One thing I never get from people is an explanation to follow up their first statement. Often times I get a, "It's boring" or "they get paid way too much."

But, I've never once got a solid argument from anyone as to why they dislike the NBA so much. A lot of it probably has to do with growing up in the south and the closed mindedness of some people. They think the NBA is full of thugs, so they won't watch. And some of it just has to do with the fact that until I got to college I never really knew any people that were as interested in sports as I am.

But, I think the NBA is on its way back to some of the luster it had during the MJ-era.

Two of the big reasons that I'm so jacked about the NBA this year are the Dallas Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns. Both teams are up-tempo, they score in bunches and they just win, baby.

The Mavs lost at the hands of Chicago last night (which I enjoyed), but before that had won eight consecutive. The Suns have won 15-straight, for the second time this season.

If you're a basketball fan, I don't see any reason how you can't enjoy watching these two teams play.

Two more reasons to like the NBA nowadays: Gilbert Arenas and LeBron James. LeBron is just amazingly talented. It makes me feel old to see that one of the NBA's best is younger than I am. (I guess I should get used to that, since it's going to continue to happen).

Arenas is seemingly the talk of the league this year. He's second in the league in scoring at 29.7 points per game and he's got a Washington Wizards team leading the Southeast Division. WIthout him, the Wizards would most likely be as crappy as they have been.

But aside from his game, Arenas is also an interesting cat off the court. He sleeps in some sort of tent that replicates the air in Colorado to improve stamina (and he says it works), he threw a big birthday bash that didn't involve a shootout later in the evening and he came out of nowhere to win a starting spot in the All-Star Game.

But that's not all, he's also pissed at Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni and Portland coach Nate McMillan for making him the final cut of last summer's U.S. team.

So, he dropped 54 on the Suns last month. And now he's promising that his next 50-point outing will come on Feb. 11 when the Wizards travel to play Portland.

Of course, hearing this sparked D'Antoni to fire back with a little joke.

"I can't wait to see what he does against Duke," D'Antoni told The Associated Press, "He's gonna KILL Duke."

Arenas fired back on his NBA.com blog, of all things.

"He'd like to see what I'm going to do against Duke," Arenas wrote, "I thought it was funny because if I have the chance to go back to college, I'll give up one NBA season to play against Duke. One college game that's five fouls, right? ... 40-minute game at Duke, they got soft rims I'd probably score 84 or 85. I wouldn't pass the ball. I wouldn't even think about passing it. It would be like a NBA Live or an NBA 2K7 game, you just shoot with one person."

And that is hilarious. And probably not far from the truth. Duke's already dropped two ACC games this year, jeez.

It appears the NBA is in good shape. Plenty of young stars, two teams that resemble the great NBA squads of old, and it even went back to the old ball.

Yeah, it's getting harder and harder for those folks to explain to me why they don't like the NBA.

But, to help them out, I will give them the excuse former Cleveland Cavalier Brad Daugherty used when Sports Illustrated asked him if he enjoyed the NBA now:

"Absolutely not," he told the magazine, "I really don't watch NBA basketball. That's no slight to the guys playing — some are tremendous. But i think expansion killed pro basketball."

Expansion!?

Maybe he should've just stuck with, "it's boring."

He said UCA was it. He was putting down roots. His wife and kids were tired of moving.

That is until Ole Miss came around offering the defensive coordinator position.

“I am very thankful to UCA and to Ole Miss for this opportunity," Thompson said in the release. “I’ve enjoyed this job very much and I’m excited about joining Coach Orgeron at Ole Miss. I believe we can do great things there. Ole Miss has a great tradition and I’m honored to be able to join their team there and be a part of it.’

You can't really blame the guy. Coaches probably always have the coaching itch. When an SEC school comes around giving you and opportunity to scratch, it'd be hard to turn down.

But knowing that he would still have the itch, was it the right thing to do to tell a room full of folks that he was putting down roots?

Probably not.

Did anyone really believe him?

Probably not.

Of course there was a massive ice storm in surrounding areas. But I never said that wasn't going to happen.

And after the second-straight day of early deadlines at work trying to avoid the weather, I returned home tonight to find that my heater had been straight running for a good amount of time. I couldn't even see the needle on the thermometer. So it was well past 90 in here.

Then I ran to the breaker box and flipped it off there. Finally it shut down. I went and got some shorts on, then decided to flip the breaker back on and see if the heater was still acting a fool. For about 30 seconds the heat (which was set on 70, not HELL) stayed off. But then it fired right back up.

Once again I had to resort to flipping the breaker off. So this time I didn't even attempt to turn the heat back on. Nearly four hours later it's still nice and warm in here. It's now down to 75, nearly what the thermostat is actually set on.

It's 28 outside and three days of rain is out there probably freezing. Meanwhile, I'm sitting inside in shorts and don't even have my heat on.

In the morning I'll head down to the office here at my apartment complex and see if I can't get something done about this.

Aside from the weather and my heat-filled apartment, there were a few dandy NFL playoff games this weekend. I'm not a big NFL guy, but I get somewhat interested around the playoffs and typically enjoy the Super Bowl.

But this is what NFL Playoff football should be. It's too bad the Chargers lost. I think a Chargers-Saints Super Bowl would've been quite entertaining. Shouldn't have expect anything more than a disappointing loss for one Marty Schottenheimer, though.

The NFC Championship has me torn, too. I want to see the Saints win that thing and complete their improbable run to the Super Bowl. But I've been a Bulls fan since the glory days of Jordan and Pippen. Because of that I always find myself rooting for Chicago teams even if I don't know anything about them. (Go Blackhawks!)

And now that the Chargers lost, I really don't care at all about the AFC title game. I'm tired of the Patriots, and the Marvin Harrison is about the only reason to like the Colts. Plus, Peyton Manning hasn't won the big game yet, Tom Brady does it over and over and over and over. I don't really expect this one to be any different.

Of course, I proved with the BCS Championship that I have no idea what I'm talking about. But, if you have any question about the weather — I'm your guy.

The site also declares: "Hazardous/Impossible Road Travel, Airport Delays Likely, Power Outages VERY Likely".

What this says to me is that there will be some ice, it'll melt and we'll all move on.

Now, it might get pretty messy, I'm not saying it's not a possibility, but it's not going to be the storm of the century or anything.

Regardless of what the storm brings northwest Arkansas, I've got to say that I expected a little more cold and a little more snow when I moved up here, but I didn't expect two ice storms in a span of two months.

Back on Dec. 1 (a day after severe thunderstorms) the ice came falling down on the region followed by a day of snow.

When that little system moved through, things were slow going for a day or two. But I still made it to work no problem and the electricity never once tried to cut out. (Which is a miracle, actually, since this summer I lost power for longer than an hour because a bird flew into a substation.)

Anyway, now that it appears we'll be getting our second winter storm of the season, I'm expecting something similar to what we had last time.

I'm no meteorologist, and when you don't hear from me until next week because my apartment door is frozen shut and my electricity is out I'll admit I was as wrong about this as I was Ohio State winning the national title. But I'm not expecting this round to be much worse than the last.

It is cooler now than it was prior to the last storm, so that may make it worse. But it's been in the 40s and 50s for the last few weeks and the high today was 61. (Which I think we may have hit around 10 a.m.) So, the ground ain't real cold, which will make it hard for that ice to stay ice once it lays on the ground for a while.

The Weather Channel says that the ice could accumulate to an inch or more. Which pretty much shoots my theory down.

I guess we'll see who was right come Monday, when all this junk is supposed to be on it's way out.

Either way, it's going to make for a miserable weekend. So I say bring it on, at least a massive ice storm would be interesting. A little storm that just drops a little ice and a ton of rain is no fun, it just pisses you off.

Below is the running diary I kept during the game. I clearly have no idea what I'm talking about. Enjoy.

6:42 - Who else loves that Fox somehow won the rights to the BCS? As bad as ESPN has gotten lately, they still a much better job presenting a college football game.

6:59 - I will say this about Fox, at least they show the bands to give you some of the college atmosphere.

7:08 - Alright, the meat is browning and in a few minutes I should be ready to devour some tacos just like Ohio State is going to devour Florida.

7:10 - Chris Rose probably just loved calling Ohio State's band the "Best Damn Band In The Land". I'm surprised Fox didn't pop up a little promo in the corner of the screen for Rose's show — "The Best Damn Sports Show, Period".

7:30 - All I can say about this announcing crew is, "yikes." And here comes another great coin toss. The Orange Bowl coin toss was quite possibly the biggest mess of the year. This one appears to be less of a mess. I'm glad the ref found Bud, though. This ref is really into the coin toss.

Alright, and the Buckeyes get it first, and it's almost time for my tacos to be done.

7:35 - Ew. Not a good start for Florida. And not a good time for me to be in the kitchen whipping up some tacos. If this keeps up, this diary may not be updated past halftime.

7:43 - OK, by the time I finished preparing my tacos it's already 7-7. It would be nice if this keeps up, but I doubt that it will. I guess we'll get to see Ohio State's offense on the next possession.

7:53 - We did actually get to see Ohio State run some plays, but they were anything but impressive. Until Florida gets another couple stops I'm going to credit the bad series to the 51-day layoff. But, it might just be that Florida actually does stand a chance.

7:59 - I tell you what, Ohio State's offense better get on track, because Florida is just marching it right down the field.

8:02 - Well, that was a horrible waste of time to review that play and not overturn it. He was clearly down. Although, I'm not sure Florida wouldn't have scored on the next play anyway. But while that review was taking place I noticed the field seems terribly under-painted. It seems to me they could of slapped another couple coats of paint down to make the end zones pop a little more. The sidelines also seem awfully dull. The actual sideline is pretty bright white, but then the remainder of the white area is nowhere near as bright.

8:12 - I have a hard time believing Florida is really this good. I don't think the Gators are horrible, but Ohio State is just creating a lot of problems for itself.

8:19 - I'm still having a hard time believing Ohio State is playing so poorly. It's the national championship fellas...

8:28 - Well, Ohio State finally got on the board again with a little help from a bad rule. There was no way that Florida player could have stopped before hitting Troy Smith. He was going full speed and looked to me like he even tried to slow down. But if he just slams on the brakes right there he's going to hurt himself. It's not like he was still going 100 percent when he flew into Mr. Smith. But, I guess that's the rule, so it wasn't a bad call, just a bad rule. And it kills some of Florida's momentum, which will make this a better game.

8:42 - Now Ohio State is playing a little better. The Buckeyes forced Florida to punt finally, let's see if they can keep their offense going.

8:57 - Chris Hetland makes a field goal, Chris Hetland makes a field goal! That's about as rare as Caltech winning. Ohio State better answer, 'cause it appears everything is going Florida's way.

9:02 - Wow. Ohio State is not getting it done offensively.

9:07 - Maybe it's just not Ohio State's night. Two Hetland field goals and the Buckeyes seem deflated.

9:09 - Big turnover for the Gators... Nothing is going right for the Buckeyes.

9:18 - Halftime and the Gators are rolling. Totally did not expect this.

9:50 - Halftime's over, back-to-back punts. Good for Florida, bad for OSU.

10:37 - I haven't given up on the diary. There just hasn't been much to talk about, the third quarter was a sleeper. Which was good for Florida, 'cause it kept Ohio State out of the end zone. Now Florida gets back on the board to pretty much put this one out of reach, if it wasn't already.

Ohio State is going to need a miracle to even get back into this one. I'm still amazed at how poorly the Buckeyes are playing.

And I'm also sad that this is the way the season will end. No Boise State-Florida clash. Now that would be an interesting game. Two teams with innovative offenses getting after it, that would be exciting.

10:48 - Troy smith continues to go the wrong way. One good thing about this game is all my colleagues in the world of sports page design can come up with clever headlines already.

10:54 - Well, I think I'm going to go ahead and wrap this diary up as the Gators go ahead and just run the clock down and soak up the victory that very few people thought they would get.

I really could care less who won this thing. I figured Ohio State would just roll. Clearly, I was wrong. But I wish it had been a better game. It was exciting for about a quarter and a half before Florida just ran away with it.

If I were a Florida fan, I'm sure I would've loved every minute of it. But since I just wanted a good football game, I'm disappointed.

Not to mention it was on Fox.

The book is Shanks For Nothing, which is the follow up to Missing Links. I just discovered Missing Links about this time last year, even though it was released in 1996.

Both books focus on a group of rag-tag golfers that play at America's worst golf course. And the hilarity that ensues.

Anyway, you don't have to be a golf fan to enjoy Shanks For Nothing. Nor do you have to read Missing Links. Reilly does a good job of explaining some of the inside jokes and things that are missed if you hadn't read the first book. But not to the point of completely retelling the first story, thus making it boring for the reader.

This is the third Reilly novel that I've read and all have great story-lines. Reilly is just a flat-out great storyteller. Whether it be a Sports Illustrated column or one of his novels, you don't want to quit reading until you're done with it.

Granted, the columns are a lot shorter, which allows you to get on with your life. But, when you've got time to actually read a good book, this is one to give a look.

There are several different subplots going on in the book as the main plot rolls along. After every chapter you want to keep going to find out what happens in one plot, instead you get a new plot that you get hooked onto as well, and now you're wasting hours of your life ripping through the book because you don't want to put it down.

It's witty, vulgar, has some sexual material and involves a sport. Just what I want in a great book.

I don't really feel like getting into the story and all that jazz. But if you love all the aforementioned things, you'll love the book.

In the early days of the Internets it was e-mail. But somehow things like MySpace and facebook have become the more popular means of communication for youngsters.

Nevertheless, I generally hate them. But that doesn't mean I don't read them. I find them highly annoying and then waste 10 minutes of my life reading one.

Here we go:

1. Thing you spend a lot of money on?
Bills. Being a responsible adult is not fun. Especially since I just went to college for four years on someone else's dime. Now I start adulthood deeply in debt. Not to mention I live in Northwest Arkansas where rent ain't exactly cheap if you don't want to live in the ghetto.

Oh, and how 'bout purchasing a car? That will cost you some cash. Woo.

2. Where do you live?
Springdale. Which is an exciting city to live in. You get to experience several cultures all in a city not much bigger than Conway. But it's spread out something wicked. Nothing like driving 20 minutes to get across town.

And there's nothing like the smell of chicken feces and the beautiful blanket of chicken feathers you get to see while taking a drive.

3. Cell phone service provider:
Cingular. I enjoy the rollover minutes. It comes in handy when you forget you own a cell phone for a month and then make up for your forgetfulness the next month.

And since there are millions of people who have Cingular as well, that's a bunch of people you can call for free.

4. Longest job ever had:
My current one. Which is good, since it's my first real grown-up job. Prior to this gig though, I was afraid I'd work a month at every job. I was an intern at the Pine Bluff Commercial in May, a sports reporter/page designer at the Log Cabin Democrat in June and got this job in July.

Prior to my newspaper work, I was custodial help at Glen Rose High School one summer. And my first stint at a newspaper was the summer of 2003 at the Malvern Daily Record.

5. What car do you drive?
Mine. Hah. There's a good smart ass answer, huh? I bought a 2005 Kia Spectra back in September. It's surprisingly roomy for a big guy like me. It's also got some pretty good pep in it for being a little car. And cheaper than a Civic.

6. Longest shift you have worked at a job?
I believe I pulled a couple of 12-hour shifts at The Morning News when we were putting together the football preview section. Half of the day was football, half of it was working on the next day's paper. Exhausting, but the paychecks were nice.

7. Last movie in the theater
Running With Scissors. I'm an interesting cat. I generally love comedies and sports-related movies. But I dig the artsy independent films too. I believe it all started when my folks got DirecTV and I started watching a lot of the Independent Film Channel. They're usually off the wall crazy, but you can't turn away. Running With Scissors is the same way. Not a bad flick.

8. Thing you never leave home without?
Pants. Don't really have much else to say about this, but I thought about it, and that's the one thing I have never left home without.

9. Laptop or desktop computer?
I don't really care. I've got two laptops and a desktop computer. I never use the desktop computer. But it is nice to have a computer you can take with you. Especially with the wireless Internets being available more and more all over the place.

10. How many times have you been pulled over by the police?
Myself I've only been pulled over twice. Got a warning once and a ticket for running a red light trying to get home after covering the Sugar Bears in the NCAA Regional Tournament. I believe I was pulled over twice more with Josh en route to UCA sporting events.

Once on the way to Henderson State we got stopped by some cat who enjoyed "hugging up" on Josh's truck. And I'm fairly certain the next year on the way to one of the Arkadelphia schools we got stopped on the interstate by a cat who for some reason wanted to talk to me, but I failed to pay attention, which forced him to scream, "Sir! Sir! Sir!" several times, until Josh finally got my attention.

Well, I think 10 questions is good.

That was a great way to kill about 20 minutes. Now if everyone else put that kind of an effort into these pointless Internet surveys I think we would have something worth reading.

Or maybe we would just know way to much about folks.

I guess this is why they play the games, right? You never know what's going to happen.

While we're on the topic of the NBA, I was looking at some photos from the Celtics game tonight and the clover patch the Celts are wearing for Red Auerbach got me thinking.

Halas was with the Bears from the get-go and after playing, coaching and doing everything else he eventually just settled into a front office gig. Red is about as close to that as you're going to get in the NBA.

Aside from the fact that keeping the clover would keep his memory with the squad, it would also be a good way to instill some tradition. Not like the Celtics don't have enough, but I'm a big fan of sports tradition.

That's one reason I'm a big fan of college sports. You don't see colleges making dramatic uniform and color changes every other year in hopes to sell more goods. But, unfortunately you see a lot of that in professional sports. Maybe not so much in baseball. But in football and basketball tradition isn't as sacred in the professional ranks.

The Pistons' teal, horse-head era was just insane. It's good to see that someone came to their senses and now they're back to just a more modern version of their old school logo. The Rockets changed their logo after winning back-to-back titles. To me that was just asking for disaster. Aside from the fact it was ugly, why mess with a logo after having sucess. Of course that Mike Jordan fella coming out of retirement didn't help.

But now the Rockets have changed once again. And while the uniforms look nicer, the logo still leaves a lot to be desired and it's nowhere close to what the Rockets had during thier glory years in the 80s and 90s.

Even the most traditional of teams throw in new wrinkles here and there. The Lakers added a white uniform, the Bulls have a black one and even the Celtics now have a second green uniform with black letters and numbers. I don't have a huge problem with adding a third uniform, but it's another example of how marketing and selling jerseys is more important than it should be.

Well, I think I've ranted enough.

The Bulls came to Miami and ruined the defending champs' ring night by giving them the worst beating a defending championship team has ever received, 108-66.

Chicago was supposed to be improved, but this was just ridiculous. The game started out sluggish both ways (thanks, in part, to a 45-minute ring ceremony and banner raising), but as the second quarter rolled around Chicago got hot and Miami continued to be sluggish.

Their defense was more stifling than last year's defense, which led the league in field goal percentage defense, this season there is an inside presence with Ben Wallace, P.J. Brown and until he broke his nose Tyrus Thomas.

Those guys limited Shaq and Zo and whoever else tried to get some points in the paint last night. Granted, Shaq looked rusty more than it was the defense giving him problems. But last season it would've been tough for Shaq to look rusty against the former inside presence.

Because of that inside presence and the ability to rebound, it created some transition opportunities for the Bulls. And they took full advantage. The Bulls led 14-0 in fast-break points after the first half and finished the game 21-6.

The Bulls offense also looked more fluid than it did last season. It was pretty much just classic basketball with backdoor cuts, picks and rolls, nothing just incredibly fancy, but it was effective. Chicago constantly got to the basket and drew several fouls. The Bulls got to the line 32 times to Miami's 22.

Overall, a great performance by the Bulls, but it's not time to start talking about a championship yet. Miami is better than what they showed and the game should've been more competitive. There's no doubt the Bulls are improved and will be at the top of the Eastern Conference, but it's not going to be this easy every night and I doubt you see the Heat dropping any more 42-point decisions anytime soon.

This was a good way for me to get back into the NBA. Over the last four years I'd been a more casual observer of the league than I was in my past. I used to plan my day around watching NBA games. Now that I'm a little less busy I can go back to my old ways of NBA fandom.

And it doesn't hurt when my team is blowing out the defending champs.