The big free agency period that anyone who has even a slight interest in basketball is finally here. Why should we wait any long? Honestly, this wait is pissing me off. I want LeBron James to finally commit to a team, whether that is his hometown Cavs or any other suitor out there. Just sign already!

I do realize that this is easier said than done, for LeBron that is. Other top free agents should sign with a team and force James’ hand. Maybe this would make the decision making process easier for LeBron.

Let’s say that Chris Bosh signs with the Nets (obviously I want him to sign with the Nets because there is no way he is remaining with the Raptors), wouldn’t Bosh’s decision incline James to sign, even a tiny bit, with the Nets? Same goes if Bosh signs with the Knicks.

If Dwyane Wade wants to sign with the Heat, he should get that over with and in the same manner as Bosh force James to decided if he wants to play alongside him.

It’s becoming abundantly clear that the chances of James, Bosh and Wade signing on to play on the same team are almost down to zero. It’s wishful thinking, but the reality is that none of them would take a pay cut and be the defacto 2nd or 3rd option to James.

Most ironic would be the pairing of Wade and Bosh, leaving James alone to go back to Ohio or to sign with the Knicks just for the money. But that won’t happen, will it?

As NBA teams wait until July 8^th so they can start signing free agents, all that is left is hopeful pondering. Yes, even I wonder if James will sign with the Nets, enticed by Mikhail Prokhorov and Jay-Z. Still, I hope!

What does every NBA fan have to look forward to until July 8th? Speculation, speculation and more speculation. This might be the most exciting free agency time ever in the history of basketball. As well as the the time when the most nonsense and the least amount of facts are being discussed by the guru’s of basketball.

What else is there to talk about?

However, don’t sleep on the overlooked free agents such as David Lee. He, and other like him, could become an important part on an already strong team and prove to be the missing piece of a championship contender. Would LeBron’s wait have been worth then?

Seriously, LeBron has to keep in mind the implications of signing to a team with a max salary free agent and how the salaries would impact the teams ability to fill out the rest of the roster. How good can a team be if it has two great players but the rest wish much to be desired.

Mehmet Okur as he injures his Achilles (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Bam! In one moment Utah Jazz’s chances in these playoffs went from bad to worse.

Mehmet Okur went down in the opening game of the Jazz playoffs series against the Denver Nuggets. The tear in his left Achilles tendon was the result of Okur’s drive to the basket where he awkwardly twisted his left leg and collapsed to the floor.

Jazz are already operating with a depleted roster; while they await for Andrei Kirilenko’s return, Okur’s play will be sorely missed as they try to take on the energetic  Nugget’s squad.

What will Jerry Sloan’s overachieving squad do now? At full strength, Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer and the rest of the team can still prove to be a formidable opponents for the likewise wounded Nugget’s that are playing without George Karl.

It will be interesting to see how Jazz execute without Okur, who could spread the floor with this outside shooting and will that force Sloan to play Kyrylo Fesenko or Kosta Koufos?

Sloan is likely to go small and insert Paul Millsap into the lineup, but this doesn’t look like a long term fix for Jazz’s woes. They need Andrei Kirilenko back, a lanky body to protect the basket, make some steals and start the fast break.

No matter what happens, we know that Sloan can get more out of players than any other coach in the league. Yes, maybe he’s as good as Phil Jackson. Sloan never coached anyone like Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan. Let’s give credit where credit is due.

Western Conference

(1) L.A. Lakers vs (8) Oklahoma City
In what would have been otherwise easy series for Lakers, the late season slumps will most definitely translate into a grueling series against an up-and-coming Thunder. Only Lakers unraveling at the seams propel Thunder into the second round. However, I take Lakers due to their home court advantage. Will Kobe Bryant’s finger be an issue?

(2) Dallas vs (7) San Antonio
This one is tricky, just because of the disparity between the second and seventh team in the West is so miniscule, any of those teams has a good chance to move on to the next round.

Mavs midseason acquisitions of Brendan Haywood, Caron Butler and DeShawn Stevenson bolster their already solid offense. Haywood is the kind of center that Mavs haven’t had in a long time and look for him to be the difference maker.

Spurs have championship experience and they’ve been here time and time again. Gregg Popovich will find a way for his team to win, the question is are Mavs too strong this time around.

I don’t see how Mavs who have the home court advantage and have beaten the Spurs 3-1 in the season series will lose this one. But I wouldn’t totally count out the chances for an upset.

(3) Phoenix vs (6) Portland
Brandon Roy is out for the first round and he isn’t the only injured Trail Blazer. Any way, Blazers are too banged and are missing too many pieces to win this one. Phoenix is playing too well to lose. Nothing here indicates that Blazers will be able to win more than one game in this series.

(4) Denver vs (5) Utah
This would have been a great series if both teams were at full strength. Jazz have four starters that are either battling or are out with injuries: Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilineko.

AK-47 is the x factor in this series. If he comes back from his calf injury and will do a decent job guarding Carmelo Anthony, then Jazz will definitely pull what would be only listed on paper as an upset. Denver isn’t the same team that challenged the Lakers last year, unless Kenyon Martin returns at full strength and they play well under Adrian Dantley while George Karl is out.

Eastern Conference

(1) Cleveland vs (8) Chicago
It’s simply hard to imagine Chicago Bulls, who barely scraped by the Toronto Raptors into the playoff, beating the LeBrons. Bulls simply don’t have anyone who can guard LeBron James. Cavaliers are too tough inside: Brad Miller and Joakim Noah versus Shaquille O’Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Verejao.

Have we forgotten Antawn Jamison? Wouldn’t he be excited to get into the playoffs with a title contender?

Bulls are nowhere nearly the team that last year nearly upset the Boston Celtics. They might win one close game at home, but look for Cavs to finish this one early.

(2) Orlando vs (7) Charlotte
Can we expect a franchise in its inaugural playoff series to throw of a team that has been arguably the best in the league since the All-Star break? Bobcats might take one game as they did in the season series with the Magic, but nothing beyond that.

(3) Atlanta vs (6) Milwaukee
Milwaukee Bucks were a team that no one wanted to play, but as Andrew Bogut hit the floor and injured his hand, so did the chances of Milwaukee progressing past the first found of playoffs. Look to the last meeting between these two teams and how the Bogutless Bucks handled the Hawks to show how the series will progress. And imagine how scary Bucks would have been with healthy Bogut and Michael Redd.

(4) Celtics vs (5) Miami Heat
Old legs of the Boston Celtics are on the verge of breaking from the surmounting pressures of the NBA grind. This series reminds me of 80’s Bulls/Pistons battles, Heat have their Michael Jordan in Dwayne Wade going against Pistons who are the Celtics, but with a lot more mileage on their feet.

Sure would be nice for the C’s to win another title and built somehow on the resurgence of the Celtics lore. But, the pieces of the puzzle were put together just a tad bit late.

The longer the series goes, more chances for the Heat to pull off an upset.

(Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)

Our nations 1st basketball fan has issuing his first on-court challenge…well, kinda.

President Barack Obama hinted at Clark “Special K” Kellogg that they might be meeting on a basketball court pretty soon. Kellogg is a CBS basketball analyst with whom Obama provided a little live game commentary during the Georgetown/Duke game on January 30^th. Obama called Kellogg “best color man in college basketball,” but this didn’t stop him from suggesting that they will soon meet on the court for a game of one-on-one.

The only questions remains if Kellogg’s knees will present a problem, since his chronic knee issues were the reason that he prematurely retired from the NBA.

I wish that Obama would issue actual challenges to the leaders of countries around the world in order to solve some international problems. So, maybe next time we’ll see Obama playing against Kim Jong-il for North Koreas nuclear disarmament.

Either way, the idea of Obama not being afraid of playing hoops and puling a hamstring would be hilarious. I can only image a news report that would go something like this: President Barack Obama is out 7-14 days due to a hamstring injury that he sustained while playing against Russia’s Prime Minster Vladimir Putin. Replacing him will be Joe Biden. Our chances against the former KGB agent are not looking so well. Ladies and gentlemen, in other words: we’re screwed.

Still, I would love to see Obama on TNT, doing commentary along with Charles Barkley. I would love to see if Barkley has balls to call Obama “numb nuts,” something that he does liberaly during the show.

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

It would be AWESOME if the New Jersey Nets are able to land Chris Bosh by the trading deadline and if they are able to land him earlier then it would be so much more AWESOME. They might even make the playoffs. Well, I don’t know about that.

Still, getting Chris Bosh would not only transform Nets this season, but it will also set them up for next season…yep, LeBron sweepstakes!

Although I doubt that Nets will be able to get Bosh on the cheap (look so far that only Brook Lopez is the only untradeable player on the team), acquiring the unhappy Raptor is likely to convince LeBron if he ever chose not to resign with Cleveland.

Considering that Bosh wants to play for a contender, what are the chances that Bosh would want to come over to a team that so far only won only three games this season?

(I really, really, really hope that he does)

I just hope that Nets can lure Bosh with the promise of getting better as a team and that playing in New York (soon the Nets are going to move to Brooklyn…finally) is a better payoff than playing anywhere else (Knicks better not swoop in on Bosh).

After learning in the morning that Gilbert Arenas had been suspended indefinitely by the NBA (what I mean is getting suspended by David Stern) me and Mike Brown the REMIX came up with a perfect stat for Gilbert Arenas, one that would have him lead the league: Guns-Per-Player-Locker. Gil leads the league with a whopping 4 per.

What’s worse? Arenas tries to make light of the situation during the Wizards pre-game dance on Tuesdays night in Philadelphia and this drew the ire of the all-mighty David Stern.

Now, I’m starting to think that ‘Hibachi’ might have some mental problems. Haven’t there been enough gun related stories in the news in the past year? You’d think that Arenas might have heard of someone like Plaxico Burress. But as things look now, it doesn’t look like Arenas was keeping up with the news. If he did, he might have known that shooting yourself will probably get you in as much trouble if you brandished a gun, no less put it in someone’s face to settle a gambling debt or even as a joke, as been reported by the media.

Now ‘Agent 0’ is on in limbo over the amount of time he will spend away from basketball and even worse, Wizards are considering their options on whether or not to void the rest of Arenas’ $110 million contract that he signed in 2008.

Not only is Arenas looking at a possibly jail sentence, but also he stands to lose the means of supporting himself if Wizards are able to successfully void his contract. What will Arenas do then? The chances of him getting another max contract after the dust settles (and that’s nowhere in sight at this point) are slim to none.

An indefinite suspension in all likelihood means that Arenas is not going to play this season and lose millions and millions of dollars (each missed game will cost Arenas $147,208).

Instead of trying to keep the whole situation from blowing out of proportion, Arenas didn’t exactly help his cause by trying to make light of the situation by drawing pseudo guns during a pre-game celebration with his teammates (which can be seen in the above picture) and some being fines afterwards for their participation in the festivities.

That sent Stern fuming and pushed the button on Arenas’ suspension. And this is not like we haven’t seen Arenas act out before. Check out the video of him dunking during a time out of the 2007 All-Star Game:

What if Arenas injured himself? This would’ve sent the Wizards franchise spiraling and they would still probably have to pay arenas for his negligence.

Maybe this is the time when Arenas will learn his lesson. Maybe now Arenas will realize his potential and responsibility.

What’s new: Tracy McGrady is unhappy with his situation in Houston. Really? It only took 5 years and now it looks like the time to dismantle the duo of Yao Ming and T-Mac. And only if it would have lasted…

There are players that go from team to team and bring success everywhere they go. Even Vince Carter, T-Mac’s cousin, brought more to the teams he played on than McGrady ever did.

Even though McGrady technically did advance into the second round of the playoffs, he did so on a technicality of being on the injured reserve list of the 2008-2009 Houston Rockets that beat the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round, but eventually lost to Los Angeles Lakers who would become champions that year.

Maybe it’s McGrady’s faith to be matched with perennially losing teams that never do much in the playoff and then one day he will be trade, much like Kevin Garnett, to a contender and win the big one. Yet, that remains to be seen because much more deserving players have never had their chance at a championship ring.

What is wrong with the New York Knick? Is it the lack of money? Doesn’t appear so. Knicks boast one of the leagues highest team payrolls, but the return on James Dolan’s investment is iffy at best…who am I kidding, Knicks are one of the best, yet at the same time worst, franchises in all of sports.

It must be hard to stay loyal to the Knicks and support them throughout the tough years. The decline of the great New York Knickerbockers began after the 1999 season and the teams glorious run to the NBA Final’s in the lockout shortened season which I remember for a few reasons: shortly after the league and players agreed to settle their differences and save the fledgling season Michael Jordan announced his retirement, although he would come back and play for the Wizards some years later. And, that was probably the last time that I was truly be on the Knicks side.

What can you say about a franchise that trades away its iconic player? What can you say about a franchise that doesn’t hire its arguably most famous player? I wouldn’t blame Patrick Ewing for staying as far as he can from the Knicks as possible.

It still amazes me to know that New York Knicks fans haven’t started a riot because of the atrocious play of their home town squad. For an organization that boasts of great tradition Knicks haven’t been doing a great job at keeping up there with the likes of the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Take a look at the team’s last game against the Atlanta Hawks, a game in which the Knicks led by 14 points in the first half. What separates a good team from a bad team is the ability to close out the games. In their usual fashion, Knicks had their usual performance that has now become commonplace.

Late in the game against the Hawks Al Harrington fumbled the ball on a clear path to the basket and that probably killed the Knicks chances to comeback in the game which any other descent team wouldn’t let get out of hand.

Jamal Crawford, whom the Knicks traded early last season in a salary dump, certainly thought that Knicks could’ve been a better team with him on board. “Yes, we would’ve made the playoffs last year. I think 37, 38 wins is the playoffs last year. We would’ve got there.”

It will be a long time until the New York Knicks finally go back to their good old days of glory. Nothing cures past ills better than success. Fans are sure to forget about tough times when the team is winning now and then they forget about the gloomy past. A matter of concern of Knicks fans is how long will it take for their team to contend again.