After getting off to an admittedly rough start following the NBA playoffs, pledge to do better from here on out. If you haven’t been paying attention on Twitter (follow me on Twitter @DrSportsFan), here’s how I’ve been failing as a sports fan thus far in the NBA playoffs:

(1) I’ve been DVRing Sixers games and watching them on taped delay while attempting to pull of a sports game blackout.

(2) I’ve tweeted several times about the crappy officiating (never a good sign for a sports fan) to the point that I look like either a moron or someone with a personal vendetta against the NBA refs.

While there isn’t much I can do about my busy schedule (I’m kind of a big deal), I’ve decided to abstain from ref bashing on Twitter. It’s just in the best interests of everyone involved — mostly for me. Nobody likes a ref basher, even in 140 characters or less.

So let’s talk some basketball, shall we?

Let’s start with Superman himself, Dwight Howard. Aside from my personal annoyance that he’s basically the self-proclaimed Superman (whatever), sports fans have to start asking themselves the following question: Has Dwight Howard made the leap? His numbers — 39.5 ppg, 19.0 rpg thus far in the playoffs: Yowza! If Howard has indeed made the leap, welcome to the second coming of Shaq. Only this guy works out! Again, Yowza!! (I think this is the Passover talking. Why it would be talking for a non-religious, Irish guy… I can’t tell you.)

Andre Iguodala finished 8th (8th?) in the Defensive Player of the Year voting. That’s a bit off. Iggy might not be much of a scorer, but he is one helluva defender as he’s proving with a fine defensive effort against Lebron James — though it’s being overshadowed by his complete-and-utter lack of offensive game in this Heat-Sixers series. Though if you ask Lebron, he might just say that he’s just shooting poorly. Lebron = EGO MANIAC. You remember Lebron James (applicable Back to the Future quote) the man who took his life and flushed it completely down the toilet (to go to Miami).

Quick Philadelphia fan side bar: How deflating was Game 2’s blowout? Congrats on being the only team in the Eastern Conference to get blown out. Seriously, since when did the Sixers turn into Butler? (Full credit to that joke goes to Jack Bauer of All Sports.) For all intents and purposes, the 76ers are finished in this series. Charles Barkley said it best: Miami is better at just about everything than the Sixers. Silver lining: Now we’re playing with house money and nothing to lose. No one expected this Sixers team to even make the playoffs. Now, no one expects them to even win a game. Win a game (or two) at home and then everyone will be fired up. Things can only go up from here. (We can build on th– OK! I won’t rip off Bill Simmons this once…)

In other news, Boston’s Big 3 is cementing its legacy as this generation’s “Bad Boys”. Their series with New York is a blood bath. Both Melo and Ray Allen each have shiners. (Even if they aren’t from this series, impressive!) Ironic that the Riley-Ewing Era Knicks were the last true bullies in the NBA. Like all of basketball’s bullies, this Celtics team is greater than the sum of its parts. All the more reason to hate Danny Ainge’s trade of Kendrick Perkins (one of the chief bullies) for Jeff Green, a seemingly kind-hearted fellow that is woefully out of place in that locker room. Sometimes it’s the trades you don’t make that build champions. Just ask Larry Brown, who nearly derailed the fan-favorite, conference champion ‘00-’01 Sixers team before it happened. Luckily, his trade of Allen Iverson never materialized. What sort of weird parallel universe would Sixers fans be living in if Iverson had indeed been traded? If the Keith Van Horn and Glenn Robinson mistakes are any indication, NOT GOOD. (Larry Brown the coach > Larry Brown the GM)

Out West, believe me when I tell you that Lakers fans are on DEFCOM 30, thus easily making them the least confident two-time defending champion fan base in history. Of course Chris Paul is giving Lakers fans nightmares right now. Things have gotten so bad that they even miss Steve Blake. (Who’s out with chicken pox? Sad but true.)

Did I mention Paul is back? That makes me happy. You hate to see Hall of Fame talent wasted by injury.

Another question to ponder: Is it time for the Tim Duncan Era Spurs to be put out to pasture? Most dynasties — let’s face it, San Antonio is one under Duncan and Gregg Popovich — crumble rather suddenly. Am I just overreacting to the impact of Manu Ginobuli’s loss? That could be possible. Even still, hard to feel title-worthy when Manu is very injury-prone and Tony Parker is a better ladies man than point guard — much less “dynasty-worthy”.

Between the Lakers’ and Spurs’ troubles, I think the West is ripe for Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder to storm to the finals. They nearly took LA to the limit in the first round last year — without Kendrick Perkins and his 7-foot body to matchup with Bynum, Gasol and Odom. Not to mention that was a motivated Lakers team…

(I’m just going to avoid talking about the Mavericks. Who knows what to expect from Dirk and J-Kidd, though as a fan, I’m bummed that we never got to see how good this team could be with a healthy Caron Butley.)

Back East, the Bulls have their hands full with the Pacers, Boston has its hands full with Melo and an Allen Iverson-memorial supporting cast (at least when Amar’e Stoudemire and Chauncey Billups are injured), and Orlando has its hands full with an Atlanta team they handled in last year’s Elite Eight. (I know Elite Eight is college tournament speak, but it just sounds so much better than the Eastern Conference Semifinals).

All the while, the Heat are making mince meat out of my Sixers, who I thought were actually kind of good. That means that Miami Heat and the OK City Thunder have the early look of two teams that might meet in the NBA finals. That would pit Kevin Durant and Lebron James — perhaps the league’s best scorers — against each other for their first ever title. Good vs. Evil, Legend vs. Future Legend. Oh and Dwayne Wade, Russell Westbrook, and Chris Bosh would be there as well.

But what good is all this predictions business anyway? For all we knew, Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers could be two-time defending champions right now and the phrase “Taking my talents to South Beach” might never even exist in popular culture. Unfortunately it does, and that’s not good for anyone. Hopefully, the 2011 NBA playoffs will be more good than bad for us sports fans. That would be good for everyone. Let’s see how it plays out.

And maybe, just maybe, we should enjoy ourselves in the process.

We’re following the leader. The leader. The leader. We’re following the leader, wherever he may go…

Welcome to the NBA in July of 2010, a league where superstars playing on a team without other superstars is akin to bringing a knife to a gun fight. When Lebron James and Chris Bosh joined forces with Dwayne Wade on the Miami Heat, the rest of the NBA took notice. Reigning two-time MVPs tend to create waves when they join another great player’s team. Call it unselfish, call it giving up, call it whatever you want. The fact is that Lebron has changed the NBA. (Check out this re-enactment of Lebron’s destruction of Cleveland from our resident cartoonist, Milton.)

Paul sees this, and he wants a piece of the pie. So naturally ESPN is reporting that he’s requested to be traded away from New Orleans, via anonymous sources. Yay! More rumored stories sources. (Didn’t we already leave this party?) Rumors are already swirling, and he’s either going to the Knicks to join Amar’e Stoudemire (and eventually Carmelo Anthony) or to Orlando to play with Dwight Howard, the latter of which sources close to him believe is his preferred choice. Ugh.

Can we really blame anyone in this situation? I say yes and no.

Lebron James has every right to sign and play with his BFF’s and “take his talents to South Beach” just as Chris Paul also has every right to want a realistic shot to win a title. In today’s NBA, he has no shot on the Hornets.

David West, Peja Stojakovic, Marcus Thornton, and Emaka Okafor — not a bad starting five, Paul included. But compare those names to some of the other starting lineups in the NBA, and do you think those five have a shot in hell against these teams?

Los Angeles Lakers

• Derek Fisher
• Kobe Bryant
• Ron Artest
• Pau Gasol
• Andrew Bynum/Lamar Odom

Boston Celtics

• Rajon Rondo
• Ray Allen
• Paul Pierce
• Kevin Garnett
• Kendrick Perkins/Jermaine O’Neal

Miami Heat

• Mario Chalmers/Mike Miller
• Dwyane Wade
• Lebron James
• Chris Bosh
• Any 7-footer on the planet

Are we seriously expecting Paul — a guy who’s competitiveness led to some pissiness with Michael Jordan during a charity pool tournament — to look at some of those lineups and feel like the Hornets have a chance at winning a title anytime in the near future? If the best players in the league are all on the same four or five teams, that leaves the rest of the league with a lower class of players. For now, the NBA Championship discussion begins and ends with the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, and Miami Heat.

As for the rest of us who root for the other 27 NBA franchises? Enjoy watching teams with pretty much no chance for a championship.

You can’t blame the players for wanting to win. In fact, it’s a nice change of pace that these guys are more than willing to sacrifice individual numbers for a shot a postseason glory. Congratulations, sports fans, we’ve finally got the “unselfish” star players we’ve always wanted!!

With that said, the future of sports as we know it have irrevocably changed. And it’s not for the better.

“The Decision” was a new low for sports media coverage. Forget about how he ripped the hearts out of his hometown, championship-starved fans.  An hour of programming to hear seven words was asking a little too much from the viewing public — not including the hours and hours and hours (and hours) of coverage on ESPN devoted entirely to debating where LBJ should go and why. He’s a great player and all, but for crying out loud we don’t need to spend our lives endlessly wondering where he’s going.

Lebron doesn’t live under a rock. He knows that the Worldwide Leader in Sports stopped everything to give him an hour of programming for free. If that’s not a boost to the old ego, I don’t know what is.

Other NBA superstars had to take notice as well. After watching the Lebron love-fest summer of ‘10, you know that the next group of stars that were born and bred in the reality TV era want a piece of that pie. In a world when teams usually hold all the cards, the players can sense the pendulum switching to their side of the court.

It’s also no coincidence that a proud man like Chris Paul is now publicly stating that he can’t win by himself. When the leader breaks rank and changes the rules, it’s only a matter of time before the rest of those in line follow suit.