Hollywood up to no good: Is that smog, or is the gloom just following us everywhere?

Well, WCBias has been extremely quiet of late, with BSlim cheating on us with a new site, www.BallHyped.com, B.G. mourning Joe Torre bouncing and the Dodgers sucking, Pembertonian spending weeks in San O. doing nothing but waxing his stick, and Ryantific breast feeding his newborn.

I blame it on L.A., because this is the first time in forever that we’ll have a fall without any of LA’s teams competing for a postseason spot. Dodgers and Angels have faded. The … oh wait, we don’t have a pro football team, but even if we did, it’s not like Calif. football is anything to write home about (the Niners and Raiders continue to be the worst franchises in the league).

USC isn’t in the BCS picture thanks to some BS from Reggie BuSh. UCLA is UCLA.

If not for San Diego, the SoCal sports scene would be a total embarrassment. Check that, the Padres just lost again, SoCal is a wreck.

So, I guess it’s time to look ahead to the NBA season.

And just like that, the odds have been released … and guess who’s favored to win the NBA Finals this coming season?

You guessed it. The Miami Heat haven’t even played a game and they have 20-1 odds to win it all. Might be a good time to throw a few bucks down on the Celtics, with 12-1 odds (it’s the only good bet on the board, even though it’s bound to be Heat-Lakers unless something crazy happens).

We’ll say it now, not hoping to jinx anyone, but injuries will be the difference this year. The Heat are one injury away from being the No. 3 team in the NBA … and until they play together, they’re not 20-1 odds to win it all. I’m sorry. I’ve haven’t forgotten how LeBron shut it down in the playoffs when things didn’t go his way.

But that’s where the money is, so I can’t say I blame Las Vegas.

Guess we’ll find out soon enough. Heat vs. Celtics on Oct. 26. Heat vs. Magic Oct. 29. Heat vs. Lakers on Christmas Day.

Here are the odds to win the NBA Championship this year, according to MGM Resorts International:

Miami                        20-1
L.A. Lakers                 3-1
Boston                        12-1
Chicago                      18-1
Orlando                       5-1

Here’s how WCBias readers voted the 2010-11 season will turn out (cast your vote in the sidebar):

Who will win the NBA title next season?

• Los Angeles Lakers (38%)
• Miami Heat (24%)
• Boston Celtics (13%)
• Chicago Bulls (9%)
• Oklahoma City (9%)
• Someone else? (7%)

ESPN just made us hate LeBron James even more.

Meet the Salary Crunch, an EastSidePN.com feature that “breaks down statistics from his 2009-10 season and the playoffs to help translate his full salary” and pisses off all us poor fans who can’t even afford to attend an NBA preseason game.

The app allows you to enter your sorry wages and see just how long it takes King James to reach that figure, in terms of stats like games played (although games plural won’t come into play here as you’ll see by my entry), points, rebounds and assists.

Then it goes on to kick your dog, letting you know how long it would take YOU to make LeBron’s annual salary – which is reported to be $110.1 million over six years with the Miami Heat. Yeah, I feel real sorry for LeBron and that paycut he took to play in Florida, where there’s no state income tax by the way.

Well, us here in Cali have state income tax, and I won’t be making $80,000 this year. But that’s what I entered into the Salary Crunch for shame and giggles.

Here’s what it returned:

LeBron James makes $80,000 after the following…

.38 games
11.24 points
2.86 rebounds
3.2 assists

You will need to work 229.38 years in order to make LeBron James’ annual salary!

Thanks ESPN! And thank you LeBron for making us dislike you even more.

Good to know he’ll make what I’d dream of making in a year in less than a half of basketball this season.

And if you want to feel even better about yourself, ESPN allows you to compare your salary to some other beloved athletes such as former Raiders QB JaMarcus Russell, who doesn’t even have a job right now, was arrested for possession of freaking sizzurp (Triple Six Mafia would be proud), and still made that $80,000 in .19 games for the Silver and Black.

Aight, that’s enough whining. I’ve gotta run. I’ve got 229.38 years worth of dough to make up.

No worries. Just found an online gig that pays $15 per blog post. If my math’s correct, that’s only 1.22 million blog posts to reach LeBron’s 2010-11 salary (minus bonuses and endorsements of course)! One down, only 1,223,222.333 to go.

- Sent from my iPoor.

I made the random Yankees-Heat parallel to Ryantific earlier today before the announcement, and after James made it official tonight I think the fuzzy analogy started to make sense.

(I also went up to the Yankees-A’s game in Oakland on Wednesday, so Yankee Haters are fresh in my mind.)

Bear with me a moment while I try to explain.

So when Amare Stoudemire announced he was New York bound, and Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh announced they were teammates in Miami, I thought, “OK, that leaves LeBron in Cleveland.”

But the more I thought about it, and learned from Ryantific that no contract numbers had been released by Wade/Bosh and that Jim Gray had landed an exclusive interview, the more it made sense to me.

Miami had encouraged Wade and Bosh to make their announcements a day earlier so that they wouldn’t be overshadowed by James’ hour-long special.

Here’s where the Yankees parallel begins.

Wade, like Yankees SS Derek Jeter, has played his entire career with the same team. He brought a championship to town. They’re the Jordans of their sport, literally, even sporting MJ’s elite brand in recent years.

They are the captains. The towns they play in and teams they play for are theirs.

Bosh? Well, he’s the second-fiddle free agent the Heat picked up because he was the best-available player. Think Bobby Abreau, and most recently Nick Swisher (an ex-Athletic who Oakland fans really rode hard on Wednesday, even though he nearly went for the cycle: and then was voted into the All-Star game) or Mark Teixeira.

Then there’s James, who in Miami and everywhere else in the country will never been a real Miami member. Just like Alex Rodriguez will never be a real Yankee. A-Rod went to New York for one reason, even gave up his true position to do so, for a championship: and a boatload of dough.

Same thing LeBron is doing, minus the dough depending on who you believe. And people are going to hate him for it, particularly in Cleveland where they’re burning his jersey and doing all sorts of crazy stuff just like Seattle did when they lost A-Rod. Only Cleveland cares a lot more because of the curse. Seattle really doesn’t care about anything other than brewing good coffee. And they sure don’t care about the NBA enough.

Two other reasons to make the LeBron-A-Rod comparison, and for Joe Fan to hate on them both? Athleticism and capitalism. Both have more talent than anyone in their respective sport (thanks in part to performance enhancers, but that’s another story), and more money for that matter, too. And all the talk about LeBron taking a pay cut to go to Miami is crap considering the lack of a state income tax in Florida, on top of the added endorsements he’ll be bringing in with more exposure and victories.

Power + money + confidence/cockiness = hatred by fans. Just look at Barry Bonds. Look at what Kobe went through in Los Angeles.

But what makes some of that hate go away? Championships.

• See: Kobe Bryant, going from the outhouse to the penthouse in the eyes of LA fans after winning back to back titles, without Shaq.
• See: A-Rod. I saw a dozen people with A-Rod jerseys in Oakland the other night. I had seen A-Rod jerseys before, I had just never seen anyone (even die-hard Yankee fans) who didn’t like him enough to wear one, especially in Oaktown. But after winning a championship last year, sure enough.

Bonds, however, who never won that title, is still arguably the most hated man in sports.

That was until tonight, when Kings James may have dethroned the now retired Bonds as the most hated man in sports.

Not that you can blame the guy. Who wouldn’t want to leave Cleveland for South Beach (really L.A. East if you think about it). It’s the playa lifestyle, with more beaches, bikinis, bars and booze than you can shake a pimp cane at. AND, they’ve got DWade, who – when healthy – is the best all-around player in the game next to Kobe. Add Bosh and you have a formidable three-headed monster that rivals the Lakers and is probably favored in the East over the aging Celtics.
Will they be better than the Lakers? Tough call. Right now, I, Vegas and much of the country (according to polls on ESPN) say no.

Will they be better come playoff time, when injuries and chemistry make or break teams. Could be. They’re young (all three were drafted in 2003 as underclassmen, or in LeBron’s case, as a prepster), talented and hungry. And any questions about their chemistry may have been answered back in Beijing in 2008, when they first started talking about the possibility of playing together.

Maybe he follows the same path as A-Rod and goes another season or two without a title, but at some point you figure if LeBron and DWade can stay on the court, The King is going to win his ring.

But winning in the court of public opinion, that’s going to take some work.

Time to bring back the pinstriped kicks, LeBron.

If the shoes fit, wear ‘em.

How many "Heat is on" headlines will I read Friday?

Not sure if you heard the news, but LeBron James is going to Miami.

Not Los Angeles (sorry Lambo). Not New York (sorry Slim). Not Chicago (sorry Pembertonian, and 68% of our readers who voted in the LeBron poll). Not Cleveland (sorry: umm, we don’t know any Cavs fans here at the Bias).

But I do know someone who isn’t too happy about LeBron’s decision, and it’s a breath of fresh air to finally hear Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert say what I suggested last month: that LeBron gave up on his team during the playoffs.

“He quit,” Gilbert told the AP. “Not just in Game 5, but in Games 2, 4 and 6. Watch the tape. The Boston series was unlike anything in the history of sports for a superstar.”

You think that was bold, wait until you read Dan Gilbert’s Open Letter to “Cleveland, All Of Northeast Ohio and Cleveland Cavaliers Supporters Wherever You May Be Tonight,” where he goes off on James’ “several day, narcissistic, self-promotional buildup” and “cowardly betrayal,” and even goes as far as to claim (in all caps):

I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE

Sounds like Gilbert’s been drinking whatever Ron Artest has been drinking of late. Lay off the crazy juice, Gilbert. Leave that stuff for The Champion.

Congrats, Bulls fans. And good luck with your many future titles!

Of course, we haven’t yet confirmed this. But we wanted to be the first — just like all the other journalists and faux journalists (a.k.a., “bloggers”) out there. And since we are not connected in any way to LeBron James and really have no clue what he’ll say on ESPN in a tad bit, we’ve reduced ourselves to a projection based on nothing. But we’ll just keep reporting that James made his pick based on team chemistry, his love for Chicago and the team’s six championships under his hero Michael Jordan.

“I have some big shoes to fill here,” James didn’t say Thursday. “I just hope I can live up to the expectations of Chicago fans and win some championships.”

Fans at Chicago sports bars were reportedly cheering wildly while drinking beers and ignoring the Cubs. Meanwhile, there was an audible groan from Cleveland fans and Dwyane Wade, the latter saying, “Hey, wait — I stayed in Miami for THIS? I promised to take LeBron boogie boarding if he came to Florida!”

As part of the deal, the Bulls agreed to retire whatever number James chooses before he even plays a single game in Chicago and to erect a statue that’s 1 inch larger than Jordan’s outside the United Center, which is to be named the King’s Court.

SNOOZE: Wade didn't live up to the free agent drama.

Wow. Has there ever been a free agent spectacle that has rivaled this whole LeBron, Wade, Bosh, Boozer, That’s Amar’e thing? Seriously, it’s been more interesting than the last decade of Knicks teams combined. And it’s gonna be capped off by an hour-long ESPN special on LeBron announcing his final decision tomorrow.

Man, I hope that special isn’t a bust like Geraldo and Al Capone’s vault. Hey, LeBron, please tell us we’re not coming up empty handed at the end. And, Geraldo, please stay away from that special. In fact, how about you just stay away from television in general?

So, already, the chess pawns are being moved around, as teams try to entice James with appealing teammates. The Knicks fans now love Amar’e, the Heat are giving a Bosh bash, and the Bulls got Boozed up. Frankly, I thought Wade’s decision to stay in Miami was — yawn — rather boring.  See if HE gets an hour special next time he’s a free agent.

But at this point, you have to say that three teams are in the running for LeBron — the Cavs, the Heat and the Bulls. But clearly he has a chance to win with two of those — the Heat and the Bulls.

If he joins either of those clubs, the team automatically becomes an all-star squad. The Heat with Wade, Bosh, James and Michael Beasley (assuming they keep Beasley, but even if they don’t) and the Bulls with Rose, Deng, James , Noah (assuming they keep Noah, but even if they don’t) and Boozer.  The only other contender would be the Celtics and the James-less Chicago or Miami team, and both would come up short.

Speculation is still abound. One source said James was seen looking into Billy Joel’s old pad in New York. Another says there’s no way LeBron would dis’ Cleveland in an hour special. But I’m still sticking to my long ago prediction of Chicago. Remember, he loves Chicago and Jordan. And Boozer is a former Cav that he liked playing alongside. Plus, really, if he joins Chicago, there’s no stopping them from winning 60+ in the regular season and easily making the championship.

Now how to the Lakers respond? Is this year’s championship team good enough to take on a LeBron-led Bulls or Heat? I say they’d have more luck finding Geraldo in Bugsy Siegel’s vault.

Boston might consider a new logo for Game 7.

If you’re an avid follower of the Bias, or have had the unfortunate luck of knowing me for an extended period of time, you’ve no doubt heard me rant and rave about everything from HGH to the horrendous officiating in the NBA.

But if there’s one thing I bang on more than LeBron James and Joe Crawford, it’s ESPN and the bandwagon media, and how quick they are to judge and dismiss teams after one game, one quarter, even one play at times.

But when it comes down to it, momentum, and what happened yesterday, and this “what-you’ve-done-for-me-lately” take on sports is garbage more often than not.

Momentum is weak-sauce media speak when it comes to championship series, because much of the media has never played the game, isn’t clever enough to come up with something of substance, and has grown numb to the one-game-at-a-time cliché pitched by the players and coaches. But when it comes to sport being played at a championship level, particularly a shooting-percentage game like basketball, momentum only matters within that one particular game – basketball is a game of runs as they say.

But when we’re talking about a seven-game series, that’s being played every two, three, even four days, on opposite sides of the country, between two of the most storied franchises in NBA history, you might as well throw momentum out the door.

Think about it. Has momentum ever carried over from that Monday blacktop game to your Wednesday pick-up battle, with the same crew of players on the court? Has momentum ever played a part the following week in that Monday night co-ed softball league of yours? Probably not. Either you’re good, or you’re not. Either you’re on that night, or you’re off. That’s it.

And when you’re talking about a game being played between what could be four or five hall of famers, momentum is even less important. If I were wrong, the Cleveland Cavs would be holding a parade right now. But they’re not.

It’s why no team had won back to back games in this series prior to the Celtics’ Game 5 victory in Boston.

So what does matter you ask?

What matters, for lack of a better analogy, are the four Hs: and I’m not talking that 4H, our A-town and Indiana hick readers.

• Hall of fame experience/leadership
• Heads-up plays
• Health
• Home-court advantage.

I’ve been preaching it from the beginning of the playoffs, and that’s why the Lakers should wrap up their second straight NBA title on Thursday.

And it’s also why they won big, and I mean really big, on Tuesday.

Consider:

Hall of fame leadership/experience: Kobe Bryant learned from Game 5′s me-against-the-world approach and got his teammates involved early on. By the end of the first quarter, the Lakers were balanced in the scoring column and had a double-digit lead. And the team that wins the first quarter has won all six games of the series (which shows just how unimportant momentum is considering that team was coming off a loss in five of the six games).: Bryant and Derek Fisher have been in the NBA for 14 seasons. They’ve each been to the NBA Finals seven times. That is leadership even the Celtics’ Big Three has trouble competing against.

Heads-up plays: These are the game-changing plays, Jordan Farmar diving for loose balls, going around and then over KG to put home two big buckets, Kobe giving up an open layup to a soaring Shannon Brown to get the crowd into it, encouraging Ron-Ron to keep shooting and get out of his funk.: The stats speak for themselves: The Lakers had 13 steals to only eight by Boston, had a 52-39 edge in rebounds, and an 8-4 edge in blocked shots. Ballgame.

Health: When Kendrick Perkins went down, I think the Boston Celtics season went down as well. While I’m contradicting myself a bit here by even hinting at what’s going to happen in Game 7, the injury to Boston’s blue-collar center puts a serious dent in the C’s frontcourt attack. While Perkins hasn’t done much at the offensive end, his absence at the defensive end allowed Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom to get free that much more on Tuesday night, and Gasol and Odom are the key to the series in my eyes. In Game 6, they combined for 25 points, 23 rebounds, 10 assists and 5 blocks, a pretty good all-around night considering how balanced the scoring was and that L.A. finished with only 89 points.

Home-court advantage: Unlike in 2008, the Lakers have home court in these playoffs. And unlike in 2008, the fans are actually giving L.A. an advantage. Since moving to Staples, I’ve argued time and time again that Los Angeles doesn’t have a home-court advantage other than the familiarity of playing there because their fan base could care less about the game itself. I’ve been to Staples: for a Clippers game. Beers are 2 for $20. At a Clippers game! Guys like you and me can’t afford to be there when the Lakers are in town. So you get fans like, I don’t know, look at Tuesday’s lineup: Christina Aguilera, Puffy, Andy Garcia, Spike Lee, Dane Cook, Diane Lane, Josh Brolin. In other words, not Lakers fans. You have Jack, and then you don’t have Jack.

But over the past three home games, I actually witnessed a standing ovation. And tonight, the crowd was as vocal a crowd as I’ve seen (heard, whatever) at Staples. And that happened before the Lakers started running away with it, so it wasn’t a fair-weather thing for once.: For all those times I’ve heard people say Pau Gasol was soft, I wanted to say L.A. is soft. Gasol was no softer than L.A.’s home crowds in years past. But now both of them are scrapping, showing emotion and producing in the clutch. In fact, Gasol has been the best frontcourt player in these playoffs. And L.A., next to Oklahoma City, has had the best home-court advantage. 10-1. Hard to argue with that.: Heck, I even saw L.A. fans sporting “Boston Sucks” shirts in L.A. this weekend, and they weren’t WCBias’ shirts. I also saw a one-year-old girl and a puppy wearing Kobe jerseys. It’s clear times have changed in L.A., and if Laker Fan has anything to say there won’t be any repeats of 2008. Not in their house.

We find out Thursday, when the Lakers shoot for 11-1, back-to-back titles, and a chance to save Ryantific from having to stomach the World Cup, not to mention a case of Budweiser Select 55, if the Celtics win.

Somebody get up in Jesus' face.

Initial thoughts from tonight’s 103-94 victory by the Boston Celtics over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 2 of the NBA Finals:

• Who was the best fighter in the gym tonight? A. Hillary Swank. B. Sylvester Stallone. C. Ron Artest.
• Who’s guarding Ray Allen?
• Lakers are up 2-0 if someone gets a hand in his face. On second thought, you could have put Michael Jordan on Allen and it probably still wouldn’t have mattered.
• Props to the Lakers fans for actually cheering tonight. Remember those moments in Games 6 and 7 Laker fan.
• If Allen goes off like this again, it’s time to put Artest on Ray-Ray and put Jesus Shuttlesworth on the ground. That was ridiculous.
• If I have to watch another Sienna mini-van commercial, I’m going to puke.
• At least we didn’t have to watch Joe Crawford give the gavee away.
• But, really, those two “fouls” on Kobe Bryant, were those really playoff, check that, Finals fouls? That inadvertent head bump of Allen? Then Kobe gets hacked, Rondo comes away with the steal, flops out of bounds, and it’s a foul Bryant? In LA? Really?
• Kobe looked like Reggie Miller there at the end of the first half. Unfortunately Ray Allen looked like Jordan for two halves.
• Andrew Bynum outplayed KG, Big Baby and Perkins combined. If you would have said Bynum was going to score 21 points (as many a Kobe tonight) in the series I would have been surprised. Only bright spot for the Lakers tonight.
• Nate Robinson = Skee lo. What if he was a couple inches taller.
• Finals bet: Lakers win, Slim (not a big fan of raw fish) buys a sushi boat for Ryantific and I. Celtics win, Ryantific buys a case of Budweiser Select (blah), and we dust it during a World Cup game – from the back of my Sienna mini-van. Yeah, soccer. I went there.
• Kobe’s jackknife, pump-fake shot is pretty sick. That’s a true signature move that the haters can’t give credit to MJ and the Hall of Famers before him.
• Those ABC Wipeout commercials also got tired. And when Carmelo Anthony was in the promo saying “players need to sacrifice their bodies,” I got a good laugh.
• Also, if I see another Mr. Spy vs. Mrs. Spy movie (Knight vs. Day or Mr. Mrs. Smith or whatever it was called), I’m going to puke: in my mini van.
• Should Doc Rivers have benched K.G. down the stretch? Who would have thought that would have ever been a legitimate question.
• Lakers need some R&R (Ray Allen and & Rajon Rondo). Unfortunately the series picks up in Boston on Tuesday.
• And why is the NBA Finals 2-3-2, when the rest of the playoffs is not? Seems kind of strange to me. Seems like it gives the visitors a edge, especially in a balanced series like this when the visitors are likely to steal one of two on the road.
• Where’s Tim Donaghy when you need him? Get that dude on the floor in crunch time.

Pau Gasol was looking like a Sleestack again tonight, and that's a good thing for Laker nation. (Getty Images)

Initial thoughts from the Los Angeles Lakers’ 102-89 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday:

• The only bad news out of L.A. tonight: UCLA’s John Wooden, 99, in “grave” condition.
• This is exactly why the Lakers brought in Ron Artest. Getting physical with 2008 NBA Finals MVP Paul Pierce from the opening tip. Pierce had 24 points, but 11 of those came in the fourth when the game was out of hand. Ron-Ron also hit 3 of 5 treys for 15 points as a bonus. R.Artest = Rodman (during the Bulls years).
• Home court will prove to be the difference in this one, even if it doesn’t go seven games. Getting this first win sets the tone for the series and lets them know they can be a physical, defensive team too.
• Surprised anyone got to 100 points tonight in this defensive, physical struggle –28 fouls and 27 free throws in the first half.
• Good to see Kevin Garnett looking like K.G. again. But at times, it looked like K.G. was playing by himself out there.
• All of the hype about Kobe Bryant guarding Rajan Rondo? Yeah, seemed like he was guarding Ray Allen a lot tonight. Not sure what the “experts” were talking about.
• I’m not sure Rondo can slice and dice the Lakers, especially in the post with Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom helping out, like he did the Cavs and Magic.
• And why didn’t the media make a bigger deal about who’s going to guard Kobe? He is the best player in the league right now (another 30-point game tonight). And the Allens don’t have the length to guard him. The Celtics better get Pierce or someone bigger on Kobe, or he’s going to go nuts every game. And if you double him, Gasol is going to go even nuttier.
• Get Scalabrine some PT.
• Bynum gave the Lakers 28 minutes tonight. He also had 10 points and six boards, not bad for a guy who was reportedly done.
• Officials for this one? Joe Crawford , Derrick Stafford , Joe Derosa. Really? Yo David Stern, why not invite Jim Joyce out here while you’re at it?
• In an non-NBA Finals note, WCBias.com is up to #575,682 in the rankings. Up from a mill a few months ago. Creepin’ on ah come up yo!

The NBA Finals tip off tonight between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, and to commemorate the game our boy Ryantific cranked out a couple Official WCBias NBA Finals Shirts.

They’re only $13.99, so get them while they’re hot … and support the free content on WCBias!

And for our East Coast fans, we have a couple shirts too, so hold off on the comments and letters to the Ed.: