Miami Heat Coming Together, The Knicks Are Relevant and Other NBA Stuff

Before their 12 game winning streak, the Miami Heat was a struggling 9-8 team. Everyone wanted to pile on but we were all aware that this experiment was going to:

1. Eventually be very successful

2. Possibly become unstoppable

Miami went into Cleveland on December 2, 2010 and became a team. The rabid fans in Cleveland wanted to tear their fallen son, LeBron James, apart. What LeBron did was showcase his talents and remind not only Cleveland fans, but basketball fans as well that he is a special talent.

Comparisons to Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant really are incorrect. LeBron James is this generation's Magic Johnson. James will be a top ten all-time NBA player but he will never be better than the third best player in the game's history. He will not win enough rings to get into the Jordan, Bryant, Bill Russell category. Although he has a better skill set than Magic, he will never be the leader that Magic was.

Still, for a guy that came into the league with so much hype, the fact that he has truly lived up to it is a legacy that he can always hang his headband on. He won two MVP's and led Cleveland to the best record in the league twice. We never saw that before and even though I am a huge Cavs fan, I know that they will never see that type of success again.

And Cleveland doesn't win championships so LeBron getting them close is not a tarnish on his legacy; it is a sign of his greatness.

Having said all of that, the Heat are Dwyane Wade's team. James looked for someone in Cleveland to step up and help him in crunch time and he decided to go to Miami so he could have someone to pass the ball to late in tight playoff games.

The Heat's success has been a combination of overcoming their injuries and Chris Bosh's acceptance of a role. Bosh is the forgotten member of the Super Union as he has fallen from the all-everything stud in Toronto to the third option in Miami. It is a credit to his demeanor that he has taken his demotion in stride and it might net him a ring along the way.

The Heat might not be able to win it all this year. As good as they are on paper, The Lakers, Celtics and Spurs all look like better teams when the ball is tipped. The Magic saw that the Heat had passed them and their general manager, Otis Smith, did something about it.

Rashard Lewis and Vince Carter took their talents to Washington and Phoenix respectively. The Magic and Hedo Turkoglu both made a mistake when they parted ways in the summer of 2009. The Magic lost their best ball handler in the fourth quarter and the Raptors did not get an inspired Turkoglu to put alongside Chris Bosh. Now they are reunited and with Jason Richardson and Gilbert Arenas also in the fold, on paper, the Magic looks a lot better.

The Magic are on a clock too as well since Dwight Howard is going to be a free agent in a couple of years and will probably take his talents to the LA Lakers like Shaq did a generation ago.

The Oklahoma City Thunder was the nice story of the 2009-2010 season and this year's nice story is the storied New York Knicks. Amar'e Stoudemire has been playing out of his mind and the Knicks look like a solid playoff team in the East. They are in a three game losing streak, including a stinker against Cleveland, but it looks like this is a small bump on the road back to the playoffs for the Knicks.

It also looks like Carmelo Anthony is going to be a Knick at some point and when that happens then the Knicks might be in the discussion as the best team in the league for the first time since the prime of Patrick Ewing's career.

Blake Griffin might not make the LA Clippers a winner but he sure has been exciting to watch this season. Donald Sterling has been reportedly heckling his own players and again shows the world that money can buy you a basketball team but it cannot buy you a clue.

Sticking in Los Angeles, the Lakers are a year older but they still have the best closer in the game in Kobe Bryant and they have the best coach ever in Phil Jackson. The West goes through LA and the East will go through Boston this year.