A to Z.
It sounds like a list of NBA teams of yesteryear, from the Anderson Packers to the Chicago Zephyrs.
It sounds like the 1952 All-Star Game, which featured Paul Arizin and Max Zaslofsky.
It sounds like a history of Lithuanian centers, from Arvydas Sabonis to Zydrunas Ilgauskas.
It also sounds like a good way to take a look at the 2012-13 NBA season:
. The Ohio city is becoming a pretty good hangout for the NBA’s two best players. The hometown of Miami’s LeBron James recently featured for the second straight year James working out with Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant. We’ll see if Durant might have picked up enough from James to wrestle away the MVP.
. The Heat might have James, the 2007-08 NBA scoring leader, and Dwyane Wade, the 2008-09 champion. But the guy on the Heat who has the most to brag about in that category is assistant coach Bob McAdoo, who, with three, has more scoring titles than James and Wade combined.
. Houston owner Les Alexander has been throwing it around lately like Thurston Howell III. The Rockets gave crazy contract offers last summer to restricted free agents Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin that weren’t matched, and now they’ll give James Harden the maximum after his acquisition from the Thunder.
. The NBA finally recognized there’s a big hole in the middle when it comes to traditional centers. So the All-Star ballot has been changed from having fans pick two forwards and a center to going with three frontcourt players. While the Lakers’ Dwight Howard will get the nod as a true center in the West, a third forward could get a starting berth in the East.
. It will be harder to earn one this season in the league due to the new flopping rules. It will take very good acting to regularly fake fouls.
. Boston coach Doc Rivers will be a proud one Jan. 16 when he likely goes against New Orleans guard Austin Rivers to become the fourth dad to coach against his NBA-playing son. They would join the father-son twosomes of Van Breda Kolff (Butch vs. son Jan in 1976-77), Dunleavy (Mike Sr. vs. Mike Jr. regularly from 2003-10) and Karl (George vs. son Coby in 2007-08).
. There’s been a lot of that said lately in Dallas. The Mavericks enter the season with just four players remaining from their 2011 championship team: Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion, Rodrigue Beaubois and Dominique Jones. And Beaubois and Jones didn’t play a second in the 2011 playoffs.
. The Lakers are cornering the market on them. They have four locks for Springfield, Mass., in Howard, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol. Of course, the last time the Lakers assembled a Hall of Fame foursome (Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone, Gary Payton), they were blitzed 4-1 by Detroit in the 2004 Finals.
. How Boston players might treat Ray Allen, who bolted from the Celtics to Miami last summer as a free agent, when the teams meet in Tuesday’s opener and in three later games. Celtics forward Kevin Garnett already has said he’s lost Allen’s number and doesn’t plan to communicate with him.
. The No. 42 Jackie Robinson once wore for the Brooklyn Dodgers will be on display by a pro player in Brooklyn for the first time since 1956. But it remains to be seen if the well-past-his-prime Jerry Stackhouse of the Nets, who has worn that number to honor the legend, can have a field-goal percentage higher than a Robinson batting average.
. The 2012 NBA draft featured six players from Kentucky, four in the first round (No. 1 Anthony Davis of New Orleans, No. 2 Michael Kidd-Gilchrist of Charlotte, No. 18 Terrence Jones of Houston and No. 29 Marquis Teague of Chicago) and two in the second round (No. 42 Doron Lamb of Milwaukee and No. 46 Darius Miller of New Orleans). Whether those Kentucky rookies could beat the Bobcats might depend upon the team for which Kidd-Gilchrist played.
. If the Bobcats, who last season finished with a 23-game losing streak, drop their first four, they would break Cleveland’s 2010-11 overall NBA record of 26 straight defeats. Charlotte also would topple the mark for the longest American pro sports losing streak, one shared by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who lost 26 in a row in 1976 and ’77.
. With the retirement of Eduardo Najera, the new NBA hero from the country is Orlando center Gustavo Ayon, a second-year man. With 3,052 points, Najera is the all-time leading scorer for a native of Mexico. Then again, Tyronn Lue, born in Mexico, Mo., did score 4,710 points in a career that ended in 2009.
. Coaches on the hot seat include Milwaukee’s Scott Skiles, Detroit’s Lawrence Frank, Sacramento’s Keith Smart and the Clippers’ Vinny Del Negro. But if Mike Brown can’t do big things with the star-studded Lakers, he might end up being the most nervous coach of all.
. Will the President in 2013 still be attending Washington games, or might Mitt Romney make Barack Obama need to check if his hometown Chicago Bulls have any good partial ticket plans for the second half of the season?
. Guard Brian Roberts, who turns 27 in December, made the Hornets as a rookie. Roberts, who had been playing overseas after getting out of Dayton in 2008, is amazingly the third-oldest player on the team as a first-year man.
. There are many after Q once stood in Orlando for Quentin Richardson. The future of the Magic is murky after the departure of Howard. The Magic showed they are in total rebuilding mode when they ate $5.4 million by waiving Richardson before the season to keep University of Miami rookie DeQuan Jones, who at least has a Q in his name.
. New York’s Carmelo Anthony, who went No. 3, is now the only player taken in the top five of the 2003 draft who doesn’t have one in the NBA. Heat stars James (No. 1), Chris Bosh (No. 4) and Wade (No. 5) all have at least one championship ring. Even Boston’s Darko Milicic (No. 2) was fitted for one as a Detroit rookie.
. With Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov having promised an NBA title within the next three years in Brooklyn, one has to wonder if that’s where players might be exiled if they don’t deliver one.
. James Harden now can call his to plan a vacation for next June. Having been traded from Oklahoma City to Houston, Harden won’t be playing (or choking) then in another NBA Finals.
. In each of the past two seasons, Chicago has had the best record in the East and San Antonio the best in the West. But neither is regarded as much of a title contender. The Bulls will be without guard Derrick Rose, who tore his ACL last April, until at least the middle of the season. The Spurs, as usual, are being written off for being long in the tooth.
. Newly acquired Denver swingman Andre Iguodala won't need to buy one on Wheel of Fortune. He’s got all five vowels in his name.
. It’s once again the most popular name in the NBA with eight having that surname expected to be on opening-day rosters. But the Nets have done some Williams housecleaning after having as many four last season. Only Deron Williams remains from a collection that once also included Jordan, Shawne and Shelden.
. That’s what Minnesota’s team picture should be to start the season. The Timberwolves will start without their two best players, forward Kevin Love, out with a broken hand, and guard Ricky Rubio, still sidelined from a torn ACL suffered last season. It’s hopeful both will back by January at the latest.
: Forward Rasheed Wallace, 38 and coming off a two-year retirement, actually might feel like one in New York. The Knicks have three players older in forward Kurt Thomas, the NBA’s senior player at 40, guard Jason Kidd, who turns 40 in March, and center Marcus Camby, 39 in March.
. Just when you thought the Cavaliers, who had Ilgauskas from 1996-2010, wouldn’t have another “Big Z’’ at center, they drafted rookie Tyler Zeller in June. Ilgauskas, now in Cleveland’s front office, had scouted the other “Z.’’
Chris Tomasson can be reached at christomasson@hotmail.com or on Twitter @christomasson
