woodwork to take shots at King James whenever they get a chance. They see him as a threat, a threat to a throne that seemed unreachable. LeBron James is a bigger, stronger, faster, equally(if not more so) athletic version of Jordan. The way the NBA sits right now, he has a chance to win at least the next three championships if he and his team continue to mature. He's been to three NBA Finals and he's just 27. He has three MVP's and, unlike Mike, he shows no interest in leaving the hardwood for the baseball diamond. Six rings seems like a stretch for King James but how LeBron dominates the league during his prime will determine how he stacks up against MJ. After all, Jordan's prime coincided with Larry Bird's back failing him and Magic Johnson getting infected with HIV. The level of competition was relatively low beyond the Malone-Stockton Jazz and some spirited efforts from Patrick Ewing's Knicks and Reggie Miller's Pacers, among others. As for LeBron, Kobe may be fading into the sunset as are Boston's "Big Three" as well as Time Duncan, but he still has guys like Derrick Rose, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, and Kevin Durant to compete with. If the path back to the Finals seems easy for LeBron going forward, the same can be said about Durant's ownership of the West. Who really stands in either two's way in the next couple years?

LeBron James is the mutated version of Jordan's seeds. Michael Jordan was the father of flash and marketing and he himself was a product of guys like David Thompson and Julius Erving, athletic showmen who didn't have the marketing vehicle that Jordan did to become worldwide phenomenons. MJ's two greatest sons were Kobe and LeBron. Kobe followed Dad's orders and became a spitting image of his legendary father(Jordan, not his actual father "Jelly Bean" Bryant). LeBron was more of the rebel, taking aspects of his father's infamy but realizing that he was too big, fast and strong to follow a career similar to his smaller younger brother and father. If Jordan is Biggie, Kobe is Jay-Z and LeBron is Kanye. Jay-Z clearly is a Biggie clone, but became his own entity by benefiting from the technological advances at his exposure(and also by not getting killed in Las Vegas).  Kanye followed Jay-Z, but eventually realized that he was different and set out to make his own mark in his own way by being rebellious. People used to hate Jay-Z for being a Biggie wannabe but Jigga earned their respect and flourished as a master of his craft and a businessman. Jay-Z's "retirement" is like Kobe's sexual assault charge, a dark spot in a brilliant career that he had to bounce back from. LeBron's first NBA Finals was like Kanye's "College Dropout", a masterful performance that showed a young star coming of age but showed that he wasn't quite there yet. His first MVP was "Late Registration", a sign of great things to come. His Finals loss to Dallas last year was Kanye's outburst at the MTV Awards, a shocking disappointment that brought the vitriol of his detractors out in full force. Obviously, Kobe and LeBron will never come together to "Watch The Throne" but it would be just as astounding of a collaboration if they do. The bottom line is, if you're going to knock LeBron for his faults, you should also criticize who he got it from. Like any unruly child, eventually you have to blame the parents.

My second question doesn't really have an answer so much as it a starting point for a hypothetical debate. The day after the Finals ended, I posed this question on Facebook: If we had Facebook and Twitter and the round-the-clock media access and technological advances we have now back in the 90's, would we have rooted as hard against Michael Jordan getting his first ring as we did against LeBron James?

This question kind of speaks to the last one, in that we never knew what glorifying the greatness of a guy like Jordan would mean for the future. We never realized how lucky Jordan was and, really, neither did Jordan(although he's finding that out now as failed office exec). Jordan didn't have the prominence of YouTube re-capping all his hits and misses on an endless loop. He didn't have bloggers throwing daggers at him on a nightly basis. Hell, he didn't even have writers throwing darts at him because they were all so enamored with him. SportsCenter wasn't the entity in the 90's that it is today. He didn't have guys like Skip Bayless endlessly bashing him on a national television show like Bayless does to LeBron every chance he gets. He didn't have every play he made analyzed on Twitter. He never had to worry about "trending". He didn't have to worry about Facebook groups being made about him. There were no funny memes taunting his failed achievements. There was nothing more than some beat writers singing his praises in articles and occasionally on "The Sports Reporters". LeBron doesn't have a guy like Ahmad Rashad being the Fonsworth Bentley to his Diddy like Rashad was for Jordan. LeBron's "yes men" are in his entourage. Jordan's "yes men" were in the media and the league offices. If Michael Jordan thought the pressure of being a global superstar was too much and he had to take a sabbatical and go play baseball in the mid-90's, imagine how tough it would have been for him with 24/7 news coverage and networks needing to fill air time by posing endless rhetorical questions or displaying meaningless stat comparisons. Imagine if Jordan turned on the TV every day to see him being compared side-by-side to Magic or Bird or watch writers blast him on "Around The Horn" or "PTI" and question whether he's clutch or if he can "win the big one". Jordan had it relatively easy. By time we had the vehicle to criticize him, he was long gone from the NBA and wearing a suit and tie as an owner. That's why writers go so hard on Jordan now as he's ruining the Charlotte Bobcats and after he ruined the Wizards. They're making up for lost time and missed opportunities. All that time they spent kissing Jordan's ass, they could have spent kicking it. That's also why they ridicule LeBron so much. Somebody has to suffer for the sins of the father.

It's a hypothetical question with no real answer. We can't put LeBron in a time machine and zip him back to the 90's so he can dominate during easier times, both from a competitive standpoint and a media standpoint. We also can't make Jordan relive his prime in today's world. But the purpose of the question is to offer perspective. It's hard to be a great athlete in today's society because fans have an almost insatiable need to be loved and their expectations are far too lofty. Try telling Charles Barkley it took LeBron too long to win a ring. Try telling Karl Malone that LBJ disappears in big moments. Try telling Patrick Ewing that LeBron's career has been disappointing.

LeBron James is a champion now. He's leaped over the hurdle that all the Negative Nellies in the country have feverishly tried to raise higher and higher. I'm not demanding you love LeBron because, Lord knows, I don't love Michael Jordan but I do believe you have to respect him. Don't hold LeBron accountable for being like every other kid in America who wanted to "be like Mike". Don't hate him because he gets too much media coverage because he's not the only athlete to dominate SportsCenter. Look at Brett Favre or Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. He's a product of a legacy we built. We helped create LeBron James.

Instead of finding reasons to pick him apart, why not just sit back and enjoy? Trust me. He's just getting started and he's gonna be here awhile.

Kung Pau Chicken

Not since Scottie Pippen with the Bulls in the 90's have we seen a basketball player more comfortable with being the #2 than Lakers forward Pau Gasol.

In NBA terms, he's Robin to Kobe's Batman. He's Ricardo Tubbs, Dwight Schrute, Shirley Feeney, Al Gore. He's the quintessential second fiddle and that's just fine by him. However, Pau Gasol has to realize that, while he may only be the second biggest star on the Lakers, he's still a star and, in big moments, he has to perform like a star. This was never more evident than last night when, with 13.7 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Gasol passed out of an easy look in the paint that could have put the Lakers ahead and potentially tied the series. Instead, Gasol's pass was picked off by Kevin Durant which lead to Durant's three-point dagger than essentially won the game for Oklahoma City.

Priority #1 in Los Angeles, and really in any sports city, is keeping the Lakers fans happy. Priority #1A, though, is keeping Kobe Bryant happy. Gasol managed to go 0-for-2 in that regard. After the game, Bryant said what we were all thinking: "Pau's got to be more assertive. He's got to be more aggressive, got to shoot the ball, got to drive to the basket...". That's a simple synopsis that even the untrained eye could have figured out. We haven't see a heralded big man this gun-shy since the Sacramento Kings days of Chris Webber. Gasol passing out of the big shot is just another bullet in the gun of critics who have been firing "Pau is soft" shots throughout the seven-foot Spaniard's career, dating back to his Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies days. Making matters worse, his replacement with the Grizz, his younger brother Marc, is the antithesis of soft. Marc Gasol is a grizzled banger who, while not possessing his brother's offensive flair, also doesn't cower in a corner in big spots like his big bro either. Pau's miscue Saturday night was the latest in what has been a rollercoaster 12-14 months for the All-Star forward.

Let's think back to last year's playoffs. The Lakers get swept out of the second round of the playoffs by the eventual champion Dallas Mavericks. Gasol, meanwhile, disappears for most of the series, allegedly because he was feeling emotionally detached after a breakup with his girlfriend. I know the love bug hits some guys hard but.....COME ON, MAN! You're in the City of Angels and you're letting a broken relationship take you out of doing your job? You know how many guys would kill to be young, rich, famous and single in Los Angeles? That criticism helped beat the drum once again for those questioning Pau's toughness and mental makeup. It also lead to offseason where Gasol's name was being mentioned in more trade rumors than any NBA player not named Dwight Howard. In fact, Gasol eventually was traded.....to the Houston Rockets, as part of a deal that would have brought Chris Paul to the Lakers. As many of you know by now, that trade was killed by league offices and Gasol remained a Laker for the time being. Another lucky break for Gasol was that all of the "I can't believe you were about to trade me" outrage was taken up by Lamar Odom, who was dealt to Dallas for a 2nd round pick and a roll of quarters. Once Odom was traded, the heat rose again under Gasol's seat and the failed CP3 trade didn't stop Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak from shopping Gasol throughout the shortened season. He was dangled in L.A.'s pursuit of Howard. His name was brought up again in a deal with Houston. There was talk of a Gasol-Rajon Rondo swap with Boston. Even Kobe ripping the team in late February in defense of Gasol couldn't keep the big man off the block. Gasol was lucky again, though, as the Lakers failed to move Gasol before the deadline.

This time around, Gasol won't be as fortunate. If the errant pass that lead to Durant's three wasn't enough to put the goat horns on Gasol after Game 4, there's this: In the fourth quarter, he and fellow big man Andrew Bynum combined for two points and one rebound on 1-for-2 shooting, accounting for 9.1 percent of the Lakers' shots in the final period. Kobe Bryant, meanwhile, accounted 45.5 of the team's attempts, going 2-for-10. The second best player on a contender doesn't account for less than 10% of the team's offense. You think Dwyane Wade is going 1-for-2 in the fourth quarter tonight against Indiana? You think Manu Ginobili scores only two points in the final quarter against the Clippers? You think Kevin Garnett only finishes with one fourth-quarter rebound against Philly? Do you think any of those aforementioned three pass up a clear look in the paint with the game on the line late in the fourth quarter? Of course not. In his postgame interview, Kobe said: "He(Gasol) is the guy they're leaving open." Leaving open? How many All-Star forwards get "left open" late in the fourth quarter in the playoffs? Why would anyone leave the second best player on the Lakers open? Kobe explains: "When he catches the ball, he's looking to pass." Aaaah....that's it. Why play defense on a guy who you know wants no part of playing offense, right? I'm not NBA pro, but even I know my responsibility as the #2 isn't "catching the ball, looking to pass". That's Steve Blake's job. Hell, even Blake had no problem taking the final shot in Game 2....even if it did miss. You get the ball in the paint with a clear look at the hoop, you take that shot. They teach you that in 5th grade gym class.

Kobe Bryant got a lion's share of the criticism because he is the franchise guy and his ridiculously bad shot selection did help Oklahoma City get back in the game(Seriously, who takes fadeaway threes up eight in the fourth?).  Still, a lot of the Game 3 collapse falls in Gasol's lap and that's why, after Oklahoma City closes this series out(be in in 5 or 6), Pau Gasol is getting traded.

There's no way Kobe Bryant, after facing second round eliminations for the second consecutive year, largely because his #2 shrunk under the bright lights when it mattered the most, doesn't push for Gasol to be moved this offseason when there's obvious fan sentiment to do so. While not having the high-intensity pressure of playing in New York, being a star player on the Los Angeles Lakers is a high-profile job with lofty expectations. Those were shoes that Gasol and his mild-mannered nature were never comfortable fitting in. Sure, it was easy to praise Gasol when the Lakers won back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010 but that ship has now sailed. This is a Lakers team on decline. In reality, they were thisclose to not even making it out of the first round against Denver. It's time for the team to rebuild. If that means making the much-anticipated Bynum-for-Howard trade, so be it. If that means trading Metta World Peace for spare parts? Fine. One thing's for certian, Gasol has to go and Kobe knows it. Kobe knows that he'll never catch Micheal Jordan with his #2 passing up big shots and scoring two points in the final quarter of a potential series-tying win. Kobe knows Gasol needs to be more aggressive for L.A. to have a chance. Kobe also knows that, if Gasol continues to play the reluctant superstar act, Gasol will be on the next thing smoking out of L.A.

Try handling THAT breakup, Pau.

Boys of Summer

The NBA regular season is long over and the NBA Playoffs are in full swing. Typically, the gap between these two events is met with some kind of wrap-up piece involving postseason awards and the comparing of preseason prognostications to what inevitably happened. We'll get to that part in a minute.

By now, we have a general idea of how the first round(and maybe even the playoffs) is going to shake out as nearly every series will be at least two games in by time you read this. So, let's fast forward through all the playoff previewing and attack the NBA offseason as if it will be upon us in the coming days and then, we'll finish strong with the obligatory regular season recap/postseason preview.

For now, I want to address the ten most important names I believe we will hear about throughout this summer and the type of headlines we should expect so that our brains are adjusted to it by time it's all jammed down our throats.





1. and 2. Derrick Rose, PG, Chicago Bulls and Dwight Howard, C, Orlando Magic(tentatively) - I'll group these two together for a number of reasons. One, neither will take another dribble the rest of this postseason thanks to injury(Rose's knee and Howard's back). Second, how these two's respective teams do these next few weeks in their absence will determine how big of a story we're looking at going forward. For Rose, the Bulls have performed admirably throughout the season without the league's defending MVP. While it seems unrealistic that the Bulls can run the table with Pooh sitting on the bench in a suit, Chicago remains a solid contender in a very weak East even with their best player sidelined. Stranger things have happened. As for Howard, every Orlando win in these playoffs increases the likelihood he'll be playing elsewhere by the time next season tips off(which is a near-certainty, regardless). As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, now that Howard has re-cast himself as a selfish NBA villain, D-12 haters will be coming out of the woodwork to root for the Magic to do well just to spite their sullen big man. There's no better storyline to push for this postseason than the Magic shocking the world and going on a magic carpet ride in what might be beleaguered coach Stan Van Gundy's last hurrah in South Florida while Howard watches helplessly from the bench.

The third reason is more of a grand "What if.."? If Howard is absolutely leaving town and the Bulls absolutely are dead in the water with D.Rose out(which is the majority decision by experts but remains to be seen), what's stopping someone from putting two and two together and start beating the drum for a Bulls-Magic trade that would bring Howard to Chicago? As we saw with Chris Paul inevitably landing with the Clippers, somebody always sneaks up during these blockbuster trades and snatches a big name when talks with other teams go dormant. Where's the market for Howard? Outside of Brooklyn, whose situation is tied to whether PG Deron Williams stays or not, what other suitors are out there for Doomsday? With Andrew Bynum's career resurgence this year, you'd have to think the Lakers are out unless something happens in these playoffs that tempts them into shaking up the roster much like everyone wanted them to do last year. Chicago fits all the parameters for a Howard trade. They have the talent to deal(Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, Carlos Boozer, and C.J. Watson, whose stock is sure to rise filling in for Rose). They are a legit contender(something Brooklyn isn't, and probably never will be) and it will be a great marriage of one of the league's best point guards and one of the game's best defensive coaches with the game's best center/interior defender.

Look, Howard's good as gone and if Chicago's supporting cast fails to look at least somewhat formidable in Rose's absence, there's going to be talk as to whether this team will suffice for Rose's revenge year next season. The Bulls were mentioned as a target for Howard last season and, with the once-heavily favored Lakers potentially out of the race, somebody has to jump in. Why not the Bulls?

3. LeBron James, F, Miami Heat - Adding that third MVP is nice but we all know the drill by now with King James and the Miami Heat: This season is championship or bust. With Rose and Howard out, the Celtics aging and the West uncertain, the skids are greased for LeBron to finally win his first ring. If last season lead to tons of backlash against "The Akron Hammer" for not bringing a championship trophy back to South Beach, what do you think this summer will be like with Miami's degree of difficulty now made significantly easier? We're two games away from Miami completing their mopping of the floor of the New York Knicks unless we get one of those classic "This is my team and I'm not going down easy" turnarounds from Carmelo Anthony and 'Melo vs. 'Bron turns into the clash we all hoped it would be when both came to town nine years ago. That means in Round 2, LeBron and company get to feast on either a Howard-less Magic team or a Still-Not-Quite-There-Yet Pacers squad before going to war with whatever's left from what should be a heated Celtics-Bulls series(assuming Boston can get by the Hawks) for a chance to get back to the Finals. With last year's nemesis, Dallas, two games from elimination, the most likely opponents for the Heat in the Finals are a suddenly rejuvenated Spurs team(which would be a terribly boring Finals but a great last hurrah for the Duncan/Popovich Spurs era), the Durant/Westbrook Thunder(which is the matchup everyone wants), a sneaky Lakers team or an even sneakier Grizzlies team(If they can get by the Clippers. If not, sub out Grizzlies and put in Clippers).

If it wasn't any more evident, this has to be the year LeBron brings it all home. Yes, there are two other superstars on the roster. It doesn't matter. Like it or not, it's all on LeBron's shoulders. So, this summer will either be all about King James coming full circle or an even more severe battery of "Can LeBron win The Big One?" debates.

4. Kobe Bryant, G, Los Angeles Lakers - Nearly as tantalizing as LeBron's chase for Ring #1 is "The Black Mamba"'s chase for Ring #6. A sixth ring ties him with the man whose career he's forever been linked to: The once incomparable Michael Jordan. If the road to the championship seems a bit easier for LeBron, the opposite can be said for Bryant's boys. This is easily the worst Lakers team, post-Shaq, since the first season without "The Diesel"(which ended in Phoenix taking them out in Round 1 in what was supposed to be Steve Nash's coming out year). There's no Phil Jackson. No Derek Fisher. No triangle offense. No ridiculous deep bench of role players. Instead, Kobe will have to rely on his Twin Towers up front. Bynum's coming of age season can be seen as a culmination of a man angry about being on the trading block and a kid who finally decided to grow up. Given Bynum's admission that he "gets his Zen on" during team huddles and the numerous head-scratching moments we've seen throughout this season, the latter isn't completely true. What we do know is Bynum's playing his best ball and he and Pau Gasol represent the best front line in basketball. The team also needs Ron Artest/Metta World Peace to keep his 'bow throwing to a minimum and manage to be the lockdown perimeter defender he once was without also being the Queensbridge goon. It doesn't help Kobe that this is a very deep Western playoffs. You can make the case for six teams going all the way in this conference(excluding Utah and Denver. Even Dallas down 2-0 isn't a death knell).

Bryant is getting up in age. His window for tying His Airness is closing as the odometer goes up and the competition gets more fierce. As remarkable as the seasons of guys like Durant and James have been, we might go into this summer marveling at what we just saw from #24: a man who aged better than we expected that saw his grips on the NBA slipping and gave it one last run before the inevitable passing of the torch to his younger counterparts. The Lakers are long shots to run the table but Kobe Bryant has proven that, with his back against the wall, he's as dangerous as the snake he stole his moniker from.

5. Danny Ainge, GM, Boston Celtics - Huh? Hear me out. If Boston is unable to get past Atlanta(let alone make another championship run), we'll look back at the trading deadline and wonder if the embattled Celtics GM made the right move in not breaking up "The Big Three" and rebuilding around Rajon Rondo as opposed to giving it one last shot with his aging vets. Ainge, reportedly, had deals in place that would have sent Ray Allen to Memphis in exchange for guard O.J. Mayo and Celtics legend Paul Pierce to New Jersey/Brooklyn for Mehmet Okur's expiring deal and the Top-3 protected lottery pick that went to Portland instead in exchange for Gerald Wallace. Signing off on both of those deals would have put the final nail in the coffin in what has been a great run for the Garnett-Allen-Pierce Celtics. It also would have set them up nicely for the future. With KG a free agent at season's end, the Celtics would have went into the summer with cap space, a solid young trio of Rondo, Mayo and rising star Avery Bradley as well as a lottery pick in a decent-yet-not-supremely deep draft. If that pick turns into Jared Sullinger or Harrison Barnes or even someone like Andre Drummond, that would be much better than what the C's will be looking at next season....which is to say, nothing.

We knew Boston's odds of making another title run with everything falling in place for LeBron and the Heat were going to be lofty. We didn't think they'd run out of gas as soon as the playoffs tipped off and risk getting upset by a game Hawks team. If the Celtics bow out early, Ainge's refusal to look ahead will be the "What if..?" that circles around Beantown all summer and the years ahead. Even when the team acquired Allen and Garnett a few years ago, we all knew this day was coming. Ainge should have, too. Now, we're passed the point where he can do something about it. If he thought the market for old-timers like Pierce and Allen was slim back in February, watch how quickly the market closes up once they show their age in the playoffs. Depending on whether Boston turns things around, Ainge will either be breathing a sigh of relief or kicking himself in the pants.

6. Blake Griffin, F, Los Angeles Clippers - All the time spent with our jaws on the floor and our eyes wider than Vince Carter's abdomen while watching Clippers highlights headlined by the NBA's newest dunking sensation, we seemed to have forgotten Griffin's a work in progress. An unfinished product. A project. His offense is pretty much a spin move to the hoop and charging the lane with reckless abandon in hopes of jumping over whoever's foolish enough to stand in his way to get dunked on. Like the early years of LeBron, Griffin is a superstar with flashes of brilliance but he isn't "great" yet. He's a freakishly athletic double-double machine whose career will benefit greatly from every step Chris Paul takes on the court in a Clippers uniform, but he's not "there" yet. He doesn't have that outside jumper that Tim Duncan will utilize for the next decade while he adds to his already-breathtaking resume. He isn't an intimidating post defender like Andrew Bynum or Serge Ibaka. He's Brock Lesnar with a 40' vertical. He's a monster, but even monsters find people valiant enough to slay them. Even James is slowly starting to realize he'll have to do more than drive to the hoop like a freight train and either score or draw the foul if he wants to be a champion in this league. This is Griffin's first taste of the postseason and he's getting a hell of a trail by fire by being matched up with an interior beast like Zach Randolph. However, when it's all said and done, much like the glory days of Vinsanity, Griffin will stop wowing us with his NBA Jam-style dunks and we'll start having to take his career a bit more seriously in terms of whether all those highlights are translating into something more substantial. Dunking over everyone you see is nice....if you're trying to get a cute nickname and a spot on the And1 Mixtape Tour. In the NBA, what impresses people the most is winning. Tim Duncan traded flash for the chance to be a four-time NBA champion and the greatest power forward to ever live a long time ago. Griffin will soon find out that his name will be on SportsCenter for more than just his posterizing jams as the pressure to bring some jewelry to an abused franchise mounts.

7. Chris Paul, G, Los Angeles Clippers - Sure, Paul will probably not garner as much attention as former Draft classmate and point guard rival Deron Williams this summer because Williams, unlike Paul, will be testing the market this offseason. However, Paul has the opportunity to reclaim his spot as the league's best point guard(an honor that was handed to Derrick Rose after his MVP season last year while Paul floundered on the Hornets) and create some serious buzz by giving the city of Los Angeles and its beloved Lakers a legit in-house rival. Paul helped spearhead a 27-point fourth quarter comeback in Game 1 to steal a W from the Grizzlies in what is the most intriguing of a slew of entertaining opening round matchups(Heat-Knicks, Thunder-Mavs, even Lakers-Nuggets). How the rest of the series goes is anyone's guess but it's fun to see CP3 commandeer a team with legit championship aspirations after being held back by poor management and penny-pinching in New Orleans. It also gives the Western Conference a certian "Oh, shit...." feeling. As we saw in last year's playoffs when Paul nearly single-handedly took down the Lakers in Round 1, Paul is a force to be reckoned with, especially in thr 4th quarter, when he decides to turn it on, bum knee be damned. It seems farfetched to think Paul can go too much further seeing how this series with Memphis is sure to be one of those hard-fought, seven-game, back-and-forth affairs that battles between two young and hungry teams tend to be and the winner will go on to face San Antonio, who can be had but not without a fight.

Paul's rebirth in L.A. is the type of thing that makes commissioner David Stern grin, even if Stern's decision to put the screws to the trade that would have sent Paul to the Lakers was one of the biggest bush league moves we've seen in years, because it gives the NBA another viable contender rather than strengthening an already great one. If Paul can make serious contenders out of a Clippers team that has been retched for years, then CP3's name will ring bells through the summer and give Lob City the kind of offseason sleeper buzz that is sure to drown out any fuss that the D-Will Sweepstakes will garner. For now, Paul and Griffin make the Clippers interesting and fun to watch and the winner of this series will emerge as a sneaky dark horse out West(especially since Memphis upset the Spurs in Round 1 last year). Congratulations are in order, regardless, for Paul, who is one of the NBA's true good guys and handled his desire to leave New Orleans with the type of class and respect that is in complete contrast to Dwight Howard's on-again, off-again posturing to skip town and for making a laughingstock into a contender that's no joke.

8. Amare Stoudemire, F, New York Knicks - The combination of being on vacation and gathering my NFL Draft thoughts(which will be posted tomorrow) prevented me from writing a suitable preview for the playoffs sooner. I'm glad it did because I would have completely missed out on one of the most peculiar stories and insanely boneheaded displays of aggression the sports world has seen in quite some time. Much like Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose, Amare Stoudemire will be watching his boys finish out the playoffs in a suit and tie at the end of the bench. Unlike D-Rose and D-12, Stoudemire's injury was caused when he decided to put his hand through a fire extinguisher case, like Andy Bernard busting through a wall after Jim Halpert steals his phone on The Office, and sidelined himself for the rest of a series with the Heat that is sure to be over soon anyway. Like with Howard, how the team performs in Amare's absence will go a long way in determining his future with the team. The Knicks already flirted with dealing Stoudemire after signing Tyson Chandler but, alas, teams were scared off by STAT's uninsured knees and albatross of a contract. If finding a taker for Amare was tough before, what exactly is the going rate of a injury-prone forward who can't play defense that just systematically took himself out of the playoffs by going Mike Tyson on a glass case? Furthermore, when has punching stuff ever solved ANYTHING? I'm no Ghandi. I'm not anti-violence. Lord knows I've punched a lot of things in moments of justified rage but, you know what, I realized how stupid it was after I found myself in intense pain with knuckles swollen to the size of a pregnant girl's nipples. You can try to justify the moment by saying Stoudemire was frustrated and not thinking clearly, but that "not thinking in the moment" theory didn't work when Metta World Peace landed The People's Elbow to James Harden's neck and it's not going to fly here. What Stoudemire did was stupid and if it was done out of anger because the offense is now flowing through Carmelo Anthony(only one of the best pure scorers of this generation) instead of Stoudemire than its another example in a long line of childish selfishness that has plagued this shortned NBA season.

Making matters worse, if the Knicks put up more of a fight against the Heat(or, at least, some semblance of a fight) with Stoudemire on the bench, then Amare's last moments as a Knick will be him picking shards of glass out of his hand. The Knicks WILL find a suitor for Stoudemire. It might not be the blockbuster one would hope when dealing a former All-Star but someone will take a chance on Amare the way teams foolishly still take chances on knuckleheads like Gilbert Arenas and J.R. Smith. Stoudemire's absence allows this to be 'Melo's team, 100%. It seems impossible that Anthony as a one-man show can hold off a three-headed monster in Miami but, again, how the team responds will determine Amare's fate this summer. For now, he's an overpaid shlub coming off a moment of sheer stupidity in what has to be the epitome of "cutting off your nose to spite your face".

9. Tim Duncan, F, San Antonio Spurs - Never before did basketball fans think they would ask questions like "Can someone quietly become the greatest player to ever play his position?" or "Can someone unsuspectingly become one of the 10 best basketball players of all-time?" but the answer to both of those questions are "Yes" and "....because Tim Duncan did it.". With a resume that would make Karl Malone piss in his Wranglers and Charles Barkley choke on his WeightWatchers, Tim Duncan is poised to add a fifth ring in a shortened NBA season where every expert had the aging Duncan and his gaggle of geezers put out to pasture. Bill Simmons mentioned this stat in his recent column and it's really astonishing when you think about it: If the Spurs win it all this year, it will be 14 years between Duncan's first ring and, presumably, his last one, which would be the largest gap between first and last titles in NBA history. 14 years! While it still seems farfetched, the Spurs still have a puncher's chance to be a problem in these playoffs. They have veteran savvy, the league's best coach and a legendary power forward that gets better with age. They are porn actress deep and they are playing with a chip on their shoulder because, as always, they have flown under the radar behind the flashier Thunder, Grizzlies and Clippers.

Still, Duncan adding to his legacy is every bit as interesting as Kobe's quest for his sixth title and LeBron and Durant's chase for their first. At 34, Duncan is an elder statesman in a league where stars are barely over the legal drinking age. The old man showed he's still got it in Game 1 with a status quo line of 17-11-5. The real test, however, comes in the next round where they'll either be faced with a rematch of last year's shocking upset to Memphis or a clash against the Clippers that will feature a showdown between Blake Griffin and Duncan that will be a battle of Fun vs. Fundamentals. Duncan and company are the story that get the least amount of pub. They're boring, unspectacular but, most importantly, wildly successful. A fifth ring would be a fitting way to close the show for the greatest big man of this generation. It may not have the pizazz of watching Griffin throw one down or a Kobe turnaround jumper but it will be just as interesting to watch and will allow Duncan to use this summer to get the attention he rightfully deserves.

10. Kevin Durant, F, Oklahoma City Thunder - As basketball fans, we will probably never get to see Kobe vs. LeBron in a seven-game series with a title on the line. We weren't fortunate, in this generation, to have those Bird-Magic moments or Russell vs. Chamberlain. The closest we've come to a real head-to-head matchup between legends was Olajuwon vs. Shaq in the mid-90's(and please don't try to sell me on Kobe vs. Pierce). Kid Dynamite has an opportunity to change all of that. With the only thing standing in LeBron's way of returning to the Finals being themselves, it's up to Durant to hold up his end of the bargain and deliver on the Finals appearance that they should have given us last year. Durant vs. James for the 2012 MVP has been one of this season's better stories and it should culminate in a showdown for all the marbles. It will also be a hell of a run for The Durantula. A trip to the Finals means Durant and company would have dispatched the defending champion Mavs, their heated rival Lakers and a clash of old school vs. new school against the scrappy Spurs before entering the Finals against a star-studded Heat team. NBA fans, execs and analysts want Thunder vs. Heat. The NBA NEEDS Thunder vs. Heat. We need a showdown like this on the biggest stage. Durant vs. James would be what Rodgers vs. Brees was supposed to be in the NFL Playoffs this past season(thanks a lot, Giants and Niners!).

If Durant fails, it will be because he once again couldn't co-exist with his best friend and teammate Russell Westbrook. It will be because the leaders of the new school got outclassed by wily old vets in L.A. or San Antonio and it will be a colossal failure for everyone involved. It will also lead to an offseason where Durant is faced with the same questions LeBron has been faced throughout his career as the leader of a perennial championship favorite. "Can he win The Big One?" "Does he need more help?" "Should they trade Westbrook?" "Should they fire Scott Brooks?". Durant has the chance to kill those questions before they start. He made his case for the MVP in Game 1 by leading a fourth quarter charge to upend the Mavs and sealing it with a last second jumper for the win(as if winning his third straight scoring title wasn't enough). The time has come for Durant to step up to LeBron and battle for the right to be the NBA's alpha dog, but that chance won't come if he's still fighting for that spot on his own team.

And now......the obligatory handing out of the hardware.

For starters, I nailed 15 of 16 playoff teams with the Jazz being the only miss(I had Portland instead). Granted, the seeding was wrong but the cast of characters are the same. Mostly.

COACH OF THE YEAR

Preseason pick: Rich Carlisle, Mavericks
Postseason pick: Gregg Popovich, Spurs

In December, I made the Spurs a playoff out of respect. Nobody thought the aging Spurs would be able to survive a short season of seemingly endless back-to-back games, but Pops rested his troops beautifully and the result is San Antonio is the West's top seed and a legit threat to winning a fifth title. The Mavs, meanwhile, swallowed a poison pill by acquiring Lamar Odom from the Lakers. Odom never felt comfortable in Dallas and the team seemed out of sorts all year. The result is the Mavs finished as the conference's 7 seed and are down 2-0 to the Thunder while Odom was sent packing. Popovich, as it was announced today, was already awarded Coach of the Year honors. A fitting tribute to arguably the greatest coach of this generation.

SIXTH MAN OF THE YEAR

Preseason pick: Lamar Odom, Mavericks
Postseason pick: James Harden, Thunder

As you can tell, I was high on the Mavericks this season and I really thought Odom would use his exile from L.A. as motivation to really shine for the defending champs. What I didn't factor in was Odom's trademark moodiness and sensitivity which lead to Odom sulking throughout the season before the team told him to just stay home. Harden, however, averaged 16.8 points off the bench while shooting around 49% from the field and 39% from three. Oh, and he took a hellacious elbow to the neck from Metta World Peace.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

Preseason pick: Derrick Williams, Timberwolves
Postseason pick: Kyrie Irving, Cavaliers

As a guy born and raised in Jersey, I'd love to Newark's own Kenny Faried steal this one because he's been an absolute beast on the boards for Denver. However, Irving shined the most out of a lackluster rookie class. Irving averaged 18.5 points per game with 5.4 assists for a miserable Cavs team despite missing some time with a myriad of injuries. Williams got lost in the shuffle in Minnesota, and averaged just under 9 points a game and just under 5 boards. Truth be told, Ricky Rubio seemed to have this award locked up before blowing out his knee.

MOST IMPROVED PLAYER

Preseason pick: none.....who can really predict that?
Postseason pick: Jeremy Lin, Knicks

You can make the case for a number of guys. Ryan Anderson in Orlando, "Boogie" Cousins in Sac-Town, even Andrew Bynum but, to me, this is a no-brainer. Linsanity was the talk of New York for a good six weeks and, if Mike D'Antoni is still coaching and Lin doesn't get hurt, who knows how Lin's season ends? Anytime you go from sleeping on your teammate's couch to the biggest sports star in New York.....a week after the Giants win the Super Bowl, you've achieved something big.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Preseason pick: Serge Ibaka, Thunder
Postseason pick: Tyson Chandler, Knicks

The overwhelming consensus seems to lean toward Chandler. I guess because he's the only one who actually plays defense on the Knicks. The Ibaka pick still looks strong, as he finished the season as the leader in blocked shots(whereas Chandler finished 19th). If there are a couple sleepers here, Indiana's Roy Hibbert improved a team that was dead last defensively last year. Andrew Bynum kept his defense strong all season, a point made emphatically with his 10 block performance in Game 1 against the Nuggets(Granted, that doesn't factor into a regular season award). My prediction is it goes to Chandler but, if I had a vote, I'd stick with Ibaka. One thing's for certain, after a year of flip-flopping and mailing it in, this award won't be going to Dwight Howard.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

Preseason pick: Dwyane Wade, Heat
Postseason pick: LeBron James, Heat

Let me start off by saying that I think this award belong to Kevin Durant but that I think voters will give it to LeBron after foolishly shunning him last year as punishment for "The Decision". To me, when you lead the league in scoring for three straight years, you deserve to have something to show for it. LeBron is the best player in the league. He's always going to put up amazing stat lines and yearly numbers. However, LeBron's numbers are kind of like Kate Upton's cleavage: Breathtaking to look at but eventually you aren't impressed anymore and you look for something new

(Side note: I have no problem with Kate Upton's cleavage. I, honestly, can't get enough of it. In the history of the human race, no 19-year old has ever been has physically gifted and astoundingly beautiful as Kate Upton. Period. That's not even hyperbole. That's real talk. If you find me a woman under 20 that combined Upton's beauty, body, and sex appeal the way she has, I'm open to listening. She did for "The Dougie" and now, "The Cat Daddy" what Ali Landry did for Doritos, and what Tyra Banks did for five-heads...which is to say made them immensely sexy.)

Durant is that something new. If we aren't ready to give Durant his due this year, when will we? Does he have to win four straight scoring titles? Five? I understand wanting to give a mea culpa for dissing James last season but giving LeBron another MVP just feeds the monster that we get tired of building up, which is that LeBron is a regular season champion who underwhelms in the playoffs. A third MVP season without a ring just makes the vitriol against LeBron more intense. That's not to say that an MVP season for Durant means he'll win a ring but I don't understand the idea behind making up for snubbing LeBron last year by snubbing Durant this year. LeBron's numbers will always be impressive, to the point where he's going to have to start doing outer-worldly things to shock us, but I think Durant deserves the credit or, as I pitched with Brees-Rodgers, suspend the award until the two hash it out in the playoffs if it comes to that.

NBA FINALS PREDICTION

Preseason pick: Heat over Grizzlies in 6
Postseason pick: Heat over Spurs in 5

I just have a bad feeling here. Look, I know I've been saying this entire blog that we're heading towards Thunder vs. Heat in the Finals but there's something about this Spurs team that makes it hard to pick against. We know the Heat's coming out of the East. That's without question. Every team that would oppose them is missing a star player(with the exception of Boston, who are just old). The West? Far more unpredictable. The Grizzlies are a tough out....except they might not get by the Clippers. The Thunder are the obvious favorites.....except the Lakers are in their heads. My heart says we'll get the Durant-LeBron matchup we're dying to see. My gut says the Spurs play tough D, keep everyone rested by going to their deep bench, sweep the Jazz, get revenge on the Grizz and then stun an overconfident Thunder team coming off a seven-game war with the Lakers.


Then, they go to the Finals and get completely overwhelmed by an immensely pissed LeBron, who won't let himself lose in two straight NBA Finals. Remember, we didn't get the Brees-Rodgers rematch we all wanted because some pesky team with a good D that nobody was checking for snuck in and broke up the party. The Spurs can be this year's Giants. I hope I'm wrong but you never know.

Lesser of Two Evils

As with any form of entertainment, the sports world is more compelling when it has someone who, as Al Pacino famously said in "Scarface", they can point their fingers at and say "There's the bad guy."

Every sport needs villains. After a while you get tired of watching soft drink-shilling pop tarts smiling for the cameras and hugging children. We need people we can aim our vitriol at. We need someone or some thing to root against, be it Duke basketball or the Dallas Cowboys or Barry Bonds. Plotting the demise of those that make our blood boil is almost as entertaining as cheering on our boys(and, depending on who you ask, both feelings might be equal).

In the basketball world, fans tend to aim their disgust at individuals more so than teams(though the Lakers rank high amongst sports' most despised franchises). Coming into this season, the most hated man on the face of the hardwood was Miami Heat superstar LeBron James, who famously lead the city of Cleveland down the primrose path before ripping their hearts out on national television via a unnecessary, self-serving "special" where he stalled for a half hour before announcing his intentions to ditch the Cavs to "take his talents to South Beach". Cleveland will never forgive King James for that and there are many outside of Ohio who have the same sentiments as Cavs fans. Before LBJ was Public Enemy #1, fans adopted Lakers guard Kobe Bryant as the NBA's John Dillinger. As if a well-publicized rape charge wasn't enough to make people's skin crawl, Kobe had storied brouhaha with lovable Laker legend Shaquille O'Neal and went on a momentary rampage where he attempted to whine his way out of L.A. unless the Lakers put a team that fit his liking(oddly enough, Kobe wanted a championship caliber team much like the one he just destroyed with Shaq). "The Decision" didn't quite take Kobe off the hook but that public screw-up by James combined with Kobe winning a couple rings without "The Diesel" changed the momentum a bit.

However, much like The Akron Hammer bailed out The Black Mamba from the NBA's hot seat, James might now find himself to be the beneficiary of a momentum shift in the battle to become basketball's biggest bad guy. In fact, he might end up being usurped by two contenders, one of which a very familiar face.

While LeBron has been busy putting on another season for the ages and Kobe continues to fight off Father Time by threatening to win a scoring title when his body is more broken down than a '86 Volvo, the center of attention(no pun intended) these past few months has been Orlando Magic big man Dwight Howard. Coming into this lockout-shortened season, D-12 was a mortal lock to be skipping out of Orlando and into the friendly confines of either Los Angeles or somewhere in the Metropolitan area(Brooklyn/New Jersey). Instead, Howard went on a five-month crusade in which he curb-stomped any bit of respect or credibility the basketball-loving public had for him by routinely flip-flopping his intentions, plotting behind closed doors to get his head coach canned and then sulking to the point that teammates accused him of mailing it in. Now, I'm sure, if given a mulligan, Howard would push for the team to move him before the trade deadline and not waver off of his demand to get out of town. However, Howard found himself caught in an internal struggle with himself. He wanted out of Orlando, but he wanted to do it in a way where he wouldn't piss off the fans in Orlando that stuck behind him since he came to town a few years ago. He wanted his exit to be more like Chris Paul's exile from New Orleans, bittersweet yet understandable, and not like LeBron's, with fans burning jerseys and booing til their lungs collapsed. So, Howard found himself answering constant questions about his future, wanting to tell the world he wanted out but not wanting to come off as a complete douche bag. The result? The Magic forced Doomsday into a game of chicken, which they inevitably won at the deadline and forced Howard into signing an extension for next season but only after he exhausted any chance of a trade with his constant unwillingness to make a decision on his future. Because of that, Howard went from being a conflicted star who wanted to leave on good terms to being cast as a coach killer who got outed for being a diva behind closed doors who threw his teammates and head coach Stan Van Gundy under the bus while demanding the preferential superstar treatment he felt he deserved as the man at the center of trade talks for the last 12 months.

How the next few months play out for Howard remain to be seen. For now, he's going to spend the rest of the season in a suit and on the mend from a poorly timed back surgery(Poorly timed because it came after reports were flying left and right confirming Howard wanted Van Gundy gone and accusing Howard of giving up on the team, a claim he can no longer defuse from the bench) and being a foil for angry fans. Lucky for Dwight, another target has emerged to be the target of our arrows. The Headcase Formerly Known As Ron Artest now known as Metta World Peace caught a Glen Davis sized amount of shit over the weekend for delivering an elbow to the side of Oklahoma City Thunder guard James Harden's head that would make "Macho Man" Randy Savage cringe. Ron/Metta claims the elbow was unintentional but the question remains why Artest/Peace insisted upon throwing 'bows in the first place? Was he that gassed up from throwing one down that he had to go into full freakout mode? Or was this yet another in a long line of inexplicably foolish antics that have become Captain Queensbridge's calling card his entire career? In a sports era where concussion awareness is at an all-time high, could Artest pick a worse time to go Dee-Bo upside Harden's dome? The league has suspended Artest/Peace for seven games, but if it was up to me, Artest would be done for 2012 with his availability for next season being up for review pending good behavior. This is the man who has become more known for charging into the stands after fans, badgering refs, bullying opponents, giving spaced-out interviews and being a general nuisance to every team he's been on. You forget that he's one of the game's premier perimeter defenders and underrated combo guards. All you think about when you hear the name "Ron Artest" or "Metta World Peace"(Side note: could there be a more ill-fitting new moniker for a loon like Artest than "World Peace"? That would be like George Zimmerman changing his name to "Racial Equality") is "That guy's craaazzzy!".

That being said, at least Artest knows what he is and he's never shied away from it. Sure, the name change may have been a ploy by him to convince people he's turned over a new leaf, but who was really buying that anyway? Artest is a lot of things. Fraud isn't one of them. The same can't be said about Howard. That brings me to my ultimate question and, in essence, the reason behind this blog: Is it better to have a once-respectable superstar who turns out to be a me-first prima donna that sabotages the franchise with his indecisiveness or a knucklehead with a reputation for chicanery whom the locker room knows they'll have to keep in check if they hope to contend? With Artest, you know what you're getting: solid defense, some ill-advised jumpers, about 30-40 technicals and the looming probability of a suspension. In Howard, you get the game's best center and two-way threat who also can't be trusted because he can flip on his teammates and coaches the minute he sees greener pastures. You want a star who needs to be coached or needs to be babied?

This summer, Howard will get his wish either via Van Gundy's inevitable canning or a trade out of town(possibly both). In the meantime, is there a better potential storyline than a Howard-less Magic team's quest for the title in the upcoming playoffs? What better way to stick it the diva who proclaimed that his teammates weren't good enough for someone of his stature than to win a ring without him.....while he's watching from the bench? How can you not root for Orlando as a underdog in a hardly-stacked Eastern Conference? Do I think they'll get out of the first round? Hell no! Will it be entertaining to watch them try and will I laugh giddily if they make each round a series? Damn straight. As for Artest, he'll do his time and he'll come back to a Lakers team that still has an outside chance at a title. He'll go back to his role as the NBA's biggest wild card and the team will rally around him to keep him from going, well, Ron Artest on somebody.

That, to me, speaks wonders about how the tables have turned for Dwight Howard. He's managed to become more of a cancerous pariah than a well-known crazy man who just tried to decapitate an opponent with a bionic elbow. Congratulations, Dwight. In your quest to be treated like a superstar like LeBron, you've managed to become Public Enemy #1......just like LeBron.

Making matters worse, not even Ron Artest can save you from that hot seat, big fella.

Sum of All Fears

The sports world was swept away by the media overreaction that has become so typical these days after the Los Angeles Lakers were swept away by the Dallas Mavericks a week ago. Magic Johnson brainless opined that the team needed to be blown up, despite the fact that this very same Lakers team was the favorite to make it back to the Finals and maybe even complete the three-peat. Bloggers and fans pondered a future that saw big names like Orlando center Dwight Howard or New Orleans point man Chris Paul rocking the purple and gold. The premature exile of the defending champs has caused weeks of contrived city-wide panic over a team that hosts one of the three best players in the game and the best guard since Michael Jordan(Kobe Bryant, as if you didn't know already), the game's best power forward(Pau Gasol), one of the game's most highly-regarded perimeter defenders(the always nutty Ron Artest), the reigning Sixth Man of the Year(Lamar Odom-Kardashian), and a guy believed by some(not me) to be one of the game's best big men(Andrew Bynum).

The doom and gloom may be overly manufactured to fill airtime on SportsCenter and sports radio slots or get clicks on blogs or, for something a bit more archaic, sell newspapers but that doesn't mean there isn't cause for concern for the Lake Show. Here are some real reasons fans and "experts" should be pessimistic about Kobe and Co.'s reign on the top.

1. The Doctor Won't Be Seeing You Now: For years, I've downplayed Phil Jackson's achievements as a guy who just happened to be at the right place at the right time as the coach of historically-great teams with once-in-a-generation players(MJ and Scottie in Chicago, Kobe and Shaq in L.A.). After all, Erik Spolestra is eight wins away from bringing a title to South Beach on the strength of a roster that features two of the game's greats(D-Wade and LBJ), a vastly-overpaid-but-still-very good third man(Chris "Avatar" Bosh) and a supporting cast of guys who were great in NBA Live '98(Juwon Howard, Mike Bibby, Erick Dampier, etc.). Still, there's no denying the impact that will be felt by Jackson's inevitable retirement if it does indeed happen at the end of the season.

Here are a couple of the names being tossed around as Dr. Phil's successor: Mike Dunleavy, Rick Adelman, Kurt Rambis. Ummmm.....yikes. Personally, I'd like to see former Laker-turned-longtime assistant Brian Shaw get the nod. Yes, he'll be a little overmatched trying to rein in all these big egos but so will any of these other "veteran" coaches. Shaw knows this Lakers bunch and he's played with a few of them. Plus, as evidenced by three of the final four teams being led by coaches who aren't exactly seasoned vets(Tom Thibedeau in Chicago, Spolestra in Miami, Scotty Brooks in OKC), you don't have to recycle the same names around the coaching circuit to be successful. Regardless, this team will be different without Phil and it will be hard for the fans of Showtime to get up for this Lakers team the way they did when The Zen Master was running things.

2. Point of No Return: Much to the surprise of noone, teams finally took advantage of L.A.'s smoke-and-mirrors show at point guard with the tag team of Steve Blake and the rotting cadaver known as Derek Fisher. The problem is, both men are under contract for the next couple of years and there seems to be no sign of an influx of new talent unless the Lakers can swing a Pau Gasol-like heist of Chris Paul from New Orleans to the tune of something like CP3 and Emeka Okafor for Andrew Bynum(although, as a Hornets fan who watched the team once give up Baron Davis for the shit sandwich of Speedy Claxton and Dale Davis, that isn't beyond the realm of possibility given N.O.'s financial woes). The Lakers also don't possess a first round pick in next month's draft to lock down a young pup for Fisher to mentor. Sure, they can probably buy a late-first from Chicago and snag a Nolan Smith from Duke or Butler's Shelvin Mack but neither of those guys seem like anything more than C.J. Watson-esque backup types.

As for the free agent market? Try to talk yourself into signing someone like Sebastian Telfair or T.J. Ford. How about a Sasha Vujacic reunion in L.A., Laker fans? Does Marcus Banks or Chris Quinn or Acie Law not have you salivating? The prospects for L.A. at the point aren't very promising unless they can swing a deal for a CP3 or Deron Williams or Steve Nash that will also net them something in return that makes up for the loss of Bynum(which N.O. or NJ or Phoenix or whoever would ultimately want in return for their point guards). Still, in a league that has seen a plethora of talented young point guards enter the league(Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, John Wall) over the last couple of years to go along with the Chris Pauls, Tony Parkers and Rajon Rondos of the world, the Lakers must work steadfast in nabbing someone with a bit less decay at the 1 than what they currently have.

3. How Do You Like Your Kobe Steak? Well Done.: Depending on which side of the fence you sit on, you'll either find the eventual talk about how much Kobe Bryant to be premature or understated. I'm part of the latter group. Look, I'm not saying we've seen the last of "The Black Mamba" as an elite player, but at some point there has to be some legit concern over the tread on those tires. Kobe has played 1,311 games as an NBA pro, including the playoffs. He'll turn 33 in November of this year when he starts his 15th NBA season after entering the league out of high school in, in my opinion, the greatest draft in NBA history in 1996.

On top of that, who exactly is taking the pressure off Kobe next season so he doesn't have to carry this team to another title next year? Pau Gasol let a broken heart kill all of his momentum in the postseason. The same will probably eventually happen to fellow sucker-for-love Lamar Odom. We're still waiting for something to breakout with Andrew Bynum that isn't a bone in his knee. Ron Artest? He's another hurled beer cup away from hosting pick-up games at the Rucker. Perhaps the ugly secret of Kobe being past his prime is why there is so much talk about L.A. going all-in on a trade for Chris Paul or Dwight Howard. Much like the New York Yankees, the Lakers have always had a new youngster for the old regime to pass the torch to from Wilt-to-Kareem-to-Magic-to-Shaq-to-Kobe. Somebody has to be on the other end when Kobe eventually passes the baton. Now, Kobe's thirst to conquer the legend of Micheal Jordan means we're probably looking at another five or six more painful years of Kobe trying to get some lift out of those achy knees while he tries to one-up MJ. It will be sad and painful to watch, much like Jordan's campaign with the Wizards but, if L.A. can't lock down an heir apparent, the post-Kobe era will be even harder to stomach.

4. A League of Extraordinarily Young Gentlemen: As teams like the Lakers and Spurs(and eventually the Mavericks) have or will learn, those up-and-coming young teams that are brimming with potential and aiming for the #1 spot are now taking less and less time to grab their time in the spotlight. We've seen it now with Oklahoma City, who are four wins away from their first Finals run since the team left Seattle. Memphis will only get better if they re-sign Marc Gasol and Shane Battier and get a healthy Rudy Gay back. The Clippers might eventually emerge from years of being dragged down by their own misfortune with another young piece to go with that Blake Griffin-Eric Gordon-Eric Bledsoe nucleus. The Timberwolves could be in the mix with some proper management. The same for the Warriors and that Steph Curry-Monta Ellis backcourt. Plus, the Nuggets aren't going to go away even without Carmelo. After years of dominance, the Lakers are becoming what the Spurs already are: an old team trying to get by on reliving the glory days. The gap between the elite and the next-big-things went from the size of The Golden Gate Bridge to the size of a city block. Teams are past keeping up with the Jones. Now, they are gunning for the Busses.

No Air

Kobe Bryant's legacy.

That was the selling point of this year's NBA Finals. It was all the media talked about. It's why Gabe tuned in. Kobe Bryant trying to add to his resume was supposed to make everyone forget that we saw this movie between the Celtics and Lakers two years ago. It was supposed to make us forget the media's 180 on "The Black Mamba". It was supposed to make us forget everything. Who cares about everything else? This series was about Kobe.

And you know what? In the process of watching Kobe do work, we got a somewhat entertaining NBA Finals(or so I'm told, since I stayed true to my word of boycotting the Finals). Kobe Bryant showed why he is the best player in the game for the first 6 games of a back-and-forth championship series.

Then, Game 7 came along....and Kobe shit the bed.

Now, I know Laker fans and Kobe slurpers are going to point fingers at me and go on one of their "You're a Kobe hater!" diatribes. I assure you, as I've said many times, I do not hate Kobe Bryant. I think his 2003 sexual assault charge shouldn't have been swept under the rug by reporters and, at times, I think he tries to disguise his selfishness on the court with a PR-cultivated phony persona off of it in front of the flashing lights, but for the most part, I like Kobe Bryant. He's among the top five guys I enjoy watching in the game right now. He's one of the 15-20 greatest basketball players of all-time and he was spectacular in both the first six games of these Finals and throughout the postseason(especially against the Suns).

That being said, for weeks, we got fed the storyline of Kobe's chased of the great Michael Jordan. It's all we heard about. "Kobe's trying to pass Mike. He's only one ring away.....blah blah blah." Then, in the biggest game of his life, when the stakes were high and everything was on the line, Kobe Bryant went 6-for-24 with 23 points(led all Lakers scorers) and 15 rebounds. When the game was down to wire in the last few minutes, it was Ron Artest's shooting, Pau Gasol's rebounding and Sasha Vujacic's two clutch free throws that helped put championship banner #16 on the rafters of the Staples Center. Kobe's excuse for his poor performance? He was tired. Spent. Exhausted. I'm sorry, did you say you were tired? The biggest game of your career and you needed 40 winks? Weeks of stories about your legacy and you fall flat in the end? Really? THIS was your selling point, America!?

I said before Game 1 tipped off that we will learn nothing. That the teams were evenly matched and the Lakers will win in 7.....You can thank me later. When the clock hit zero, the big stories after the game were Ron Artest being Ron Artest and thanking his shrink and promoting his single at the same time during the biggest postgame interview of his life(Hey, whatever keeps him out of the stands and away from robbing liquor stores is OK by me). Do you think that would happen if this was Jordan's Bulls winning a close Game 7 for the NBA championship? Do you think His Airness would be taking a backseat to Dennis Rodman in the biggest game of his life? Do you think Jordan would be too tired to carry his team across the finish line? Jordan once dispatched the Utah Jazz while being sick with the flu. That game, Jordan went 13-27, played 44 minutes, scored 38 points, had 7 boards and 5 assists. Scottie Pippen and Luc Longley chipped in. They didn't steal the show. He didn't use the flu as his excuse because he didn't have to. He brought Chicago back from down 16 and the Bulls won by two. He willed himself and his team to victory. He didn't sit back and prayed his teammates would bail him out. He didn't pull a Kobe Bryant.

Is Jordan's Game 5 of the '97 Finals vs. Kobe's Game 7 last night an unfair comparison? Maybe. But you brought this on yourself. We always put things in front of Kobe Bryant for him to destroy. We always give him obstacles. After the breakup with Shaq, we all made a big fuss over Kobe not being able to win one without "The Diesel". So Kobe went out last year and won a ring without Shaq. This year, we had no real obstacle for him, so we put the best basketball player of the last 12 years against a ghost. We told him to go out and surpass Michael Jordan. Instead of asking Kobe Bryant to be his own stand-alone legend, we, like we have so many Jordan clones over the years and like we will do for decades after with LeBron James, asked him to slay the giant. Michael Wilbon made a point in the post-game discussion about how this generation only remembers the great players of now and forgets past legends so easily. He said Kobe was in the Top 20 ever, while Stuart Scott(the hyperbole king himself) tried to bait Wilbon into pushing him into the Top 10. Wilbon's point was never clearer than when moronic Lakers fans booed former Celtics legend Bill Russell(only the greatest big man this game has ever seen and perhaps the sports world's most accomplished winner) during the MVP coronation(which, of course, went to Kobe). Phil Jackson, Kobe's coach for all five titles and Jordan's coach for all of MJ's six, wouldn't go as far as to say that Kobe is the best player he's ever coached. Rather, Dr. Phil said "he's right up there". Translation: Jordan is still King. Kobe's still a prince.

Look, I despise Michael Jordan and I like Kobe. I could have easily banged the drum like so many will do these next few months that Kobe has dethroned MJ. Certainly, Kobe has dominated a tougher era and has managed to do so without even going to college. The acceleration from plucky young gunner to seasoned winner was almost instantaneous. He didn't have to wait nearly a decade to taste a championship like Jordan did and like James inevitably will. That being said, he's not Michael Jordan, and he never will be. Jordan vs. Bryant will be the Louis vs. Ali of our generation. Diehard Jordan fans will NEVER put Kobe ahead of MJ even if Bryant wins 12 championships and Lakers fans will always opt for their guy over Jordan, even when evidence like last night's stinker clearly shows that Jordan is still above Bryant. It's a neverending debate.

These Finals were supposed to be about Kobe's legacy, Kobe's chase of Jordan, Kobe's 5th ring. Instead, it should be about Kobe choking when it matters most. Of course, lucky for Lakers fans and Bryant himself, nobody is crazy enough to tell THAT story.

That's why I'M here.

Don't Hate The Hater, Hate The Game

Hater: A person that simply cannot be happy for another person's success. So, rather than being happy, they make a point of exposing a flaw in that person. Hating, the result of being a hater, is not exactly jealousy. The hater doesn't really want to be the person he or she hates, rather the hater wants to knock someone down a notch.

Realist: Realists have a firm grip on reality and can see things for what they are, not what they are told they are. Realists have their own views and do not fall victim to propaganda, misconception or titles. (Both definitions provided by urbandictionary.com)

Hater. Realist. Pessimist. Devil's Advocate. I probably fit the bill on all of those terms. Why? Because I believe, in my heart of hearts, that 90% of everything we read, hear, see, watch, and are told is bullshit. Gabe described me as an "all-purpose hater". By definition, that may very well be true. I'm just the type of guy who likes to go left when others go right. It's just my nature. You may say that makes me a hater. I may say I'm just a realist. It's a neverending debate.

In the definition of "hater" above, it says that the "hater" makes a point of exposing a flaw. So, in typical hater fashion, allow me to do so. I'm not going recycle my thoughts on the NBA Finals. I've said my piece. Gabe has said his. We agree to disagree on this one. However, in the coverage of these NBA Finals, I find a common thread: Kobe Bryant's legacy and his pursuit of Michael Jordan.

Now, if you've heard my thoughts on Jordan, you will DEFINITELY think I'm a hater. Personally, I find that the man feasted on weak competition and the media glossed over his fatal flaws (selfishness, huge ego, extreme gambling problem, etc.) because he a. was a consistent winner and b. a endorsement cash cow. You didn't want to have opposing thoughts on Michael Jordan because you would lose money. His face and persona sold magazines, sneakers, hot dogs, soft drinks, underwear....the whole nine. You didn't want to go up against that.

The same now holds true with Kobe Bryant......and that is where my issues lies. Seven years ago, the same media that now fawns over Kobe's thirst to top Jordan were ready to throw "The Black Mamba" to the wolves. In 2003, Kobe Bryant was in the same situation that Tiger Woods and Ben Roethlisberger are currently in. He was a superstar athlete taking a public relations ass-whooping because of a well-publicized tawdry sexual encounter with a woman who was not his wife. Kobe got the two-for-one special back then. Not only was Bryant being pummelled for being an adulterer, but he was being accused of being a rapist. Endorsements dropped Kobe with such speed, it would make C.J. Spiller's head spin. The media had a field day. Kobe's jersey sales plummeted. Sure, the case never went to trial because the accuser wouldn't testify and Kobe did admit to having an affair (claiming, however, that the sex was consensual) and Kobe stole a page out of the Tony Soprano handbook and wooed his wife with a overdramatic apology and a big, fat, gawdy ring (Although, Tony never cried. Why? Because Jersey Italians don't cry!). Still, much like most celebrity rape charges that never see the light of day in a courtroom, we don't know what exactly went on in that room. All we know is Kobe inevitably reached a settlement with the victim in her civil suit.

Then, a funny thing happened on the way to reporters asking questions: Kobe became a Jordan-esque winning machine. After a couple years of a PR nightmare that included Kobe demanding out of L.A. like a spoiled brat, Bryant ended up getting everything he wanted: some quality role players (Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, and later on, Ron Artest) and, most importantly, the media off of his back. After all, much like Jordan in the 90's, nobody wanted to risk irritating the game's biggest star by delving into controversy. So everyone agreed to just drop it. It's a thing of the past, right? Winning cures everything! Who cares that this man may have forced his way into a woman that wasn't his wife, then had his well-paid attorneys and PR people apply an asphyxiating hailstorm of pressure on the victim until she tapped out? Do I think Kobe raped Katelyn Faber? I don't know, and you know what, neither do you. However, it's easier to take the path of least resistance and get on the good side of the man who is dominating the NBA like his mentor did a decade or so ago.

Look, I don't hate Kobe. I'm just enough a realist to know that the same media that pucker up to his million dollar ass now were hurling daggers at him seven years ago. Now, it's all about Kobe's legacy. Seven years ago, it was about locking the guy up. I've chosen to not forget that, even if some have. What does this have to do with my lack of excitement over the Finals? Well, nothing. There is a small part of me that has a hard time rooting for someone who may have committed sexual assault not so long ago and the only thing keeping that part from amplifying is my utter dislike for Jordan (I grew up admiring Magic Johnson. Yes, the same Magic Johnson whose philandering gave him the HIV virus and ended his NBA career. Stars aren't perfect. I get it). You may say "But Dave, that was seven years ago, he wasn't convicted...blah blah blah." Tell that to O.J. Even before he got locked up for being the ignorant goon we always knew he was during his famous double murder trial, O.J. never seemed to get the benefit of the doubt. There were people who thought he did it and got away with murder (like myself) and people in denial. People who genuinely thought O.J. was innocent and were not only supporting him because of racial solidarity were few and far between. He never experienced the type of public relations 180 that Kobe got (and that's not to say that he should have. Frankly, the world's a better place with that asshole behind bars).

Similarly, there are two schools of thought regarding the Finals. There are guys like Gabe, who loves the sport of basketball and sees this Finals matchup as a furthering of the sport's greatest rivalry as well as yet another chance to see one of the three greatest players of all-time "do work" in hopes of another championship ring. In the eyes of BoomRoastedSports' "all-purpose hater", it's the continuation of the pursuit by a man, once considered the most hated man in the sport, of surpassing the legacy of his legendary mentor, who proved to be the cocky, arrogant, self-centered jerk that I always thought he was during his Hall of Fame speech.

That may make me a hater, but I think I'm just being a realist.