COURTSIDE COLUMN

  
To start our new opinion based short columns, we sound off on what's been bouncing around the courts the most lately.

LeBron-Carmelo-Kobe-2014.

Hollywood, the NBA, it's all a business you know. Why is it these days the most exciting time of the basketball year is in the offseason...and we aren't talking about the Las Vegas Summer League here peeps. Sure some mega deals make for some excited fans and Twitter feeds, but the Summer blockbusters should be left for 'Pacific Rim' and the 'Man Of Steel'. Sure in this season of deals a lot more is about to go down but right now for one team it was all good just an Odom, Bynum and Fisher ago. Even the Zen Master would have a hard time calming this mess and Buss junior hasn't even begun to swing the wrecking ball his late, great father said he would.

Maybe I'm just a bitter Laker fan who is down from the departure flightplan of Superman 2. With Dwight Howard now giving Houston a problem or the next Dream, the Lakers are haemorrhaging (thank the basketball Gods Kobe bleeds purple and gold aswell as vino for life). From the artist formerly known as Artest, now becoming Mecca World Peace and returning home to N.Y. (we're proud of you buddy, good luck...they need you) to the fact that next year the only player under contract is a 40 year old point guard. Still, me and my girlfriend (a devout F1 fan) where talking about sports politics and how it just takes away from the actual entertainment and purity of the sport itself. It's more than money or fame or drama, when a kid is up late playing basketball in his back yard like Michael Jordan in 'Space Jam'. For every Garnett, Pierce and Terry looking to make the Brooklyn Nets bigger in the fight for N.Y. (albeit with a best before end sticker) than the storied, finally there Knicks, there is a depleted, storied Boston franchise that has to start again from scratch. I mean Rondo's great but who is he going to pass too?

Then again when you tell me that next year the Lakers could boast the biggest three ever...and I do mean ever. Surely this Laker fan will change his mind...like the rest of us "fake" fans right?! LeBron, 'Melo and Kobe...I mean WOW! Who wouldn't want that...unless we get Chris Paul nixed again. Kobe can retire to the rafters after a few great years with the two premier players in the league who will take over showtime and the rest of the NBA for the rest of their careers. The legend, the legacy, the championship, the coronation, the jerseys, the statu...STOP! Wait a minute who is to say James or Anthony will leave the big markets of Miami and New York for the bright lights of L.A. Sure they left Cleveland and Denver, but they look settled now. LeBron's ringing the championship changes with his own big three and proving everyone wrong. There will be a second watch the throne, before there is a 'Decision 2'. Just ask Jay-Z. Hometown hero Carmelo looks right in the New York orange like he did the upstate Syracuse one and in this current Knick/Net war for the city it looks no better than that. Besides LeBron is supposed to take his talents back from South Beach to his hometown Ohio to be a Cleveland Cavalier with next great point Kyrie Irving, but would you swap champagne for wine and rocks thrown at billboards instead of thrones? I'll believe that when I witness it.

As for the Lakers we got excited for the biggest free agent less than 365 days ago and a year later look where that got us. Dwight wont be added to the Mikan, Wilt, Kareem and Shaq Mount Rushmore of Lakerland and until the future tells us otherwise if you want LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony alongside Kobe Bryant, you better make some trades on your video game and have some fun. Reality is we have a season now to play, let's not throw games for lottery balls and free agent markets. Right now let's be thankful we have some potential in Wesley Johnson (who actually wants to be here...yep there's my cutting remark...sorry I'm not as good as the jokes as Jon Hamm), a decent big in Chris Kaman, and a hometown boy returning to the team he belongs...welcome back Jordan Farmar. Let's just hope Pau Gasol comes back as strong as we know Kobe will and hope we can add some more pieces before the puzzling 2014 market unfolds. Which is a year away, so dont waste it away. Right now Laker fans we need to enjoy Kobe and what we have left...while it lasts. This may all be a game to some but the real one begins after LeBron receives his ring...for the Miami Heat. TIM DAVID HARVEY.