THE SPORT COUNT

Quite frankly, we at The Sport Count have been waiting for the offseason for some time.

After the Cavs got booted and we grinded toward the inevitability of the Lakers overmatching an under-performing and overwhelmed Orlando, my fingers were itching for trades, draft chatter, and General Manager fuck-ups galore.

The issue was… it didn’t begin. With one of the most baffling and boring draft classes of all time (with genuine confusion from journalists, fans and the all-important blogosphere as to where key players would end up), and GMs seemingly reluctant to make the trades we’ve been begging for since the deadline, I was beginning to think that this offseason would be as boring as the Buss family’s victory speech after Game 5.

Going to the Spurs, it's like going to the dark side.

Then… it all transformed. All of sudden, I awaken to news of Richard Jefferson being traded to the Spurs for Bruce Bowen and some other unlikeables who’ll likely be back with the Spurs by November. Andrew Bogut grudgingly accepts it:

Sad to see RJ go. He was a fun guy to be around and could play. We are building for the future, slow and steady. Patience grasshopper.

But for the rest of us, the glow of the third season has finally begun. Even if it restores the Spurs as championship contenders and makes us all hate the world a little bit more, finally, there’s something to read about.

Almost as soon as this happenned, the ridiculous trade between the Celtics and the Pistons, involving Rondo, Ray Allen, Stuckey, Prince and Hamilton, began to come to light. All of a sudden, Rondo is being proactively shopped and we’re starting to think that a major trade will be made prior to the next season.

Then we start to get some meaningful talk of the Knicks trading up (via sending Larry Hughes back to Washington and turning #5 and #8 into #2) in order to get little Ricky Rubio — all of a sudden making draft day moves and rookies swapping hats is a tangible possibility.

All of a sudden, the excitement has hit us again: ESPN has more than one item on the NBA per day; True Hoop is talking; Twitter is alight and the NBA’s third season has well and truly got us hooked, hoping and praying that it tides us over until October.

Posted: by James

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