So once again we have completed another Great NBA season and the San Antonio Spurs led by Tony Parker and Tim Duncan completely overwhelmed the Cleveland Cavaliers in four straight games to win their 4^th championship and stir rumblelings of the Spurs being a, you know that pesky “D” word, no, not Defense, but Dynasty, as they captured their 4 championship in the past 9 seasons.

Miami fresh off of stunning the Dallas Mavericks in the 2006 Finals were a sentimental pick in the East, along with the Detroit Pistons and the Cleveland Cavaliers led by Lebron James. In the Western Conference the Mavericks were primed to get back to the finals with the experience of losing in the finals serving as a prime motivation. The Phoenix Suns, with their young stud Amare Stoudemire back healthy after missing almost all of the previous season with knee surgery, to complement reigning two-time MVP Steve Nash and Shawn Marion were running and gunning in a style that reminded the NBA of the greatness of the 1980’s when Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were dueling in the finals.

Other contenders in the Eastern Conference included the Washington Wizards with their triple-headed monster of Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison, and Caron Butler, and the Chicago Bulls with newly acquired center Ben Wallace to go with Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon. In the Western Conference there were also contenders like the Houston Rockets with Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, and Kobe Bryant’s Los Angles Lakers.

As the season wore on, there were a couple of surprises; Philadelphia traded Alan Iverson to the Denver Nuggets, teaming him with Carmelo Anthony to give Denver the most potent same-team one-two scoring threat since Shaq and Kobe. Probably the biggest surprise in the Western Conference was Jerry Sloan’s Utah Jazz, who breezed in the Northwest Division over Denver. Golden State led by “mad-scientist” Don Nelson made a late season push and got past the Los Angles Clippers on the last day and captured the number 8 seed in the West, about to be “prime fodder” for the Dallas Mavericks who steam-rolled through the regular season, flirting with the 70 victory mark before finishing 67-15, or so we thought.