It's a shame to discuss these things, really. This was a remarkable NBA season for lots of reasons, not the least of which appeared to be a resurgence of the concept of the "basketball team" rather than the "basketball player" as the fun, compelling, and marketable aspect of pro hoops. I had pleasant flashbacks to the golden era of the league in the 80s, when it was about the "Showtime" Lakers, the Celtics and their "big three," the Bad-boy Pistons; and even the pre-Jordan-as-god Bulls. Sure, we loved Magic or Bird, but the Lakers weren't the Lakers without Kareem, Worthy, and even Rambis; the Celtics weren't the Celtics without McHale, Parish, DJ, and whatever scrappy white guy guard they happened to throw out there.

Jordan's emergence as an individual spectacle and the NBA's decision to tie the future of the league around individual superstars rather than teams lost me, and lost lots of other fans who enjoyed the "old" team-style NBA game. Sure, once rare dunks could be fun, and individual stars may boggle the mind with their skills -- but NBA basketball throughout the 90s (and until recently) was boring! Pull-out 1-on-1 offenses to let superstars improvise, officiating that enforced double standards on foul calls against and by those stars, a decline in fundamental skills among players at the highest level, and the in-arena circus experience (music? during play?) made me nearly totally give up on the NBA for years -- the Suns, Spurs, Mavs, and to a lesser extent the Kings and Nets teams of a few years back were the only NBA action that I thought was worth watching.

This year, however, I fell in love with the NBA again. It was, after decades in the desert, fantastic once more. The tight race in the Western Conference among a group of excellent teams that didn't rely on a single star (the Lakers wouldn't have wound up the Lakers without the midseason trade that made them more than Kobe+4). The return of the Celtics as a cohesive team that doesn't rely on one star for scoring - or for its marketability. The Rockets coming together to pull off their epic winning streak post-Yao (and emerging a better team). And (for the schadenfreude fans), the disaster of a Denver Nuggets franchise that had been repurposed as a showcase for a young star and a veteran who has been a veritable model of the anti-team player.

This talk of an MVP race only serves to distract from the greatness that was this season. The story this year isn't what any individual player may or may not have done -- it's the resurgence of the NBA team and team-style play as the way to success in the league. Great players are, of course, required to make this work. But there has to be something else there to make it work -- just ask KG what was different between Minny and Boston. Maybe we'll have to wait to see how the playoffs work out -- the last team standing may yet prove this point.