a couple years and it's undeniably clear that the two franchises, along with the Sacramento Kings, are categorically defunct. Players like Marcus Camby, Zach Randolph, Jamal Crawford, Andres Nocioni and Larry Hughes found themselves on the unfavorable end of trade deals that took them away from promising teams and stranded them on irrelevant teams. Baron Davis, on the other hand, voluntarily signed up for the L.A. Clippers on the mistaken impression that Elton Brand would be waiting for him. Better luck next year, guys.

Kiss from a Rose- Memphis freshman Derrick Rose proved a sensational uplift to the somewhat wobbly Chicago Bulls. Not since LeBron and Carmelo came into the league has a rookie come out of the gate so eager to prove himself against the best in the league. Not since LeBron and Carmelo has anyone succeeded either. Averaging 19.7 points a game in the playoffs, Derrick Rose led Chicago to a valiant 7-game battle against defending champion Boston and gave us one of the best first-round series of all-time. Rose had help from MIP candidate John Salmons at small foward, vastly improving sophomore Joakim Noah at center, sharp-shooting Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich and veteran center Brad Miller as sixth men.

Kobe's Redemption-Five years ago, Kobe was seen as the villain who's selfishness chased Shaq away thereby squandering a dynasty. With an impending rape charge, his reputation wasn't helped much as a human being either. Five year's later Kobe's star power shines brighter than anyone in the league. His 81-point game in 2006 and his consecutive 60+ point games a year later took away any doubt that he's one of the greatest players ever to play the game. Taking his team to the finalslast year and becoming the first time since 1989 to follow up a championship loss with a win was validation that the Lakers made the right decision five years ago to keep Kobe.

Go Fish-In addition to Kobe's redemption, there was also the storyline of the run of Kobe's long-time teammate Derek Fisher who provided veteran leadership and shot down his detractor's claims that he was too old to run a championship team with some key three-pointers that sealed the deal for the Lakers. Fisher entered the league with Shaq in 1996 as rookies and with the exception of 3 years spent in Utah and Golden State, has been Kobe's teammate ever since.

The Three-Point Shooting Magic-With the exception of Dwight Howard up front, the Magic made the finals with practically no front court. Fowards Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu joined J.J. Reddick, Courtney Lee, and Mickael Pietrus beyond the arc to create a rainstorm of 3-pointers that baffled commentators and left their opponents too scrambled to recover. Pietrus, Turkoglu, Lewis and Reddick all shot better than .380 from behind the league during the playoffs.

Wade Returns- Dwyane sat out the last month of the 2008 season in Miami and there were concerns he would not be fit to join the 2008 Olympic team, but he made it to Beijing and came back to the league right at the top of his game. He rivaled Kobe and LeBron for the MVP award and took the scoring title with 30.2 points a game.

Oklahoma City Provides a Supportive Home to the Thunder-There were concerns that Oklahoma City was too small of a market for the Supersonics when they moved there from Seattle to become the Thunder. The move to Oklahoma City shows that like in San Antonio, small market teams in cities with only on e major sport do terrifically. The Thunder increased their attendnace numbers by an average of 5,000 and filled the arena to 97% capacity. USA Today reported in January that the Thunder ranked 12th in the league for attendance and that number was rising.

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