The NBA western conference is a “whole different animal” compared to the East, and for good reason. Last season, there were nine teams over .500 and one of those teams, Phoenix Suns, were 14 games above .500 and missed the playoffs. Year-in and year-out at least one very deserving Western Conference team missing the playoffs due to the elevated level of talent and play added over the years. As of now, the Larry O’Brien trophy resides in San Antonio and the West looks as if it may be back to its pure dominance that it had over the East during the early 2000’s.

Will this be the season Anthony Davis leads the Pelicans to the playoffs? By Keith Allison (Flickr: Anthony Davis) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

San Antonio Spurs: The defending champs will try to go back-to-back this season but it will be difficult with the opponents they will have to face. They are still the Spurs, though, and I have learned not to count out this team until they are actually done. The Spurs will again be a top contending team in the West and I expect them to make it back to the conference finals if not the finals again.

Los Angeles Clippers: Oh the Clippers. Just when you think they might actually break through, they let you down. A historically bad franchise finally has some hope and light in it and will look to expand upon that again. Their time to win is now as Chris Paul isn’t the youngest point-guard in the league. Adding veterans Jordan Farmar and Spencer Hawes will improve the team but my head still says they will get bounced in the second round again.

Oklahoma City Thunder: Realistically, the Thunder are so young with Durant and Westbrook that it’s scary. One of the best one-two punches we have seen in the recent NBA but they can’t seem to get the job done. Durant is the reigning MVP and needs to break through in the playoffs to be put into the same category as the greats that have won and I look for him and the Thunder to make it back at least to the conference finals again this season.

Portland Trailblazers: If the Trailblazers can stay healthy, they can do some major damage in the Western Conference and they showed a glimpse of what they could do in the postseason. They are a gritty, young team that has an unusual confidence. They look as if they will make another postseason run and you never know what could happen. Watch out for Portland.

Golden State Warriors: No matter what their record is during the season or what seed they get in the postseason, they are as scary a team as any. They can shoot the lights out and maybe having a new coach in Steve Kerr may push this team to their potential. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are the best backcourt in the league and its time for them to prove it in the playoffs.

Houston Rockets: I really liked the pickup of Trevor Ariza after Chandler Parsons left, but the reports that Dwight Howard and James Harden think of themselves as bigger than the team worries me. Even the greats realized they needed help to win and I don’t see the Rockets getting by the second round this season. This offseason could have been epic for Houston, but losing out on Chris Bosh and Carmelo Anthony was huge.

Memphis Grizzles: Everyone always sleeps on small-market Memphis and I’m not sure why. They were one game away from defeating Oklahoma City in the first round and they played that game seven without Zach Randolph. I believe if he had played, Memphis would have advanced because they were the better team. This offseason, they signed Vince Carter, which will help scoring a little bit unless he turns back into the Toronto version of himself; then watch out NBA

New Orleans Pelicans: I am personally deeming this season the “season of Anthony Davis” assuming he can stay healthy. Davis is an absolute beast and is continuing to grow and learn. I expect the Pelicans to compete for a playoff spot this season and show people that they mean business in this league.

Dallas Mavericks: This team could either be really good or they could not be able to live up to expectations. Monta Ellis had a great season last year but he’s always had some question marks. Dirk is older and we don’t know how effective he can still be. I hope they play to their potential because after adding Chandler Parsons and Tyson Chandler they could end up being a top team in the West.

Phoenix Suns: So far Eric Bledsoe is still a free agent and they better change that fast; he is too good to not bring back. I just don’t see them contending. They overachieved last season, but I hope they can prove me wrong.

Los Angeles Lakers: Kobe is finally back and D’Antoni is out — what more could Laker fans want? Byron Scott was a good choice as the Lakers try and figure themselves out. Adding Carlos Boozer, Jeremy Lin, and draft pick Julius Randle will help the Lakers be somewhat relevant and if they can stay healthy they might be able to compete for a first round exit in the playoffs. I don’t doubt the Black Mamba and I think he can lead this team to the playoffs with an early exit. Only time will tell how he and the Lakers play though.

Minnesota Timberwolves: Losing Kevin Love hurts but it needed to be done. Adding Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and Thaddeus Young will help this team be a little more interesting. Give this team a good three years before they actually start competing on a regular basis.

Every NBA season some surprise teams jump up and contend for the playoffs. In the West those could be the Pelicans, Lakers, and Suns.

The Lakers have a storied history. If I had the channels my parents do, I might not ever leave my house… . By Howcheng, via Wikimedia Commons

I was born in 1981. The Lakers won the NBA title the year before I was born and in four of my first seven years on the planet. I was raised in a showtime world that was ruled by Magic, Kareem, Big Game, Byron, Coop, and Riley.

Then I turned eight, and for the next eleven years, I sat through what I thought was the most frustrating time.

I have perspective now, well into my 30’s, that what I went through as a fan wasn’t THAT bad. The Lakers only failed to make the playoffs once (a 9th place finish in 1993-94) in the first 23 years of my life (and still only twice in my 32 years). That being said, I wanted another championship. Sitting through them losing every year in the playoffs in the mid-90’s was less than fun.

Let me take that back. Nick Van Exel, Eddie Jones, Cedric Ceballos, Vlade Divac, and Sedale Threatt were all fun guys to watch night-in and night-out. They were interesting and probably had as much to do with my love of basketball as anything else. All my Central Coast friends who rooted for the Bulls during that time were bandwagon fans — I even knew that then. I think I feel the same way about California-based Heat fans of today, but I digress… .

The 1999-2000 season was an epic one for me. It was my freshman year of college and the Lakers began a 3-year championship streak. It might not have happened though, without a fourth-quarter that still gives me goose bumps.

Which brings me to something I caught on TV tonight. I don’t get Time Warner Cable SportsNet, (the flagship Lakers channel) at my house — but my parents do at theirs. Last night I was over at their house for dinner and, the 2000 NBA Western Conference Finals were on. It’s a series called “Timeless Lakers.” It was Game 7, the one that Shaq took an alley-oop from Kobe to seal and started the dynasty that was the Lakers of the early 2000’s.

Suddenly, I was right back in my freshman year of college. I was months away from having a cell phone. Years away from texting for the first time. My new computer could download music from Napster, and it took at least 15-30 minutes to download a song.

I definitely enjoyed the way-back machine that the replay of the game took me into, but I enjoyed watching the caliber of play even more. You don’t really see teams with deep talent and fundamentally sound play like the Lakers and Blazers had anymore. Think about it. Rasheed Wallace and Steve Smith (in their prime) along with Scottie Pippen, Bonzi Wells, Arvydas Sabonis, Greg Anthony, Damon Stoudamire, Brian Grant all on the Blazers. A lot has been written about what the impact of losing the 2000 Western Conference Finals was for the Blazers franchise and the city of Portland. Would they have still become laughingstock has-beens? What would Rasheed Wallace vs. Chris Webber match-ups have been like over the next few years had Brian Shaw not banked in a 3-pointer at the end of the 3rd quarter of that game?

On the Lakers, sure, there was Shaq and Kobe, sure. But one forgets contributions from guys like Rick Fox, Robert Horry, A.C. Green, Ron Harper, and Brian Shaw. Watching the game over again, it’s so clear how hungry Lakers fans had become at that point. The noise inside Staples Center is still electrifying.

Assembling depth of talent like that just doesn’t happen anymore — another reason to appreciate channels like the Lakers’ new channel. And another reason why both my family and I should be thankful I don’t have it at home.

Here’s Brian Shaw‘s banked-in 3-pointer at the end of the 3rd quarter (go to about 5:50 into the video)

The short version of the comeback –

If you want to watch the whole game, go here and watch all 12 segments. First, though, don’t forget to tell your loved ones that you’ll see them in a few hours.

There is only one man who can answer these pondering’s, that being “Big Shot Bob,” otherwise known as Robert Horry, who made a living with the Rockets, Lakers, and Spurs, en route to seven rings by nailing the clutch shot.

Why does this matter? He was never a star, but he has rings galore bronzed on his swish- svelte fingers. 

In today’s NBA we judge  all-time greats by how many rings they’ve won and whether or not they led their teams to title town. But is this a fair assessment, considering a life-long bench guy like Horry can be carried to seven?

Never was Horry the franchise guy. In fact, as great as he seemed in closing minutes, Robert Horry never became the player we expected him to be after his timely three point shooting for Houston’s 2nd title run.

Horry’s brief stint in Phoenix after a trade in 1996, proved he was not endowed with a star motor. A hot tempered, dramatic and aloof head case, Bob languished averaging 6.9 points at a career low shooting clip: 41.8%. A trade by mid-season to the L.A. Lakers–a team filled with Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Nick Van Exel, Eddie Jones, Elden Campbell, and Cedric Ceballos changed the trajectory of his failing career.

So why then is Bob a champion? Why not franchise guys like Barkley, Malone, Stockton, Dominique, Ewing, or Reggie Miller?

Each of those listed above were worthy of winning gold, were they not? All of them were respective franchise pieces with the heart, skills, and late game heroics to hold the O’Brien.

The answer to their problems was Michael Jordan’s Bulls: a team of role guys surrounding the king of the sport with that IT factor needed to win it all. Something today’s critics use to gauge greatness and rank the all time elites.

So what is the issue then with the tautness of this old-time equation? Why not turn a blind eye and allow this to be the answer to everything?

Simply because it just does not add up. It does not offer enough answers. If Big Shot Bob has seven, or the likes of Jack Haley–former twelfth man for Jordan’s final three peat has three, the equation’s a bit off. We need something else, a new perspective when thinking of the greats and why and how they never hung the O’Brien.

And I believe individual luck IS the partly the answer, luck, a maddening machine random like the California Lottery. Historians prefer the term historical happenings–a notion that choices are made for no other reason except that they were made, and the dominoes re-arrange the cosmos of a world more closely inter-connected than we might wish it to be (think guy who smells like farts at the movies, or the swine flu victim winding a cough onto the back nape of the neck.)

Luck.

To think Michael Jordan fell to number three in the 1984 draft could be easily overlooked for a variety of reasons: Sam Bowie, the number two pick before MJ, was a  college superstar and a big man compared at the time to the greats. The Blazers already had a gifted wingman in Clyde Drexler andat the time the league was built around bigs: Kareem, Sampson and Olajuwan, Robert Parish, Patrick Ewing, and Moses Malone.

But that doesn’t make things less ludicrous.  Look at how the draft shaped the NBA forever. MJ goes to an ordinary Bulls team built in perhaps the greatest city in America, where he wins ROY, ultimately five MVP’s, slam dunk contests, becomes the games biggest mogul, and wins six titles. Alongside Oprah, MJ is easily the greatest name in Chicago history and can be attributed for an economical explosion that saved the lower West side of the city once run with crime: drug abuse, gang wars, and prostitution.

Bowie, in the annals of the NBA, is known as ‘the bust.’ He never won a thing in the pros: no all star games, no shoe deals, thus injuring the once bright ideal the Blazers had in trading their franchise Center Bill Walton to Boston.

This, my friends, is the Sam Bowie, a supernatural element that cannot be ignored.

Luck.

Yet like so many children born into inner city poverty without the tools necessary to change their lives, we cannot judge the stars through the a similar bias, because not all players are born lucky into a posh franchise. The gift of playing in Los Angeles or Boston does not come to everyone. Not every player is born into a showtime era, a team so deep they make the ocean look like a kids pool.

For some, seeking a new home is like divorcing an abusive wife. In order for Mitch Richmond to adorn gold, the talented and true shooting guard had to eventually break ties in the perils of Sacramento. Karl Malone found it necessary to join with Kobe and Shaq in 04′ after a long tenure in Utah. And even the humble Clyde Drexlerleft a hell of a situation in Portland to win it Houston. All three of which were great with or without (Sing it Bono) a championship.

The reality of the situation is heart breaking for most. We as childish dreamers wish our favorite player could be greater than the others, but this is not real. Embracing a pragmatic approach to the sport tied less to your heart strings will allow you to see greatness wrapped in many different packages. 

Reality 1: Great players DO NOT win championships, great TEAMS win championships. The 2004 Detroit Pistons are a perfect example of this. A team of role guys without a future hall of famer, the Pistons had the momentary IT. Call it faith, hard work, purity, and any other beautiful thing you want, but to explain why they won a title over an L.A. Laker team stocked with four future hall of famers would be absurd.

Reality 2: Like the stars in the sky, NBA STARS need other STARS. Think for a moment about the teams who’ve won championships the last thirty years. All of them have one thing in common: team depth and stars surrounding stars. Magic had Kareem and Worthy; Bird–Mchale and Parish; Dr.J–Moses Malone; Isaiah–Dumars and Rodman; MJ–Pippen; Hakeem–Clyde; Shaq–Kobe and Wade; Duncan–Robinson, Parker, and Ginobili; Pierce–KG and Allen.

Reality 3:  Winning titles does mean a lot, but it does not mean everything for a myriad of reasons. If the 1919 Chicago Blacksox or dirty referees like Tim Donaghy can throw World Series and playoff games, then how serious can we take this thing? Not very. Take everything with a grain of salt and learn other decided facets when it comes to judging all-time greats: MVP’s, All Star appearances, Career Totals, Game Winners, Ability to close, Athleticism, Re-defining the sport, dominance-ometer, and sociological affects.

LeBron James is not a sell out because the guy wants to win, he’s a realist. A star unselfish enough to admit that NO star including himself, can win a title completely on his own.

LeBron is stuck in the the Bill Clinton Vacuum. Though he does great things, he is brushed aside because of one unlikeable decision.

But greatness is not a grade school quiz on being friendly, it is brutal giftedness. And likeability is not the twin brother to being great.

LeBron made a  decision to better his career andhis life. Leading a Cleveland Cavs team the last seven years, that never boasted anybody better than a has-been version of Antawn Jamison warrants James departure.  No it does not warrant the overdone TV cinematic’s regarding “the decision,” nor the Pat Riley blowout introduction party in South Beach. Yet neither should it foster the illogical hysteria across America attempting to deny the man’s sheer dominance and greatness.

This isn’t patty cake kids. We are talking about a production entertainment, where all titles are but a decorative decor. They might help the woman look fine, but if that woman is not fine without the jewelry or the tight fitting jeans, I say run, run as fast as you can.

Drop by the nearest bar and have a scotch on me. Look through the world with freshness and at what is truly great (it is not the girl next to you.). It is the scraggly bartender able to whip up drinks faster than the average Joe.