The NBA: Where Stuff Happens

The National Basketball Association's playoffs have already begun, leaving behind some issues that came up during the regular season:

• The Boston Celtics, with the addition of Kevin Garnett, had the best record of the regular season at 66-16.
• The New Orleans Hornets, exiled for two seasons in Oklahoma City because of Hurricane Katrina, returned home to become this year's Cinderella story.
• The Houston Rockets had a near-record streak of consecutive victories, made all the more remarkable by the absence of Yao Ming.
• Kobe Bryant stopped whining about getting out of Los Angeles (where else was he gonna go?) once the Lakers traded for the Memphis Grizzlies' Pau Gasol, and the team started playing well enough to win the number one seed in the Western Conference.
• Shaquille O'Neil is back in the playoffs, but he had to be traded to the Phoenix Suns from the Miami Heat in order to do it.
• Things are finally looking up for the New York Knicks, now that Isiah Thomas no longer coaches the team.
• The NBA approved the move of the Seattle Supersonics to Oklahoma City, pending the resolution of lawsuits. The Sonics leave behind an angry city that has supported them for decades with an arena the new owner deemed inadequate. Unlike Seattle, Oklahoma City has nothing going for them besides proving to the league that they can handle a pro franchise, at least on a temporary basis. Let's see how they handle a team on a full-time basis.
• TV ratings on ABC, ESPN and TNT are up. But not in Minneapolis-St. Paul, where on three Sundays, KSTP replaced ABC's network telecasts with Minnesota Wild hockey games--and drew better numbers. It's not hard to see why. When the local franchise doesn't do well, interest in the NBA suffers.
• That local franchise, the Minnesota Timberwolves, stumbled to a 22-60 record in the first season of the post-Kevin Garnett era. On the court, it was Al Jefferson (who came here in the Garnett trade, but lacks his charisma) and a bunch of journeymen plying their trade before dwindling audiences at Target Center. They do have a shot at getting a good draft pick. But given the Wolves' brain trust and their past performances, there's no guarantee that they won't screw it up.
• Everybody seems to want a Lakers-Celtics NBA final, a throwback to the Larry Bird-Magic Johnson glory days of the 1980s. Hate to disappoint you, but we see a Detroit Pistons-San Antonio Spurs final.