As we get set for one of the most anticipated NBA Finals in decades, for Heat vs. Thunder, LeBron vs. KD, the 20-something’s taking over the league from the 30-something’s, ironically, it’s Wilt Chamberlain that I’m thinking about this morning. Yes, that Wilt Chamberlain. For a man best known for both his basketball prowess, and his ahem, social prowess too, Chamberlain was actually an incredibly well-educated, well-spoken and intelligent guy. And as we get set for Game 1 of the NBA Finals, I can’t help but think about one of Chamberlain’s most famous quotes as it pertains to the game today. The quote:

“Nobody ever rooted for Goliath.”

So simple, so to the point, so applicable even now in 2012, 50 years after Chamberlain first uttered the words.

Nobody ever rooted for Goliath.

And there certainly aren’t many folks rooting for 2012’s Goliath, the Miami Heat in the lead-up the NBA Finals. As a matter of fact, with Game 1 now hours away, I’m stunned at how much of the chatter surrounding Miami sounds almost exactly identical to what everyone has been saying about them for the last two years. You know the storylines, but in essence, they all boil down to some variation of the following: Nobody likes the Heat. Everybody hates LeBron. Miami has no heart. They’re not tough. LeBron is a choker. Wade is a whiner. Bosh is an ostrich (ok, so maybe I just threw that last one in there for good measure). The Thunder are more of a “team.” Oklahoma City is more likeable. Blah, blah, blah. At this point, it really is all white noise.

Last year things weren’t nearly this easy. The morning after the NBA Draft lottery order was selected, we got the answer to the question “Who’s drafting No. 1?” but unfortunately had to follow it up with an entirely different question completely: “What the heck are the Cleveland Cavaliers going to do with the pick?”

In hindsight it seems almost laughable to think that the answer was anything other than “Take Kyrie and run.” Only at the time, it wasn’t nearly so easy. The Kyrie in this case (Irving, of course) was coming off a major toe injury, had sat out most of his only season at Duke, and when he did return to action in time for Duke’s first NCAA Tournament game, looked pretty average. At this time last year, Irving appeared to be the best of a flawed group of players, no better or worse than the undersized Derrick Williams, the position-less Kemba Walker, Enes Kanter (who hadn’t played competitive basketball in a year), and a bunch of foreign guys no one had ever heard of. Granted, I personally liked Irving more than virtually everyone else, but to most other basketball experts, drafting him No. 1 overall was like grabbing a bag of bruised apples and trying to figure out which one was “best.” If they were all bruised, did it really matter which one you took?

But as we get back to 2012 and back to Wednesday night, once the ping pong balls stopped bouncing, the questions about the No. 1 pick became completely different than they were a year ago. None of them centered on who the No. 1 pick would be, but instead, what would happen when he got to the Crescent City. They all sounded a little something like this: What neighborhood would Anthony Davis live in? What dealership will he pick up his white Bentley at? Will he learn the saxophone in the offseason and join a jazz band? You know, all of life’s truly pressing issues.

All bad jokes aside, we do now know that unless truly absurd happens, Anthony Davis will be a New Orleans Hornet in a couple weeks. Mark it down in permanent ink. Chisel it into stone. Shave it into your eyebrow if you please. Behind the Harlem Globetrotters, Davis-to-New Orleans is the safest bet in sports right now.

So with that, the real question on the 2012 draft isn’t “Who’s No. 1” but instead, “Who’s No. 2?” While the NBA would tell you that the Hornets are on the clock, it’s really the Charlotte Bobcats who are up to bat, and if they don’t get a talent infusion ASAP, someone might have to bring in a priest to read them their last rights. The Bobcats are bad, really bad, but they’ve got a chance to change that. In the watered down East, the right selection could put them on the path towards the playoffs within a few years.

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Regardless of whom you listened to prior to Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals Monday night, all the experts pretty much had the same opinion on how things would go down. In essence, their “analysis” basically boiled down to this: “Yeah, the Celtics have no chance.” In Boston’s defense the overwhelming sentiment for the Heat prior to Game 1 had little to do with the actual Heat themselves, and more to do with ancillary stuff that was out of Boston’s control. Things like their age, the quick turnaround from Saturday night against Philly, and the brutal seven game series they just finished up less than 48 hours prior against the 76ers. Again, Boston’s underdog status entering Game 1 had little to do with their actual opponent.

Well, with the Heat winning 93-79 Monday night, the experts were both right and wrong with how Game 1 shook out. Sure they were “right,” because the younger, fresher, home-court advantaged Heat cruised to an easy victory, exactly like most had predicted. But what most of the experts got wrong was how the Heat won Game 1.

And it’s that how which was not only the story Monday night, but potentially of the series.

Because while the box score will tell you the game was a blowout, what the naked eye will tell you is that it was much closer. Sure Boston’s age was an issue and Miami’s youth prevailed, but if you actually plopped yourself on the couch Monday night and watched, what you’ll realize is that for a time the game was much closer than most expected. Boston used a big second quarter to tie things up at 46 right before the half, making us momentarily forget the pre-series storylines and wonder aloud, “wait, the Celtics can’t really win this game, can they?” Somewhere I’m sure Skip Bayless was foaming at the mouth just thinking about the possibility.

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Admittedly, I wasn’t paying particularly close attention to the early stages of Tuesday night’s Pacers-Heat Game 5. It was one of those nights where stuff kept popping up; e-mails that needed to answered, phone calls, unexpected paternity suit paperwork. Ok, maybe not that last one. But we all have “those” nights, and for me, Tuesday night was exactly that.

Again, I was only kinda, sorta watching, but when I looked up early in the second quarter and unexpectedly saw blood trickling down Dwyane Wade’s face, well, I wasn’t surprised. As a matter of fact, my first thought was “Here we go again.” From the first minute, of the first game of this series, the Pacers have been trying to play the role of tough guys and trying to physically intimidate the Heat at every turn. Some nights it’s worked and some nights it hasn’t, but the idea that Indiana was trying to be the bully again was like hearing Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are now “dating.” Frankly, it didn’t shock me in the least.

From that point on I started paying a bit closer attention, and it also didn’t surprise me when a few plays later, Udonis Halsem came down the court, and threw down an equally hard foul on Tyler Hansbrough, Wade’s assailant on the previously mentioned play. We’ll get to why I wasn’t surprised in a minute, but the fact remains, the play didn’t catch me off-guard at all.

What did surprise me however, was the reaction to Haslem’s foul.

Yes the foul was hard, and yes it was unnecessary, but the way that most people reacted, you’d have thought Haslem pulled a knife on Hansbrough and shanked him on the way to the foul line or something. At that exact moment, Twitter blew up, and everybody pretty much had the same reaction: Haslem needs to be ejected! He needs to be suspended! Send him to Riker’s Island and throw away the key!

On late Thursday afternoon, a small, yet kinda big news nugget hit the wires, when USA basketball announced that they had officially extended two new invitations to try out for this summer’s Olympic team. The first, James Harden, should surprise no one (well, unless you’re surprised that USA basketball would consider letting someone who looks like a Batman villain represent our country in London this summer). But the second guy? Well, that’s where it gets interesting, as it was announced that along with Harden, Anthony Davis would be trying out for the team as well.

In case you’re wondering, yes, we’re talking about that Anthony Davis. The one who was a no-name high school recruit at this time two years ago. The one who was just learning his first low-post move six months ago, in the same gawky way teenagers first learn to parallel park. The one with the world’s most famous uni-brow. That Anthony Davis.

That guy may be representing our country against the world’s best this summer. And you know what? I absolutely, positively love it.

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Incase you hadn’t heard, Dwight Howard is apparently ready to take his talents to Chicago. Or something. On Sunday, when asked about Chicago Bulls superstar Derrick Rose, Howard told the Chicago Tribune:

"If I could play with Derrick right now and God wanted that to happen, it will happen," Howard said. "It has nothing to do with me not wanting to play with Derrick Rose. I love him. That's my brother."

Now, taken in a vacuum, those comments aren’t all that bad. Howard didn’t intimate that he was desperate to play in Chicago, or even necessarily wanted to, per se. All he said was that if the opportunity presented itself, he’d love to play with Derrick Rose. Honestly, who wouldn’t?

Of course with Dwight Howard, the problem is that you can’t his comments in a vacuum, but instead have to line them up into context with everything else he’s said over the previous few months. And for those you who haven’t been paying attention, what’s he’s basically said are the following: That he’d love to play with the Celtics. Or the Lakers. Maybe even the Mavericks or Nets. Possibly even the Clippers or Knicks.

This would all be well and good of course, except, well, Howard plays for the Orlando Magic, and there’s a pretty good chance that he’ll continue to do so for another five months. And as long as he does, he seems set on continuing to make obnoxious comments like he did Sunday, and continue to fuel the most annoying story, that-isn’t-really-a-story in sports. That topic? Where will Dwight Howard end up at the end of this season?

That’s right, if you haven’t been paying attention, since the lockout ended, Chris Paul got traded and the season began, the Dwight Howard sweepstakes have taken center stage in NBA discussions. Where will he end up? Who will he play for? Is this his last season in Orlando? These talking points seem to literally lead every Sportscenter debate about the NBA, and could quite possibly blow up the sports talk radio medium as we know it.

With the 2011 NBA Draft now in the books, it's time to hand out 30 grades for all 30 teams.

Starting with...

Atlanta Hawks (B-)

Second Round: Keith Benson

I love this pick, if only because had Benson played at Duke, he would’ve gone in the Top 20. Instead he went to a small school, and fell to the second round. Big guy, good skill-set, I fully expect him to play in the league awhile.

On a different note, what happened to all those Josh Smith trade rumors?

Look, I’m not saying the Hawks had to make a move, but, well, they can’t bring back the same team they had last year either, right? To me, the Hawks are like the old Bill Parcells saying, “You are, what your record says you are.” And right now in Atlanta, what they “are,” is a team that’s peaking as a four or five seed, and never, ever beating Chicago or Miami (or likely Boston) to make it out of the second round of the NBA Playoffs. It could be worse, but it could be a lot better too.

Maybe Atlanta’s brass is ok with that, I don’t know. I just hope for their fan’s sake that “Drafting Keith Benson,” isn’t the end of their off-season moves.

Simply put, this is the strangest NBA Draft I can ever remember. Coming off an epic NBA Finals a few weeks ago, with a lockout looming, and having less star power than the Oakland A’s batting order, this draft is drier than the chicken my sister cooked for dinner the other day. Honestly, why even bother talking about what’s going to happen Thursday night? Especially when its way more fun psychoanalyze LeBron James instead!

Interestingly, I’m not the only who feels this way. I (begrudgingly) listen to sports talk radio every day, and the more I listen to, the more it sounds like the hosts were all sitting around earlier this week and said to themselves, “Oh crap, the draft is this week?” Then they hastily put together a tangent on Jimmer Fredette, before moving back to the NFL lockout, LeBron, or something else (Then again, at least we have Jimmer. If there weren’t a polarizing white guy involved, I don’t know even know if the NBA would bother holding a draft, period).

Either way, after doing a nearly 6,000 word back-and-forth with a reader of my site named Arjun before last year’s NBA Draft, we went ahead and skipped it this year. Arjun is busy with school, and honestly, I just don’t have as strong opinions as I did on this year’s crop of draftees as I did at this time last year. As Arjun said to me, “After the top five we would basically be arguing, ‘My mediocre flawed guy is way better than your mediocre flawed guy.’” Hate to say it, but he’s right.

Of course with that said, it doesn’t mean that I don’t have some opinions on the draft. By now, you should know me better than that.

Here are 10 of them.

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Well NBA fans, the long national nightmare is over. You can all let out a big sigh of relief.

That’s right, after spending the last 11 months watching and waiting, your prayers have been answered. There will be no parade down Biscayne Boulevard and no awkward dancing from Zydrunas Ilgauskas while Pat Riley smirks in the background. Meanwhile, the only people partying until the break of dawn on South Beach will be those listening to old Will Smith albums, and well, apparently Dirk Nowitzki too.

The Miami Heat are not your NBA Champions. Not this year anyway.

But let’s just stop right there.

Because this series- these entire NBA playoffs really- weren’t about the Heat. They were about the Dallas Mavericks. Dallas was the most mentally and physically tough team since the beginning of April, and were the better coached and better prepared team in just about every Finals game this June. Understand Miami didn’t lose this series. Dallas won it. The Mavericks deserving NBA Champions.

So while the rest of the world is reveling in the Heat’s failures, and in seeing one particular superstar have a breakdown usually reserved for contestants on VH1 reality shows, I’m going to stay away from that (For the most part).

Today is about the NBA Champions. Today is about the Dallas Mavericks.

With the 2011 NBA Finals set to start tonight, let's answer some of the pressing questions entering the series.

What’s The Coolest Part Of These NBA Finals?: How about the simple fact that we’ve got the two best teams playing? Is that enough?

It sounds stupid, but think about it: While the Finals are always compelling, doesn’t it sometimes seem like the wrong teams are there? That if one or two plays had gone another way, maybe a different team would be playing for the title? Last year, what if Ron Artest wasn’t in the perfect spot for a put back in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals and the Lakers lose? Would it have Phoenix in the Finals? What if Trevor Ariza hadn’t gotten his steal at the end of Game 1 against Denver the year before? One play in each year could’ve led to totally different results.

Well this year, there are no ifs, ands or buts. Dallas and Miami might not have entered these playoffs as the No. 1 seeds, but have earned their way to the Finals by dispatching everyone in their paths. Each has only lost three games all postseason, and neither went past a Game 5 in either of their last two series’. These two haven’t just been winning. They’ve been dominating.

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