Now see.  When it comes to everything sports related (other than picking actual winners to games, fights, or races, I’m actually pretty turrible at that) I am a damn sports Svengali.  I predicted two weeks ago that NBA teams were going to have to be “superteams” in order to get it done for the next few years.  Back in the day the formula was to have two really good players and a supporting cast.

In the last few years you really needed three all stars on your team to get all the way to the championship.

Now you apparently need four because the Celtics and Lakers just dropped the gauntlet on cats and if you don’t load up you are going to get left in the dust.

Two weeks ago, Shaq to the Cavs was the biggest news in sports.  You pair LeBron with the Big Team Switcher and Mo Williams and you might have something that works.  Then the Lakers took Kobe, Odom and Gasol and dropped some Ron Artest on top of it?  I know you aren’t really allowed to question the toughness of the standing world champ, but if it was still a question, I think bringing Mr. “Tru Warier” onto the squad had got to count for something.  Look, anyone who is willing to misspell two words in the name of his record company is really going hard.  “Warier” isn’t even close to a real word.  Artest decided to keep it real gangster on that one, not to mention this:

Now it comes out that Rasheed Wallace is going to Boston?  Damn, talk about bringing out the trees. Peep this starting lineup:

Rondo

Jesus Shuttlesworth

Truth

Sheed

Big Ticket

Yeah, that is pretty much what I said when I heard the news too.

With the exception of Rondo this is a team about to head over the hill, but damn, right now they might be nasty.  People forget how well Sheed plays when he actually has something to play for.  Between Wallace and Kevin Garnett, the team might have an emotional explosion in the warmups.  These guys are going four all stars deep.  They might have to change their name to the Big 4.

Not to mention the fact that the Spurs just picked up Richard Jefferson.  They are about due to make another championship run, they get in there about once every 4 years.  So they have Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu and RJ.

Oh, the Magic just added Vince Carter to the squad although they lost Hedo Turkoglu to do it (he was more important to that team than most people think)  Orlando runs with Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson, Rashad Lewis and Vince Carter.

Damn, that makes the Cavs look short again doesn’t it? We have a pic from when Lebron heard they got Shaq, and one from when he heard about the Rasheed Wallace trade.

The NBA is becoming a place where there are going to be a few great teams that have a good core of talent that take a one year run at a title because of free agency.  A ten year guy who has been to the all star game can make their money up front and take a mid level exception and make decent money to get a chip.  Why not?  Would you rather have Big Baby Davis or Rasheed Wallace?  Anderson Varejao or Shaq?

Denver is going to need to step up too.  The Birdman isn’t going to get it against the Lakers and Spurs.  Meanwhile there are about 22 other teams in the league that have no hope whatsoever.  The Hawks are a good young team, but they can’t hang.  The Mavs might as well schedule their vacation for the week after the first round ends.  Let’s not even talk about the really low teams, the Wiz, the Clips, Golden State, Milwaukee, I mean those teams might never come close again.  Sure, loading a squad up isn’t a sure thing.  Look at the 2004 Lakers.

They thought they had the championship on lock that year.  It really might have been if it was 2000 when Karl and Gary could still give you a high quality dominant run, but it was a little too late by then.  It will be great to watch.  Almost like NBA live when you load up your squad like it is a fantasy team and just go at it.

My girl used to like this line up in Live.

PG: Jordan

SG: Jordan

SF: Jordan

PF: Jordan

C: Jordan

Sure, it was tough to feed the post, but that tended not to matter once things got going.

The NBA should be like watching a video game next year.  Cleveland, time to open up the pocketbooks and get one more piece.  I still say TMac might shock people as the ultimate third wheel.  He could kill from that role.  That gives them four guys who could pour it on on any given night.  I like it.

-Brock