Hey look, I care about the NBA again

I have to make a confession. For a couple weeks there, I didn't care much about the goings-on in the NBA. Lakers and Celtics still favorites to get to the Finals? Meh. The "LeBron gets some actual help" angle was interesting, as was the "Kevin Durant starts killing it" story, but overall I haven't felt compelled to post about anything lately.

And I must admit that part of that was due to the entire Jazz team being injured for parts of the season and subsequently playing kind of horrible. I am nothing if not a ridiculous homer.

But as of yesterday, the Jazz (still minus Carlos Boozer) have beaten the Lakers (at the tail end of a 13-game road trip for L.A.) and the Celtics (minus Garnett). I'm starting to think that if Utah can get healthy, they'll be dangerous in the playoffs. Harpring is playing some of the best ball of his career, AK is back and looking good, Deron appears to be at or near 100%, Okur is doing well, Millsap is still Millsap, and C.J. is starting to come into his own. If Korver could figure out why he stinks from deep in a Jazz uniform and correct it, we might be looking at a team that can get to the Western Conference Finals again this year. Oh right, and then there's Boozer, who is a great force offensively (except in the playoffs).

Also the trade deadline was yesterday. To steal from the Basketbawful blog, "when Rafer Alston is The Face of the NBA's trade deadline, well, you know not much of anything went down."

Shoot, even Portland decided to sit on Raef LaFrentz's Giant Expiring Contract to use themselves instead of trading it for a star player.

But seriously, good trade for Alston, Orlando. You needed a point guard to replace Jameer, and Skip 2 My Lou will do fine.

And finally, here's a good story involving Shaq and Twitter.

We went in, and to my surprise the MDE(Most Dominant Ever) was sitting in the corner booth by himself. We gave the man a nod and "Hey" as we walked to our table and were soon whispering back and forth like 12 year old girls at the 7th grade dance.

"You go talk to him" I said, while tugging nervously on my dress.
"No, you go talk to him" Sean replied while flipping his hair.

Excellent. And Shaq's final Twitter update in the story is awesome.

To all twitterers , if u c me n public come say hi, we r not the same we r from twitteronia, we connect

This is why people love Shaq and dislike Kobe. The Black Mamba will never be featured in a tale like this one.

Only 40-something more games to go in the 2008-2009 season. Here's to an exciting finish.