Considering the five year run the West had post Jordan-Era with San Antonio book ending the Lakers Three-Peat, I’d be hard pressed to argue that the East has not only caught up with the West, but might even have surpassed it. For one, the NBA is much like politics, mostly due to the Draft Lottery which is, as my brother would tell you, retarded. Why a team like Chicago deserves a number 1 pick, no one will ever know.
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If you were to ask that question to Pat Riley, he would reply with a resounding “yes!” It seems that wherever Riley goes, wily old veterans follow. And no matter what their age, he will take the proven tested veteran over the young phenom any day of the week. But as any wine connoisseur knows, wine does not always get better with age. At a certain point, the wine turns into vinegar. This is exactly what happened to the Miami Heat this past season. The team waited until the end of the season to uncork the bottle, only to find that many of the players had gotten sour and undrinkable.

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Just in case you’ve forgotten, the Miami Heat did play in the playoffs this season. Against the Chicago Bulls? First round? Four game sweep? No, not coming to you? Well they did, so just deal with it. Now, I’m not saying with a healthy Wade we could have won the whole shibang, but at the very least we could have taken care of the scrappy (see flopping, see sissy, see Dallas) Bulls. Game 1, in Chicago, final 96-91 Bulls. Wade’s night, 21 pt, 3 ast, 2 ribs. Not exactly your classic Dwayne Wade playoff night (see 30+ pts averaged in last year’s finals). More telling than that though was the fact that he dunked only once (to my knowledge) in that game (though my memory is forcibly fuzzy on the whole subject). Three similar games followed, but without defense or the benefit of 20 points from Antoine Walker. The closest, game three, didn’t even have that close of a final score (104-96) due in part (see whole) to the fact that Miami was outscored 32-20 in the final period, something that’s usually the other way around with a healthy Wade on your side. So, no we probably would not have been able to beat the Spurs, but Chicago was well within our ability.
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