( Pic blatantly swacked from ESPN but that is all that is swacked )

Whats good people it’s been a minute since I’ve blessed you with a sports colum, I’ve been a bit busy but no need for details so let’s keep it moving. This has been a crazy year for the NBA, one that has managed to erase memories of last year debacle that started to drive certain fans away, i.e. ME, and brought my interest in the game back with a vengeance. Yeah the Celtics might have revived a lot of other peoples interest but their from the Boston/New England area they have had enough going for them with 2 world series rings and 4 recent Super Bowl championships with one being a perfect season, o yeah wait that didn’t happen they went 18-1 and only have 3 rings. ( laughs at self for saying ONLY 3 rings but I digress ) OK so I guess the Celtics dominating isn’t so bad after all. The real story of the season has been the Western Conference probably the best and most competitive conference/league in sports history. From the fact that the top 6 teams finished within 3 games of each other to the fact that a team with 48 wins actually missed the playoffs, while 48 wins would be good enough to earn fourth place in the East. Yeah the East after the top 2 teams really is THAT bad.

Lets start with the Leastern, I mean Eastern Conference since there isn’t all that much to talk about you got a couple of great teams playing a couple of scrubs and one team with a super-duper star playing an a team thats avg. at best. and then another match-up that no one cares about outside of Toronto and Orlando and a strong case could be made that both them teams would rather be chilling in Disney World instead of playing out the inevitable.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

1) Boston

8) Atlanta

I hope I don’t need to explain this one, but if I do then your either new to this game of basketball or you just took a Rip Van Winkle like nap and woke up like WTF ? The Celtics are good and the Hawks somehow made the playoffs ? No this isn’t the mid 80’s Larry Bird is not walking through that door, Robert Parish is not walking through that door (c) Rick Patino and for the record Dominque ain’t walking through that door either. So if you just woke up from a very long slumber or are new to basketball I’ll break it down real slow and simple for you the Celtics have Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen 3 of the best players in the league in a game that plays 5 a team at once. Even more the Celtics are filled with perfect role players and a couple who can hold their own but I’ll save those details for a round that matters. The Hawks haven’t been even slightly better than embarrassing since Dominque left, until this year and thats helped because well the play in the East. While the Hawks do look like the might actually have some promise for the future, Al Horford Josh Smith Joe Johnson, they have little to no shot at winning 1 game let alone a series versus the Celtics. CELTICS IN A SWEEP

4) CLEVELAND

5) WASHINGTON

You know Gilbert Arenas has always been one of my favorite players ( since he played college at Arizona and before I knew how bat shit crazy/entertaining he was ) but he just messed it up for everyone myself included. I was all ready to pick the Wizards for the upset then Gilbert had to open his mouth “With a team like the Cavaliers and a player like LeBron, all you need is distractions,” Arenas wrote on his popular blog. “We got to be Bush. We got to be Bush-league. We’re having everybody talking about the war, when we just want to get the oil. We’re Bushing it. That’s all we’re doing. We’re trying to distract LeBron over here while we try to get some wins over there. That’s all we’re doing.” (c) Gilbert Arenas. Now add that to the sewage that runs from Deshawn Stevenson’s mouth about Lebron being overrated and that Lebron supposedly copied his beard, who knew beards had trademarks nowadays ?, and I tend to agree with Charles Barkley who said “I think the Washington Wizards have got to be the dumbest team in the history of civilization.” How many times has someone seen Lebron seem completely disinterested in a game until a fan or someone starts trash talking him and he all of a sudden drops 50 doing back flips and somersault jump shots, sorry I really thought the Cavs were a mess besides Lebron, still do but no way Lebron by his lonely doesn’t embarrass the Wizards after this nonsense.

CAVS IN 5

3) Orlando

6) Toronto

* Yaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwnnnnns * Opps excuse me , sorry about that. Really no offense to fans of either teams but god lord this is gonna be boring, The only 2 players really worth watching on either of these teams is Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh but both suffer from the plays like a female dog syndrom. At least Bosh has an excuse he is about as skinny as Paris Hilton but hasn’t he heard of steroids ? Maybe someone should give him Jose Canseco or Victor Conte’s number and make them sign a no snitching clause, just make sure you pay them well. Howard is just soft, he is built like a beast but plays like a girl doesn’t take over and enforce his will like he should and nothing bothers me more than watching people waste dominating potential. ( yes Vince Carter I’m talking to you AGAIN ) O yeah I have to pick a winner don’t I ? OK OK I guess I’ll ride with the Raptors A) because I wanna pick a upset somewhere B) because they have the only other player worth watching/mentioning Jose Calderon C) I refuse to pick a team that would still have J.J. Redick on their roster. RAPTORS IN 6

2) Detroit

7) Philly

Philly surprised damn nigh everyone with a late season surge to get them into the playoffs and truth be told if they could of got the # 6 seed I’d probably take them to pull off the upset. Dalembert has taken over as a force down low, rebounding and playing D with the best of them. Andre Miller has resurrected his career to what the Nuggets thought they were getting when the Sixers thought they were getting just an add on. The new A.I. might not be able to do what the old one did but him being another Arizona University product it sure didn’t shock me, too bad the Sixers couldn’t of crafted some of this sooner and kept A.I. 1 around for Sam and A.I. 2 to develop. So the Sixers had themselves a nice season surprising many but thats where it ends. The Pistons are too good thats all that really needs to be said look at the starting 5 if you need more, otherwise like with the Celtics I’m a wait until the next round to dissect them further.

As for the Western Conference well like I said earlier thats where things get a little more complicated so I’ll have that after the jump either late night or early tomorrow, and for the record I hate that after the jump nonsense wtf does that even mean ? Whose jumping where ninja ? We are on the internet your in a seat chilling, no jumping involved.