The NBA is officially here. We’ve had two nights in a row where our TVs were filled with the familiar faces of Kobe Bryant, Yao Ming and Lebron James. It’s been a fun offseason this year. Kobe demanding to be traded, then taking it back, and now once again saying he doesn’t want to play for LA. The Celtics add big time ballers Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to their rosters. And the Spurs did absolutely nothing in the offseason, yet they are still one of the favorites for an NBA Championship.

My team is the Houston Rockets. I’ve been a fan of them since I can remember, dating back to the days of Hakeem and Cylde Drexler. Now the Rockets have brought back Stevie Franchise to ball with McGrady and Yao. I really like the Rockets chances this year to compete in the Western Conference Finals. Their issue has always been health. When healthy, they’re one of the best teams in the league.

So with the season underway, I felt it’s only appropriate to give my NBA Finals predictions.

Coming out of the West, the Houston Rockets. Coming out of the East, the Boston Celtics. Winning it all? Houston of course.

Andrei Kirilenko is moving back to Russia to fight in Rockey VII.

Kirilenko who is under contract through 2011 with about $63 million left, is ready to leave the NBA and all his money behind so he can return to Europe to play basketball. Say What?!?! “I just want to explain to everybody what I think and feel and that I could sacrifice my career with the NBA. The only thing I’m not prepared for is if I’m told, ‘Andrei, we want you to stay anyway.’ I’m sure then the next season would be a repetition of the previous one, and what will the fans say then? How could you possibly rely on a player who wants to leave?”

Damn.

“I have never been unfair and I don’t want to enjoy something that I don’t deserve,” Kirilenko told Sport Express. “Big money is obviously good, but I am prepared to make less. The size of my salary doesn’t mean that much for me. The main thing is to play with a spark.”

Double Damn.

Kirilenko obviously has millions of dollars in his bank account, so it’s not like he would be scraping by if he moves back to Russia. But who on Earth has ever laid down $63 million in guarenteed money? There was a period a few years ago when Andrei was one of the best shooters in the game. He is a star in the NBA.

I guess the old saying is true: You can’t buy happiness.

The Giant Ogre has been slain. Oddly enough, this translates into “Greg Oden’s rookie season is over.”

Greg Oden required knee surgery after doctors found damaged cartilage. Maybe the cartilage got damaged becuase it can’t support a 7 ft body frame? I don’t know, but this can’t be good for Oden. “On my vacation earlier this summer i got up off the couch and remember my knee having a sharp pain in it. That was about a month ago. I didn’t tell anyone because i didn’t want to seem like i was complaining or making excuses for anything. Plus i wasn’t doing anything at the time i realized it hurt, so i figured it couldn’t be anything big.”

Trail Blazers staff thinks otherwise. “There are things about this that are positive for Greg,” Roberts said in a statement posted on the Trail Blazers’ Web site. “First of all, he is young. The area where the damage was is small and the rest of his knee looked normal. All those are good signs for a complete recovery from microfracture surgery.”

Microfracture surgery is one of the scariest surgeries an athlete can have. Either it works and you’re 100% back to normal. Or it fails and your days as a dominant player are over. There is no middle ground. It’s one or the other. In my opinion, Oden will never play a full season in the NBA. Sure I’m quick to judge, but I just have a gut feeling about this one.

Step aside Mr. Peterman… there is a new perfect irony in town. What if bookies across the nation started taking bets on if Tim Donaghy, the gambling NBA ref who asked for police protection, would be dead or alive by the time he’s sentenced.

Donaghy is looking at a maximum of 25 years, which seems a little steep considering Leonard Little killed someone in a DUI case and didn’t step 1 foot insidea jail cell. But that’s besides the point. A lot of people are pissed and millions of dollars were lost because of Donaghy. Hell, even the Judge could have had a stake in the games?

So what would be the over/under on Tim Donaghy actually living to see the inside of a jail? I’ll take the under on that. There’s a lot of mafia members and general folks that wouldn’t mind seeing him dead. But actually, I don’t think someone would kill Donaghy before his sentencing. I think he’ll put lead in his brain by himself. This is too much for him to handle.

It’s a sad story for sure, but he brought it upon himself. So Bookies, crack open an ice cold Bud Light and “make the world a better place, punch Tim Donaghy in the face.”

According to ESPN, the new owners of the Seattle Supersonics hopes to move the franchise to Oklahoma City where Majority owner Clay Bennett lives.

“They’ve got 60 days to make some decisions they haven’t been willing to make in the past year,” Aubrey McClendon told The Journal Record, “and if they make them in a way that satisfies Clay, then the team will stay there. If they don’t meet the requirements he’s laid out, the team will move, and Clay has indicated they’ll come to Oklahoma City.”

Looks like Kevin Durant might get to place closer to his alma mater Texas than he originally planned. College hoops is HUGE in Oklahoma and North Texas, so there’s no reason to believe that the NBA can’t succeed there for the long term.

Seattle really needs to get their shit together. If the lose the Sonics, they won’t ever get an NBA franchise again. I feel that Seattle needs an NBA franchise, their citizens tend to disagree.

“They take pride in Seattle not needing an NBA team to be considered a world-class city. That’s probably true — they don’t,” McClendon told The Journal Record.

“But I think for Oklahoma City to distance itself from other midsize cities, I think enthusiastic support of a well-run, successful NBA team says a lot about the spirit of this community. We’ve got a can-do spirit, and we’ve got a fan base that’s turned out. This is a sports town; nobody ever knew it was a pro sports town. I think it is.”

Arguably the most clutch player in the history of the NBA (Horry might have something say about that), is considering coming back for another season. But hold on Pacers fans… not so fast. A comeback isn’t being entertained by Indianapolis front office types, but their Eastern Conference rivals the Boston Celtics.

Miller turns 42 this month and has been out of basketball for 2 years. He’s hardly a kid beneath the skin, but in our eyes he still looks like a rookie.

If Miller returns, he’ll be thrown into a lineup with Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Allen. Damn that’s a lineup. They will instantly be Eastern Conference favorites, even if Miller is only given a role player spot.

I say do it Reggie. You only have so many money earning years when you’re a professional athlete.

Celtics Call Miller [ESPN]