FanNation - The Republic of Sport

I'm usually pretty awesome at knowing who's going to win the championship in every major sport (hockey isn't major anymore).  Sometimes there are inexplicable upsets that can only be predicted just as the game or series is under way (ie New England), but most the time I can easily forsee all the intangibles and obvious elements of a team to determine if they are going to be the winner or if they are going home empty.  I don't know if it's a gift to have such a keen eye for sports outcomes, or maybe it's a curse for being so callous because of how infrequent my teams win that I'll even pick against them because they suck.

There's one sport that does not require my level of expertise in champion predictions.  I assure you that is not college basketball.  Baseball is easy, but not in April.  College football is rather difficult, but the more you use your eyes, the more obvious it becomes.  The NFL is pretty moderate.  No, the sport that you all should be able to nail down is NBA basketball.  It's the ultimate sport for prognosticators to overthink and end up looking like fools.  I guess it's what they get for trying too hard for assuming that all major sports were created the same because they are presented on the same networks.

What makes the NBA so easy to predict is the fact that no team without at least two all-stars wins the championship.  Most people want to believe that the game of basketball is not an individual game, and to some degree, they are right.  The thing is that the NBA, unlike MLB or football, has only 5 guys per team on the court at once; so it's very possible that one man can take over a game for his team.  It has always been a league driven by stars because it is the stars who almost single-handedly win the rings.  Obviously, you need a complete roster to win it all, but at the NBA level, you can be assured that each team's superstars will be accomodated by other professional players (unlike college where one phenom could be surrounded by duds).

The minimum is two all-stars, but sometimes you can get away with one superstar all-star and a couple of all-star snubs (like Manu or Tony Parker).  So as much as people want to buy into a conference or upstart team, it's that group that is loaded with all-stars that will bring home the title.  Forget those hard-working utility teams that have "productive" guys like the kirilenkos or Gasols; you need the shoe sellers.

 So that's a whole lotta talk without giving you any picks, right?  So without further ado:

 Celtics over Spurs (maybe not the Spurs...maybe it's the Lakers or suddenly hot Jazz, but who cares? The Celts are the champs)

Three all-stars that went 25-5 against the West.  The playoffs are over folks.  We'll see you next year.