BASKETBALL

In the NBA, the major match-ups of the season were revealed.  The series will open with none other than LeBron James/Dwayne Wade/Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat.  Their first contest:  An away game against the defending Eastern Conference Champion Boston Celtics.  This is very interesting.  The Celtics are still LOADED, and will be a tough competitor.  And remember, all the pressure is on the Heat to not only succeed, but to CRUSH the competition.  If they beat the Celtics, nobody will care, but they need to beat the Celtics by at least 10 points to prove a point that they are the team to beat.  And, if the Heat lose, get ready for the criticism to begin.

The other opening night game features Kobe Bryant and the defending champion LA Lakers vs. a rejuvenated Houston Rockets team, who hope to have a healthy Yao Ming.  Another prime-time match-up will take place December 2nd, when LeBron James travels to Cleveland in a Miami Heat jersey.  The Heat should destroy the Cavs, but it will be fascinating to watch the LeBron backlash in Cleveland.  And you can definitely believe the Cavs will be playing their best ball.

Of course, the most anticipated match-up the NBA puts on Christmas day.  This year, that game is no surprise.  It’s the triple-headed monster that is the Miami Heat traveling to Los Angeles to take on the Lakers and the now underdog Kobe Bryant.  Everyone wants to see if Kobe can win his 6th title, and more importantly, win it against a Goliath of a competitor.  People think the Heat have an unfair advantage with all that talent, and that Kobe is the superstar who led his OWN team to 5 championships.  That game will be purely exhilarating.

Elsewhere in the NBA, LeBron James has taken out a full page in the Cleveland newspaper thanking Akron for all of their support.  This has raised ire from Cleveland fans.  LeBron is from Akron and that’s where he played his High School ball, but he has been a hero to Cleveland, not just Akron, and Cleveland residents feel they are owed a sincere amount of gratitude for their support.  Thanking just “Akron” feels like a slap-in-the-face, and an obvious admission that he didn’t like playing there — at least not towards the end.

FOOTBALL

Finally, in the NFL, it looks like an era is officially closed.  Yesterday, Brett Favre retired for good.  Sure, this is the third time, and they were all “official” or “final” or whatever he said at the time, but this one feels real.  Favre had all the leverage in the world heading into training camp.  Vikings coach Brad Childress said he would be as patient with Favre as necessary.  But Favre, coming off surgery, decided he wasn’t able to play yet another season.  Then again, many are speculating that Favre didn’t want to do training camp and may simply be on-call.  They think he’s waiting for the Vikings to flounder at QB and come begging for him to play, at which point he would happily throw on a uniform and jump right under center.  But, for now, it looks like the Brett Favre era has come to a close in the NFL.