One has to be careful with a title like “Find a Partner” due to the fact that Tiger Woods turns out to be so prolific at finding all sorts of partners to play with on and off the golf course. The total of Tiger Woods women has become so numerous it is easier to mention who has not slept with him.

This is not about where or who LeBron sleeps with, but more about how LeBron can win an NBA title or even keep the desire to stay in Cleveland. He needs a partner to share the duties of winning on the Cavaliers.

As of December 15th, draft picks and free agents are free to be traded by GM’s throughout the league and this begins to shape the thinking of even the most stodgy or worthless GM’s. Change for the better can once again be instantly possible.

Cleveland needs to make a move. The Shaq experiment, while not a failure, is not going to deliver the goods in terms of an NBA title.

So who are the Cleveland Cavaliers looking to put around LeBron James?

Anthony Randolph from the San Francisco Warriors.

Troy Murphy from the Indiana Pacers.

Antawn Jamison from the Washington Wizards.

The smile on Antawn Jamison's face would be even bigger if Cleveland picked him up in a trade

Taking a look at Antawn Jamison, what would he bring to the Cavaliers?

Jamison is having a great year, but has $28 million and two years left on his contract after this season. If the Wizards get to the point where they have to make a move, trading Jamison for expiring contracts could get them around $10 million under the salary cap next summer.

The Cavs have made trade proposals in the past for Jamison and will do so again. If Jamison is ever traded, expect the Cavs to push hard to be the team. He fits in nearly perfectly with the type of player the Cavs want both on the floor and off. Like Murphy, he’s not a great defender. But unlike Murphy, Jamison can create his own shot offensively.
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Coach Brown runs an excellent defensive system, but has to rely too much on LeBron James for all the crucial scoring. Antawn is not a great defender as we all know, but, man, can he put the ball in the hole. That could take a lot of pressure off of LeBron James and the Cavaliers.

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This is not a prediction post by NBAObsessed. That is my upfront disclaimer. This is news from the Los Angeles DailyNews. They have actually mentioned 37 ways that the Lakers will be Champions of the NBA again.

Here are my top 10 from the list:

12. George Karl still coaches the Denver Nuggets.

Don’t get me started on George Karl, but he is a big disappointment as a pro coach. Maybe he did well last year or maybe he just needed Chauncey Billups.

15. Yao Ming … MIA.

With Yao out, Houston is out.

18. Listen … The San Antonio Spurs’ roster just got another day older.

This is a huge concern with both San Antonio and Boston.

Kobe Bryant is probably 35 out of the 37 reasons

24. Kobe Bryant … where do we start?

This does not even need comment, but here we go…Kobe is right up there with LeBron, only Kobe has a contributing cast.

13. Mark Cuban’s best player is still a tall gawky German guy.

Dirk Nowitzki is a great player and has delivered zero titles. Is it his fault that in close games Dallas will call a timeout and then draw up a play for Dirk to shoot a turnaround jumper from 30 feet?

9. Four games against the Clippers during the regular season. Four aut-o-matic clicks in the win column without having to check into the scorer’s table.

The Clippers need a new owner and until they have one they will be the Clippers.

2. Derek Fisher wrote an autobiography this offseason called “Character Driven: Life, Lessons and Basketball.” It concludes: “The high I’ve experienced since we closed out the (Orlando) Magic (in last year’s NBA Final) hasn’t worn off … I’m driven and I see no sign of that changing. My eye is firmly fixed on the rim and no opportunity is going to pass me by.”

Derek Fisher is a gamer. It is no surprise that he shows up in so many big games.

11. Phil Jackson broke the tie last year with Red Auerbach for most career NBA coaching titles. He has 10. Why not turn it up to 11?

Phil may not be the best coach ever, but he always wins and has tons of big game experience. It is time for everyone to admit that fact.

36. Let’s face it: The NBA wants it to happen.

Just ask David Stern!

37. Ron Artest, the new pink elephant in the room, said before deciding on joining the Lakers he considered playing for Olympiacos or Panthinaikos, the two biggest teams in Greece. Living in L.A. already must seem Greek to him. Maybe that’s good. The Lakers can pay him in Euros, and it doesn’t go against the salary cap. And if he’s daring enough to go up in the stands during a skirmish, he’s more likely to run into someone like Michael Clarke Duncan.

If Artest makes it through the season without controversy, then the Lakers will be dueling the Celtics for the Championship.

Those are the Top 10 reasons the Lakers will win it all!

My top 10 reasons are simpler: Kobe, Kobe, Kobe, Kobe, Kobe, Kobe, Derek Fisher, Pau Gasol, Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant!
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If you go back in time to the 2006 – 07 season for the Boston Celtics and you have a team in disarray struggling to gain 24 victories. They had a team of individuals with such players as Michael Olowokandi and Sebastion Telfair. They were headed nowhere. There was even an Allen Ray, instead of a Ray Allen.

Paul Pierce was moody and despondent to say the least and often took his seat at the far end of the bench to be alone with his thoughts.

Now fast forward to today and envision a team with probably the strongest lineup from top to bottom in the NBA. Now you have Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Rasheed Wallace, Rajon Rondo, a grown up Kendrick Perkins, Marquise Daniels and more.

Paul Pierce is ready to battle!

Paul Pierce now finds himself with a perpetual smile.

So he’s drinking up every second now.

“When you get to play on this kind of team, you cherish it,” he recently said. “You don’t take these moments for granted, playing with guys like Kevin (Garnett) and Rasheed (Wallace), future Hall of Famers. You know, I cherish these moments because not a lot of people get that opportunity. I thought I’d never get that opportunity.

“It’s always disappointing when you lose a lot of ballgames. You wake up in the morning, and you know your team is 15 games out of the playoffs. The thing about me is that I’m always motivated because I love the game of basketball.

“I love the game so much that it rarely got me down when I was out there playing on the court. I take pride in that. I’m a competitor. I play this game to win. If you don’t play to win, then what are you playing for? Some guys play for the lifestyle, and a lot of those guys don’t last. Me, I’ve always played to try to win.
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Paul is loving it and so are his teammates, so much so that they showed up early for practice this year even though Coach Rivers told them to take it easy. Everyone is having so much fun, because winning is fun and they know they are going to win. The only question is how much will they win. They have set their sights on the NBA championship and anything less will not be satisfying.

It has been 12 years, 12 long years for Paul Pierce, but it could not be any better, now it is a battle for the NBA Championship every year. It might be a while before that smile leaves Paul’s face.

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Danny Ainge is a good guy? No, that is not what is being said here.

So Danny Ainge is a bad guy? No, you are just putting words in my mouth.

Danny is Danny, a Celtic for life. He played on those great Boston Celtic teams with the Chief, Bird, McHale, and Dennis Johnson. Every year it seemed they battled the Los Angeles Lakers of Kareem, Magic, and Worthy. Those were some great ballgames.

Now Danny is the GM of Boston and already has a NBA title to his credit and wanted another one last year, but his superstar, Kevin Garnett, had some leg problems and sat out the playoffs. No Kevin, no title, it is that simple.

This year Boston should be favored to win the Eastern Conference and do battle with the Los Angeles Lakers, who else? It is like basketball has restored itself to normalcy. Is that a word?

Earlier this year Danny Ainge had a heart attack and to listen to him tell it, it was pretty scary.

Ainge woke at home with pain in his chest and his left arm in the early hours of April 16, two days before playoffs began. He thought it might have been symptoms of a flu virus he had been battling for a few days. His wife, Michelle, knew better and rushed him to Massachusetts General Hospital. Doctors found a clogged artery and inserted a stent.

“When I got that news, early in the morning, it scared the hell out of me,” Rivers says. “When you hear that someone has had a heart attack, your next thought is, ‘Oh my God. And what?’ That brief moment before you hear he’s OK, you’re thinking the worst.”
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As much as Danny Ainge loves being the GM of Boston he has to stay in shape and try and reduce stress which is almost impossible with his job. There questions about Garnett, questions about the Celtics chances, and lately questions about Rajon Rondo.

It seems that everything gets twisted around in this blogging internet world. Danny spoke out on Rajon, saying how he had to get better and all of the sudden rumors were out there that Ainge didn’t like Rajon, not true, and that he would not be getting a good contract, not true, and that he was not good enough for the job, also not true.

Danny Ainge will resign Rajon Rondo

Sure there are areas that Rajon can improve on, mostly his shooting and consistency, but there are plenty of nights where he is darn near unstoppable.

Danny plans on staying the course now that he has a good heart!
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In our earlier post the discussion was about who would win the West and it was the obvious choice, the Lakers and Kobe Bryant. Now it is time to speak about the East.

So, who did ESPN vote to win the East?

In a surprise vote, but maybe not a huge surprise, the ESPN voters went with Cleveland. They felt the Shaqland LeBrons would win the East, because they looked so good last year and then they added Shaq. It will not be that easy. There are already a lot of ingredients to mix into this soup.

Looming over it all will be the question LeBron James won’t answer: What will he do when he can become a free agent in 2010? His freedom to walk next year has raised the stakes in Cleveland to a level seldom seen in the NBA, and could contribute to tensions along the way unless LeBron, Shaq and the Cavs can successfully merge their games and their goals: LeBron’s first title, Shaq’s fifth (putting him ahead of Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan) and Cleveland’s hope of pleasing and keeping LeBron. And with the Cavs having added three rotation players to a 66-win team and probably demoting stalwart Zydrunas Ilgauskas in favor of The Big Disruption, it’s not clear how chemically balanced they will be.

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How they could pass on the Boston Celtics is a true mystery. The Celtics bring back a healthy Kevin Garnett and added Rasheed Wallace and Marquis Daniels to the fold. They are dripping with talent.

Will Rasheed Wallace help Boston overtake LeBron James and the Cav's?

Lagging in third place is the Conference Champion Orland Magic. Some think they overachieved last year and worry that the chemistry will be different without Hedo Turkoglu. Others think the offensive talents of Vince Carter will make Dwight Howard even more valuable.
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If you have seen the movie Ice Age and the sequels Ice Age II and III, then you know there is a squirrel in the movie that really has nothing to do with the movie, but is obsessed with a giant acorn. Each movie shows clip after clip of the squirrel named Scrat chasing after this giant acorn.

Dwight Howard feels he is Scrat and the NBA Title is his giant acorn and he is obsessed with getting the acorn.

Another not so gentle giant named Shrek or would that be Shaq, has recently moved to Cleveland in search of another NBA Title for himself and a good friend named LeBron.

Will Shaq slow down Dwight Howard?

Now all the talk is on what will happen when the two giants face off against each other. Shaq has prepped the way with some not so kind words degrading Dwight Howard and his offensive moves.

“I haven’t spoken with him,” Howard said. “I’ve seen a lot of the comments that he has said on TV and read a lot of the comments that he’s made. I would say it hurt my feelings, a little bit, just to hear him say some of the things he said.”

Looking back on last season’s Eastern Conference finals, it’s easy to understand why Cleveland wanted O’Neal so badly to counter Howard. The Cavs had no defensive answer for the Magic’s All-Star center, so they took a gamble that O’Neal is still enough of a force at age 37 to stand up to him.

“Everybody has said, ‘Cleveland got Shaq for you. Cleveland got Shaq to win a championship,’ ” Howard said.

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Everyone seems to think it is a foregone conclusion that Shaq can handle Dwight Howard enough for LeBron James to deliver Cleveland to the finals, but your intrepid author has watched age sneak up on Shaq and he may find the fast improving Superman is a lot more than he bargained for.

The bigger worry might be how the Magic maintain their team chemistry without Hedo Turkoglu and with the addition of Vince Carter. Those team changes will more likely determine the fate of the Magic.

And if the Magic don’t make it, you can always go watch Ice Age III. It was a great movie!

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So is Mark Cuban upset with Dirk Nowitzki or not? Is that why Dirk is not representing the German national team in Poland?

No. Mark simply asked Dirk to take time off if his team qualified for the Olympics and they did that. Dirk Nowitzki claims that he could have played and Mark would not have stopped him, but that was not all there was to it.

“Dirk and I agreed last year after his Olympic run, which was his dream for Germany, that he would take a year off,” Cuban said. “He has the option of returning after this year if that is what he wants to do. Hopefully, instead, the NBA will return the favor to FIBA in the use of our players that FIBA gave to us in summer league.”

In announcing to the German media that Nowitzki would not be playing in Poland, federation president Ingo Weiss told reporters that “we accept this decision completely,” describing his organization’s relationship with the Mavericks as “excellent and reliable.”

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It sounds like everybody is happy, but that is not the case. The NBA allows players to compete for their respective national teams if they can get that team to pay for the insurance. The problem Mark Cuban had was not with Dirk playing, but with a little known rule that allows the National teams from preventing NBA players from playing in the NBA summer leagues without the permission of the player’s National team and that happened to the Dallas Mavericks, but not to Dirk, it was another player.

Mark Cuban is not always solidly behind his players when it comes to international play

Mark Cuban is still not happy period.

Yet in spite of his longtime backing of Nowitzki’s national-team excursions, Cuban remains a very reluctant supporter of international tournaments in general, having railed for years against the risks absorbed by NBA teams when star players such as Nowitzki return to FIBA play, where more physical contact is frequently allowed by referees.

You have to figure that stuff can happen and already did in the case of Tony Parker getting hurt playing for his National team. Cuban has millions of dollars riding on Nowitzki, not to mention any hint of going to the finals. Maybe Cuban is right?

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The NBA Title series ain’t what it used to be, by 10% to be exact. Ratings were down 10 percent according to an AP article in ESPN.

At first blush that seems kind of bad for a series featuring Phil Jackson going for his 10th coaching title and Kobe Bryant trying to prove he can be a one man band, but it has to be kept in the context of being compared to last year’s dream matchup of the Celtics and Lakers.

Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol did not have people turning on their TV's

Boston brought in Kevin Garnett and had a title starved large market in Boston. The Boston area has won in all other sports and they were ready for an NBA title. The Orlando market is a smaller area and Dwight Howard is less of a draw than the 3 amigos. That may change as Dwight improves, but it is fact for now.
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You snickered at him, didn’t you? You know, that time Kobe announced that he would like to win the NBA title without Shaq. You remember. Hey, did the same thing myself.

How many NBA players have announced they wanted to be the man and win the title without the help of another superstar? 4,203 to be exact. Kobe was one of them and you laughed.

This NBA title belongs to Kobe Bryant

Now Kobe has done it and done it in style. The Lakers are champions and it is because of Kobe Bryant and not Shaq or anyone else. Kobe has become the best two guard in the game and taken his team to the NBA Championship.

Bryant led the Los Angeles Lakers to their 15th NBA crown, defeating the Orlando Magic in five games courtesy of a 99-86 victory Sunday night. While this is Bryant’s fourth ring, it’s his first without O’Neal and as such the one that redefines his career and, indeed, ends the Shaq discussions.

It secures his legacy as one of the greatest players in NBA history and adds some measure of proof to the teammate testimonials that he isn’t the same me-first, often petulant player of his youth.

It wasn’t Kobe’s 32 points a game this series or Finals MVP honors that changed everything. It’s that he finally became the leader of a championship team, the center of a group that was built around him and the star who learned he couldn’t prosper until he stopped trying to do it alone.

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Long live the Kobe!

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Kobe Bryant has been a complete player for a long time, but only now as he puts together a Laker Championship without the help of a big guy named Shaq, that Kobe’s complete game is being noticed. One of the best things he does is close out games. Kobe gives meaning to the saying ice water in the veins.

He passed the ball to Derek Fisher on both of his big threes the other night. That is right, he passed the ball. Most of the time we only think of Kobe shooting and scoring, but he does it all.

We are witnessing, before our own eyes now, the maturation of Kobe and possibly as soon as tonight the championship essence of Kobe.

He is the greatest closer of today’s game, finishing off foes with that legendary, step-on-your-neck killer instinct. But clearly Bryant has learned between those dynastic days of three straight titles and today that winning games all by himself is pretty futile. And maybe that’s why he started trusting his teammates more and at times serving as the game’s most glamorous decoy ever.
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Kobe does it all

It is midway through the fourth quarter and the Lakers have a huge lead in the game, the Magic will need a sizable miracle to get back into this game. Kobe is not going to allow that to happen and he may do it by passing!

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