Yesterday I rambled on about the return of the NBA and the emerging talents and up and coming teams in the Eastern Conference. Today I am going to try and drill it into sports fans heads again, basketball is worth watching. Not March Madness basketball with a few hundred players under the age of 22 who will never see a professional court in their lifetime. No, real-life NBA basketball in the post-Jordan (Bulls era please) is again well worth everyone’s attention.
The Western Conference is still the better place to be. Plenty of sun, weather that rarely dips below freezing, and much better teams. The first team to mention is the Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol, and Lamar Odom have take the team back to championship form.
If it were not for the super trio in Boston, celebrities would have high-priced Lakers tickets to a tour of champions instead of a “contender”. They have started this season in great form and are making a run at the best season record along with the rival Boston Celtics.
In the new Western Conference, the Dallas Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns have begun their descent. Steve Kerr can wheel and deal all he wants, but adding Shaq and, now, Jason Richardson is kind of like a struggling sitcom adding a couple of aging celebrities. Richardson is not an aging star, but he is only a band-aid to a gash letting all the championship hopes bleed out.
Dirk Nowitzki is still a freak- a center with guard skills. He is also saddled with an aging point guard (Jason Kidd) whose defense has deteriorated and still has no jump shot. Put Kidd and Josh Howard, a troubled young man who has an incredible all around game but absolutely no filter, and you have sunk any hope Mark Cuban has of manufacturing a champion. The Mavs had their best shot in 2005, but blew it and now it is over.
The new top tier of the Western Conference includes young teams like the Utah Jazz, New Orleans Hornets, and the Denver Nuggets. The Jazz are led by Deron Williams, the point guard who will always be overshadowed by Chris Paul. The team also has Jerry Sloan as the head coach and a roster full of shooters and role players to make the system work.
The Hornets have Chris Paul. The point guard is quick, possesses tremendous court vision, and knows how to finish. He is so good he can make Tyson Chandler a potential all star and resurrect Peja Stojakovic’s career. David West remains a very underrated power forward. This team is going to go as far as Paul can, which should be a deep playoff run this season.
Carmelo Anthony is the end all of the Denver Nuggets. Even when Iverson was on the club, it was his fate to lead the team. He is a talented small forward and now he has a point guard in Chauncey Billups that could help the rest of the team find some kind of calm or balance. Last season the Nuggets were like a kid with serious ADD, this season they seem calmer despite coming in with the potential to play even worse defense.
The Spurs and Rockets are still very quality teams. The San Antonio Spurs are getting older though. Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker remain one of the most talented trios in basketball, but it is that classic supporting class that is looking like it will fail late into the Spurs season.
The Rockets are terrifying with Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady, and Ron Artest. They were already scary with Ming and McGrady. The thing is that they always find a way to lose in the first round. It is most often injury. McGrady takes on quite a load and pays the price and Ming is an example why overworking a basketball player, especially a 7 foot 6 one, is detrimental (thank you the People’s Republic of China).
The last club to mention has to be the Portland Trailblazers. Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Greg Oden are supposed to be the future. They are too, just add Rudy Fernandez to that list and in three years they have a potential dynasty. The thing is that they are too young without any real veteran leadership to sustain this early season run.
So, once again, I implore to you give NBA tickets a chance or at least watch the coverage on TNT for Charles Barkley and watch the future governor of Alabama say terribly embarrassing things before he represents an entire state.