Hip Hop Hooray

We will probably see this again at the end of this season

The NBA is back and I couldn’t be happier. Of all the sports that make up my life’s obsession, basketball and specifically the NBA is at the head of the list. This has been the case since my dad introduced me to the Boston Celtics in the early 90’s and I adopted Dee Brown as my favourite player. He was small, wore my lucky number 7 and won the 1991 dunk contest. From that moment I was hooked.

Also I thoroughly enjoy this video... mainly for Christian Laettner rapping in a turtleneck.

All these years later and I’m not sure I’ve been more excited for a season to start. There is so much to love about the 2012/13 NBA season and I thought I’d share with you what I’m most looking forward to in no particular order.

• A proper 82 game season - Last year’s season was super exciting but in a lot of ways it was so different to a real season with the way the lockout ended and we ended up with a shortened season with way too many games close together. Whilst it was exciting for there to be more games per day, the quality of the basketball certainly took a hit as players struggled to cope. Now we have players who have had a proper off season and more rest between games, which I think will lead to better shooting and more minutes for the players we want to see.

• Heat vs. Celtics – I am writing this right after the first game of the season between these two teams has finished and the rivalry is stronger than ever. These teams genuinely dislike each other and now with Ray Allen in Miami it’s even more vitriolic. Kevin Garnett giving Ray the cold shoulder at the beginning of the game was awesome; although as a Celtics fan I was kind of hoping Rondo would put him on his ass.

• The new Lakers super-team – I despise the Lakers. I also love Steve Nash. It kills me to see the Canadian basketball genius wearing purple and gold and playing with Kobe Bryant, but it will be fascinating to see if this amazing team on paper will work as well in real life. It’s going to take a lot of work for them to find cohesion on offence with so many guys wanting to be top dog, but with the team still belonging to the Black Mamba. But seriously, I hope they go 0-82.

• Oklahoma City without Harden/Houston with Harden – As a neutral, for the last two seasons the Thunder have been the most fun team to watch. Then on the eve of the season they trade Harden to Houston for Kevin Martin and Jeremy Lamb. Most think they have taken a step backwards and I agree, but it will be interesting to see if they can make it work. Also now Harden has a chance to be a franchise guy in Houston, so we will find out just how good he really is. Although I think Houston need to do a lot more to actually become a contender in the next couple of years.

• The rookies – I’ve always loved watching young guys come into the league and picking who I think will make it. This year was a pretty stacked draft and there are quite a few rookies who will be fun to watch. Obviously it starts with Anthony Davis, who fresh of winning an Olympic gold medal is going to be a star in New Orleans. Then Jonas Valunciunas, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Damian Lillard are going to be great to watch and are all guys I’ve liked in college/Europe. After that guys like Brad Beal, Jae Crowder and several others could do something in their first year.

• Fantasy basketball – I’m not going to go into detail on this one as I spent plenty of words talking about it last week. But if you didn’t read it, check it out.

• The TNT ‘Inside The NBA’ guys – I can’t express how much I love Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley. Although the best way to explain it is that when I eventually get a male dog I am naming it Sir Charles Barkley Cousens.

• Basketball – OK but seriously how awesome is basketball?