The Utah Jazz are the only team to have two players chosen for the U.S. Olympic team.

The twelve man roster is as follows:

• Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers
• Lebron James, Cleveland Cavaliers
• Dwyane Wade, Miami Heat
• Carmelo Anthony, Denver Nuggets
• Deron Williams, Utah Jazz
• Carlos Boozer, Utah Jazz
• Jason Kidd, Dallas Mavericks
• Tayshaun Prince, Detroit Pistons
• Chris Bosh, Toronto Raptors
• Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic
• Chris Paul, New Orleans Hornets
• Michael Redd, Milwaukee Bucks

(Although I probably should have).

We’ve heard our fair share of arguing about whether the league mandated that the referees should call games certain ways.

There is no good argument that I have heard that says that referees couldn’t dictate which team wins a game. They certainly have enough power in their whistles to allow any NBA team — even the worst team in the league — to beat any other team in the NBA.

The question is really whether they would, not if they could.

Stern says they would not. He says they have not received that directive from the league, and they would not call games unethically alone.

Referees are, of course, incorruptible and ethical to a fault — right? Anybody believe that?

Doug Robinson argues, rather convincingly, that David Stern isn’t telling truth. It’s not necessarily that Stern is lying — would the league really want the small market, boring Spurs to win 4 championships in the last decade — but rather one simple fact. David Stern has been wrong about his refs in the past, and there is no way that he can know well enough now to make such a definitive statement. Check out his argument. It’s very interesting.

If you think about it, that’s one thing that just about every team in the last two decades had in common. They all played very good defense.

Think about it!

Pistons — of course.

Bulls — Michael Jordan could shut people down, not to mention their other defensive assets.

Spurs — their defense is what makes them great.

Shaq & Kobe’s Lakers — a combination of good defense and methodical offense.

Miami Heat — this was Pat Riley, after all.

And now the Boston Celtics — they shut Kobe down in the Finals.

High offense teams have been able to get to the finals at times, but in the end defense has always won out. We never actually thought that D’Antoni’s Suns stood a chance of winning it all. Dallas never made it to the finals until Avery Johnson got his guys to play some semblance of defense. Nellie’s Golden State Warriors — please!?!

If you think about it in retrospect, the conclusion of the series was not really in doubt. History weighted the win highly in the Celtics favor, and the Celtics didn’t disappoint.

History-wise, San Antonio, Houston, or Utah (in the right mind set) would have probably stood a better chance at the title, but they couldn’t even get to the NBA Finals — two of them even being taken out by the aforementioned Lakers.

Yes — in the end — Defense won again.

If you think about it, the question about whether he would be traded is absurd.

What would you trade him for?

A top draft pick and assorted contracts doesn’t make any sense. You would be giving away a player who you know is good for one who might be good. You could be trading Dwyane Wade for Kwame Brown.

You couldn’t get value for him either.

Dwyane Wade is a finals MVP who gets injured every single year for a significant amount of time (as any Fantasy coach can tell you). A GM of any other team would be guaranteed an excellent young player who will only be able to suit up for 60 games per year. Despite being prone to injury, you would still have to pay top dollar (including further extensions). You would also be giving up a player of equal value who probably WOULDN’T get injured as often (unless you see the possibility of a swap of Elton Brand or Tracy McGrady for Dwyane Wade.)

I honestly can’t see a single GM who would be willing to take on Wade unless he could get him at a bargain price, and I can’t see Miami pulling a Memphis quite yet.

None of the players on the Boston Celtics are the same as they were back in the 80s. None of the players on the Los Angeles Lakers are the same as they were back in the 80s, either. In fact, the stars of the respective teams aren’t anything like the stars of the teams back then. The stars aren’t even playing at the same positions.

The coaches aren’t the same.

The buildings aren’t the same.

The uniforms aren’t even the same.

Ok. I’m done with my tangent. Let’s get to the prediction.

Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers beat some pretty good teams to get here. Denver wasn’t really good, but nobody can deny that the Utah Jazz and the San Antonio Spurs were both worthy adversaries, and neither of them looked very great against the Lakers.

Kobe Bryant is a spectacular player, and the Lakers only go as far as Kobe can take them. Kobe’s teammates have been doing their part, but they can all be shut down (and some have been in various series) without much success in actually slowing the Lakers as a whole.

Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics go as far as the tandem of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce can take them. (Ray Allen is more of a good jump shooter at this point.) They pride themselves on playing good defense (but played much better defense in the regular season than they did in the playoffs thus far.

The Boston Celtics faced a very potent offensive force in LeBron James, and beat the Cavaliers with less difficulty than they had against the lowly Atlanta Hawks.

The Detroit Pistons, who were at least as good as the Cavaliers but with a more balanced approach. They also couldn’t handle the Celtics.

The Boston Celtics also have home court advantage, but with a 2-3-2 Finals format, it doesn’t provide quite the advantage that the 2-2-1-1-1 format would have provided them.

Prediction

It’s a tough call, but I think I’m going to pick the Boston Celtics in 7. When the series is on the line, the Boston Celtics have shown that they can hang tough. They have beaten good teams and they have beaten excellent individual talent.

I think they can beat LA.