On the other side in the east, Boston lost a chance at a second consecutive shot at the title since Kevin Garnett wore three piece suites on the bench while Ray Allen drained down mind numbing three (3) pointers. Night after night, Paul Pierce and Big Baby sat out valuable moments with foul troubles and could not prevent superman Dwight Howard from handing them their fishing rods. In the West, Tim Duncan’s San Antonio Spurs gracefully bowed out of the playoffs after a stunning defeat. Manu Ginobili and Tony parker shook off disbelief as they too headed for a fishing trip. Then there was the Detroit Pistons who made that bad Allen Iverson, Chauncey Billups trade and the Atlanta Hawks’ surprising good performance regardless of Mike Bibby’s inconsistent touch on the court.

      

The whole while this was going on, the leagues most dominant player, Shaquille O’Neal also watched the entire playoffs from his fishing boat since his trade to Steve Nash’s and Amare Stoudemire’s Phoenix Suns did not even factor in for a playoff appearance. Not to mention Chris Paul’s playoff disappointment or Carmelo Anthony’s delight during the lights out action when Kenyan Martin and Billups lit up the court night after night. What could possibly be next is the question that most fans had in mind. LA danced an expected championship dance in Dwight Howard’s livingroom and returned home to more champagne pouring celebrations. It's safe to say the decade ended on a positive note for some in the NBA but not for others. That led to the notable off season trades in 2009 summer;

On Wednesday, July 8 2009 Chris Bosh’s Toronto Raptors re-signed Andrea Bargnani to a five-year contract. San Antonio Spurs welcomed Antonio McDyess from Detroit Pistons while L.A. Lakers released their key championship contributor Trevor Ariza to the Houston Rockets, signed Ron Artest to a five-year contract and re-signed Shannon Brown to a two-year contract. Meanwhile L.A. Lakers had previously announced that Kobe Bryant declined to terminate the final two years of his contract.

                    

Detroit signed Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva to five-year contracts while Atlanta re-signed Mike Bibby to a three-year contract. Boston stunned the league when they announced the signing of Rasheed Wallace from the Detroit Pistons to a two-year contract making it certain that the key teams this season are going to be LA Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers (who previously acquired Shaquille O’Neal from the Phoenix Suns), Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons and the San Antonio Spurs. Leaving all questions answered but one, who will win the next TITLE?!! Get your bets ready people!!!

Will Phil Jackson return for title number eleven (11) now that Ron Artest, Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher and Pau Gisol are on the same starting line up? Boston is packing major heat in the east with Kevin Garnett, Rasheed Wallace, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce in their line up. Cleveland is also another beast from the east and though their only real gloat is the Shaq brag, King James has been known to be a one man team while Shaq had been a legendary NBA TITLE winner when he had star side kick guards like Kobe Bryant or Dwayne Wade. On July 11^{th 2009 Dallas re-signed guard Jason Kidd but three days later Cleveland made NBA headlines again when they acquired guard/forward Anthony Parker while continuing to retain forward/center Anderson Varejao on a multi-year contract. To hush further gripes from the KING of Cleveland Mike Brown went ahead and signed Jamario Moon to an offer sheet. The Suns had no choice but to beg Steve Nash to stay for another painful but well paid two (2) years.}

^{With all these changes in the NBA, there is still an air of uncertainty as teams like the Utah Jazz, New Orleans Hornets, Houston Rocket, Orlando Magics, Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors and New Jersey Nets all have a runners up chance to shock fans who are currently rushing to buy jerseys of players like Rasheed Wallace, Shaquille O’Neal etc who were traded to unexpected teams. Only time will tell but like I said, this season which will be the beginning of the next decade, it's set to have fans glued to their ESPN, NBATV or TSN TV channels. Get your PS3s out along with your all new NBA2K10 videogames and play on players, play on.}

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