In the midst of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig pushing the World Series to Thanksgiving, computer systems posing for a Texas and Penn State date in Miami for the BCS National Championship game and Kerry Collins quarterbacking the only undefeated team in the NFL, what about the NBA?
The NBA season kicked off Tuesday in the homes of the two teams that played in the 2008 NBA Finals: the defending-champion Boston Celtics and the runner-up Los Angeles Lakers.
Many NBA experts say these two teams are destined to meet in June 2009 like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader did in "Return of the Jedi."
Well, we know what happened in June - the Celtics won, and Boston Garden looked like the party in Times Square after the Japanese surrendered to the Allies in 1945.
Celtics head coach Doc Rivers was drenched when his players dumped a bucket of Gatorade over his head; small forward Paul Pierce won the Finals MVP; power forward Kevin Garnett yelled at the camera; Ray Allen cried; Kobe Bryant walked off the court in shock; and Sasha Vujacic waved his Fabio-like hair around in disgust.
The Lakers looked like Luke getting his hand severed in Cloud City in that ridiculous 39-point series-clinching victory by the Celtics.
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Young Lakers center Andrew Bynum can act like the mechanical hand Skywalker attaches to his arm at the end of "The Empire Strikes Back." Bynum is back and, most importantly, healthy for the beginning of the 2008-09 season.
If Bynum didn't get hurt over the holidays last year, the Lakers and Kobe could have had a better chance of winning the Finals.
The Lakers are the favorites to win the 2008-09 NBA Championship.
But I have to disagree. The Western Conference is legit, whereas the NBA East is just sad.
And I would know. I am a New York Knicks fan.
I can't pick any other team to win the East but the Celtics.
The Detroit Pistons might compete, but they signed Kwame Brown. I just can't pick any team to win its conference, let alone the Finals, with a player who is considered the worst No. 1 pick in NBA history.
The Cleveland Cavaliers only have LeBron James. Don't get me wrong - he is arguably the best player in the league, but there is no "I," let alone "LeBron," in the word "team."
The Orlando Magic are a great team with big-man Dwight Howard. Howard is becoming a dominant center like Shaquille O'Neal, but the Magic suffer without another star on the team.
Hedo Turkoglu will make perimeter shots, Rashard Lewis will still be versatile, and Jameer Nelson is becoming a better point guard every year. But Orlando is just not talented enough and lacks the firepower to beat Boston.
My prediction: The Celtics will win and advance to the Finals, hands down.
As for the Wild West, it won't be so easy for the Lakers.
Kobe will be Kobe.
However, the leg injury he suffered in the preseason could come back to haunt him down the stretch.
Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol and the return of Bynum will push the Lakers far into the playoffs, but they will lose in the Western Conference Finals.
In the West, we have the San Antonio Spurs, aka "the fundamentalists." Deron Williams leads the Utah Jazz while Shaq, Nash and the Phoenix Suns try to make one final run. The Dallas Mavericks with Dirk "David Hasselhoff" Nowitzki are always contenders, but I see only one team running the table in the Western Conference: the New Orleans Hornets.
I love this team. Chris Paul is possibly the best point guard in the league.
Paul led the NBA with 2.71 steals and 11.6 assists per game in 2007-08. To punctuate those eye-popping stats, he also averaged 21.2 points and four rebounds per game.
Numbers don't lie. Paul is dynamic and exciting and finds new ways to get the ball around to his team.
New Orleans can rely on the wily, sharp-shooting veteran Peja Stojakovic to balance the court and provide a perimeter game. Power forward David West rose to fame with an all-star performance, defending Spurs' forward Tim Duncan well in the second round of the playoffs last year.
West averaged 20.6 points, 2.3 assists and 8.9 rebounds per game in 2007.
But it will be the Hornets' acquisition of guard James Posey that will kick them over the top. Posey is an alchemist - everything he touches in the playoffs turns into basketball gold.
In 2006, he helped Dwayne Wade, Shaq and the Miami Heat get an NBA Championship and did the same thing last year with the Boston Celtics.
Posey adds experience and poise to an already talented New Orleans team.
The Hornets will pick-and-roll and alley-oop (Paul to center Tyson Chandler) their way to the NBA Finals where they'll face the Celtics.
