"We interrupt this increasingly interesting NFL season to inform you that the Los Angeles Lakers begin defense - what? The Celtics won? I think that's going to come as news to some of the pundits. So scratch that. The World's Greatest Basketball League begins its 62d season tonight, and the Boston Celtics are the defending champions, you betcha.
The commissioner will be here to dole out the rings to the champs, and he will be able to hold his head higher than in the past few years since the American-born players from the league over which he presides have actually won a major international championship for the first time since 2000. Of course, as the Big Cheese of the NBA, David Stern can take great general pride in the fact that 26 of the 36 players who stood on the podium in Beijing to receive their golds, silvers, and bronzes perform in the National Basketball Association.
But about those Lakers. They are indeed the chic pick to win the 2008-09 title. The only rotation loss from the team that reached the 2008 NBA Finals was Ronny Turiaf, who sought more playing time in Sacramento. And to that mix they welcome back 21-year-old center Andrew Bynum, who, when you weren't looking, was quietly inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in a private ceremony last September."
BWAHAHAHAH!!!!
