On Tuesday night, the Hawks beat the Cavaliers in OT at the Q aka the Quicken Loans Arena. Atlanta's off to its best start in years and well, the Cavs are...hold on a second...this just in.

LeBron walked off the court before the final horn sounded. What? Nah. Not him. Maybe A.I., but not LeBron. No, really, this actually happened and here's the funny thing on top of a dozen funny things about this whole thing. First off, there's no way the Cavs should've lost this game. These are the Hawks, ladies and gentlemen. Dominique Wilkins and Mookie Blaylock aren't walking through that door, to put a Rick Pitinoish spin on things. A game before LeBron walked out [and who can blame him because after all, it was he who was scored on to send the thing to OT to begin with], the Bobcats shut him down in a loss on the road after they beat the Spurs in San Antonio. I guess I'd take a walk too with a whole FOURTEEN SECONDS LEFT in the game after losing to the HAWKS. Wow. Guess anyone's capable of quitting on their team, even if it's the newest in a long line of "Air Apparents". Now here's a little background about yours truly before I get into the meat of this, probably the single most enjoyable sports rant I've ever written. I'm 26 years old. When I first started watching basketball in the 80s, the Celts, Lakers and Pistons ran the land with the Bulls just starting to rise to power. Jordan was on the verge of greatness and well, things were great. Twenty years later, high schoolers and foreigners have all but taken over and the sport that was invented here, is being won by well...everyone else but us internationally speaking. About three years ago, while everyone debated on who would be better, Carmelo or LeBron, I took Carmelo. Probably one of a handful to do so, but as I told people, Carmelo's got that 'Franchise Player' intangible within him to put a franchise on his back and carry them to the top. To this point, he has proven that making the playoffs every year since he's been in the league. While yes, he made a cameo guest spot in a DVD that's not too 'PR friendly', he's never quit on his team. EVER. He's never walked out on them, even if that game was against the likes of the Trail Blazers when they were losing by 1 point with 3 seconds left. Great players do not quit on their team, they don't quit period. Carmelo, to his credit has been a real quiet 'great' to this point. He has yet to not average over 20 a game in a season and yet, because of how stacked the West is at his position, he hasn't made an All-Star appearance...yet. That will change this year, guaranteed barring injury. He hasn't been out of the first round...yet, but trust me, that will happen. In my mind, he deserved Rookie of the Year and should have won it over LeBron. Carmelo played more, played better and his team did great with him leading the way, as a real ROTY SHOULD DO. It took LeBron three years to finally make the playoffs. But...by default and because everyone's bowed before "The King" so to speak, he's able to get away with everything under the sun. So what, if anything do we take out of this experience if nothing else childrens? I thought you'd never ask...

Wanna quit on your team? Sure, we won't hold it against you because you're not controversial like A.I., who's been to the Finals, been the NBA MVP and is the single greatest little man to ever play the game. We won't hold it against you because you're most certainly not like Randy Moss, probably the best wide receiver in the game to have never played in a Super Bowl. So can someone tell me why LBJ gets a pass? Can someone tell me why everyone under the sun is willing to sweep this under the rug as if it never happened? I mean, I watched the game on the local FSN affiliate here in Ohio and for all that the "Homer" announcers will mention about #23 [the number should never be worn again, should be permanently retired by the NBA out of respect to Jordan the way the NHL retired #99 out of respect for Gretzky, but I guess Stern's too busy being Basketball Nazi to make THAT rule change]...him walking off the floor with more than enough time left to win the game didn't register. Hell, I read every possible recap there was on the game and there's not a SINGLE MENTION OF IT. Anywhere. Not on NBA.com, not on MSNBC.com, not anywhere will you find it mentioned and if you are the few lucky ones to catch a mention of it on ESPN, you'll find folks writing it off as James being "frustrated" with his team's play. Dang I love it when I'm right. Ya see, I want all of you Cleveland fans to take this moment and if I could, I'd take a picture of it and this...is why the Cavaliers will NEVER win a championship. Not a division title, not a conference title and most DEFINITELY not a World Championship. Franchise players don't walk off the court, no matter how angry or frustrated they are with their team's play. You that mad? Don't miss free throws that enable a team to tie the game off of YOUR MISS and INABILITY TO PLAY SOLID DEFENSE. What makes me laugh is all of these preseason prognostications that have the Cavs as the fourth best team in the East, as if the Nets are an invisible squad to be flat out ignored because they play in the Atlantic. What is it with people wanting to ignore teams from New Jersey? Rutgers is all but being dismissed as having a viable shot of beating Louisville, the Nets are being seen as "too erratic" to be a threat in the East. But the Cavs, with "King" James, are more than capable of making a run to the Finals. Uh-huh. Sure, they are. With LeBron missing free throws and teams as defensively inept as the HAWKS AND BOBCATS able to force the Cavs to go away from their "King" in crunch time, can you just imagine what teams like the Nets, Pistons, Heat and Bulls are probably thinking? Fact is, people can and more than likely will do whatever they have to in order to get people to forget that LeBron walking off the court ever happened. People in Ohio, moreso the Akron-Cleveland area as a whole will probably never speak of it unless it's someone like me, then it's instantly written off as "hater in the house". Fact is this. Championships aren't handed out in the first two weeks of the season. I get this. But you can get a really good gauge for who's going to be around scrapping for it by seeing how they handle the early part of the year. Because at the end of it, it's these games that teams are tanking left and right that end up being the difference between hosting a deciding game on your home floor...or having an early summer vacation because you were unable to dig yourself out of an early hole you dug in the first half of the season. Okay, so here's what I'm going to do in terms of predicting the remainder of this year. I'm not gonna bother predicting who's gonna make the playoffs, because most of those are no-brainers with the occasional shocker here and there thrown in the mix. There are certain teams who are off to hot starts which will be playing past late April, such as the Hornets and Jazz [IF THEY STAY HEALTHY, can and probably will win the Northwest from Denver] while teams like the Mavs [told people they're the NBA equivalent of the Colts. All sizzle, no meat.] aren't gonna matter at the end of the day. Note, only one team's rebounded from an 0-4 hole to win a title and I don't think the Mavs will be the second. Final four for each conference? I can do that.

Out in the East, it's going to be the Nets and Heat. The Heat are pacing themselves for the stretch run, believe that much. Shaq's smart enough to not burn himself out early, because he knows his team needs him late. Especially in the center deficient Eastern Conference where even at his age, he's still the most nt big in the place. Wade's going to do his thing and it'll be more than enough to hold off the rest of the East. The Nets are being overlooked by well...everyone for one reason [Bulls going back to prominence or Pistons returning to form] or another [The "LeBron Love Worldwide" Movement or the Heat repeating]. But the thing everyone's failing to overlook is this. The Nets helped themselves immensely through the draft getting Williams and Boone in the first round, then getting Adams in the second. Wright from Texas A&M should be ready to step into a more prominent role and Krstic is primed for a huge year after the good year he had a year ago. The Nets had a productive bench in their two back to back conference title seasons and this is probably the best their bench has looked since those two Finals runner-up teams. Oh and since the so called experts have conveinently forgot this fact, the Nets were Eastern Conference Champions in 2002 and 2003. The bulk of that nucleus from those two teams, mainly Jefferson and Kidd, are still here and I think they remember how to win. However, at the end of the day, unless the Nets figure out a way to stop Shaq down low...they won't beat the Heat this year. So this leaves the West.

I'm going to say this flat out, so there's no misinterpretations about this in any way, shape, form or fashion. The Spurs are the best team in this conference. Period. Gregg Popovich is the NBA's equivalent to Bill Belichick in that no matter what he does or how he does it, this man keeps finding ways to win. The Spurs are probably the closest thing to the Patriots that the Association has right now. The Spurs will be in the Western Conference Finals and along the way, expect them to make an example out of either the Suns or Mavs to do so. Speaking of those two teams, if you've got them penciled, stenciled or markered in to be in the Finals, allow me to tell you why they won't. First, the Suns. They're too small down low and as the Mavs, Clippers and Lakers for all of five games in the first round proved...pound them inside and they fold up like chairs. Slow the game down and all of a sudden, they don't seem as fast as they do when they're running wind sprints with a ball in their hands. The Suns are what the NBA wants to win the title every year, so that things can be exciting and teams like the Pistons and Spurs aren't putting the casual fan to sleep every June. But the problem is, DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS and Phoenix doesn't play any. On top of that, most of the teams ahead of them in the West have players over 6'10'' that can play inside of the paint. So this brings me to everyone's chic pick, the Mavs. Sorry, the window of opportunity has shut on them. Shut when they lost Game 3 with Wade cementing it with brick after brick and ironically enough, if you're counting, they haven't won a game since Game 2 of the Finals back in Dallas. Eight straight losses and in spite of that, people still seem to think they're gonna put this all together and win the West again. Sorry. Those folks from San Antonio might have a little something to say about that this year. Come to think of it, had it not been for Ginobili's foolish foul on Dirk at the end of Game 7, we're not even having this discussion. Nonetheless, the Mavs are deep. No doubt about that. They can score. No question about that. But can they play defense? Games 3, 4, 5 & 6 of last year's Finals tell me they can't. Kobe Bryant's three quarter scoring blitzkrieg a year ago tells me they can't. The fact that they're 0-4 to start off this year tells me they're still not doing it. I don't see the Spurs losing the division lead, especially if the calendar year hits 2007 and they're in first place. I can't see the Spurs losing another Game 7 on their home floor to the Mavericks again if it comes down to the get down. They won't let that happen twice in two years. And Dirk, for all of his David Hasselhoff liking and his outrageous ways, won't get by The Big Fundamental two years in a row. However...the Spurs will have some opposition and it will come from Los Angeles. No, we won't get Kobe versus Manu and the Spurs again. We will get the Clippers and Spurs in the Western Conference Finals. What? Why? Simple. The Clippers are the best team in the league nobody's looking at and why not? They've got the best big man you haven't heard of in seven years named Elton Brand, one of the best up and coming guards with the best upside in Shaun Livingston and the deepest bench this side of the Alamo. Pound for pound, they're the only team in the league that for seven games, can duke it out with the Spurs and this summer...they're gonna show the world that the days of Clipper jokes and punchlines end with an emphatic halt. They aren't ready to take that next step YET...but the addition of Tim Thomas to an already deep squad won't hurt them. If they remain healthy all year long, they'll the Pacific from Phoenix and avoid having to see the Spurs until the West Finals. Then...all bets are off.

So it comes down to the Spurs and Heat if my calculations are correct and another round of Duncan vs Shaq. As great as Wade was a year ago, he's gonna have a much stiffer task ahead of him with Ginobili and Bowen guarding him. The intangibles here favor the Spurs who after the letdown they suffered a year ago, won't make the mistake Dallas did of taking their foot off of Miami's throat. They will press down and they won't stop until Miami's gurgling and that...is what a champion's supposed to do. Dallas didn't comprehend this last season and that's why they saw Miami celebrating on their home floor. It's why instead of getting rings in their home opener, they were left raising a 'We Blew A Two Games To None Lead And All We Got Was This Lousy Banner' banner. And that's why, above all else, the Spurs will be the 2007 NBA Champions.