2010 Is Basketball Christmas All The Time

The next six months will be spectacular for any basketball fan.

March brings the NCAA men's and women's tournaments, a dazzling display of communal vice channeled into peace.

April brings the end of the NBA regular season, jockeying for playoff position, and speculation on individual awards.

May brings (after a fairly trivial first round of playoffs to close the prior month) what will be a thrilling "Elite Eight" of playoffs among Boston, Atlanta, Orlando, Cleveland, San Antonio, Dallas, Denver, and Los Angeles.

June heralds an NBA champion, and perhaps the crowning of a new individual King in the sport. Then comes the NBA draft, with its debutants who make you wonder which will be real.

July brings the greatest free-agent season in NBA history. There is a moderately high probability that at least two of the top 10 players in the league will switch teams.

August (stretching into September) brings the FIBA World Championship, the most exalted international contest for folks who care. (Try comparing the Olympic tennis gold medal to Wimbledon.) After three straight failures in international tournaments, the US team won in Beijing in 2008; can they do it again?

Wow wow wow!