Remember when the NBA was really fun to watch? Think back now real hard, it was only like four years ago.

Okay, now you remember, those were good times, weren’t they? Now I’d say on average three out of every ten games are even watchable, and only about five out of every 10 highlights of games are worth viewing.

I, like many others, had thought it turned into a league that was more boring to watch the a Pro-am golf tournament. There is, however, a light at the end of this dark tunnel.

Over the past month or so, I have seen the future of the NBA and its fast paced exciting and involves players that are all for the most part younger then me. Allow me to present the saviors of the NBA: the Seattle Supersonics, The Phoenix Suns, Lebron James, Manu Ginobili and my new favorite player Dwayne Wade.

I’ll start off with the Sonics and the Suns. These guys have brought back the idea of saying, “the heck with defense, first team to 130 wins,” and although I’m a defense kind of guy, I’m loving the high-scoring games these two teams play.

The Sonics for instance shoot 23 three-pointers a game and hit nine of them. That means on any given night they have 27 points just from three’s…that’s crazy. Even crazier is the fact that the best three point shooter on the team is Vlad Radmanovic who is 6-foot 10-inches.

Phoenix, on the other hand, just runs, runs and then runs some more. Before the other team knows what’s happened they’re down by 15 points, it’s halftime and Amare Stoudemire has dunked on them four times.

The Suns are like one of those boutiques in the Red Light district of Amsterdam; you go in, you come out, and you’re not really sure what happened, but your shirt is on backwards and you’re down about $200.

Now, I thought the Suns would be decent, but my friend Scott Chard said they were going to be amazing, and my other friend, Doogie, from Phoenix, is just happy because now he can bring up the Suns mascot the Guerrilla more often. So it seems to me the Suns are a win-win anyway you slice them.

I hope you are all paying attention to Lebron James right now, because you are witnessing the beginning of greatness. This must have been what it was like to watch Bird, Magic and Michael in their beginnings.

The thing with Lebron, though, is that he seems like he may be all three of those guys wrapped into one amazing package. Lebron right now is 20, and he has an excellent shot at being the MVP. At 20.

What if the Cavs win the championship? Is he going to be allowed to drink champagne? This needs to be looked into.

I’ve seen many players who were supposed to be the next great one: Vince Carter, Kobe, Harold Miner (he was only great at having illegitimate children, last count was eight.) They all fell.

Lebron, to many peoples surprise has a good head on his shoulders and for him the sky isn’t the limit, the stars are. Buckle up, it’s going to be a high flying ride.

To spice things up I thought I would add a little Latin flavor to the mix and introduce everyone to Manu Ginobili. The feisty player from Argentina was always pretty good, but this season he has kicked it up about five notches and is one of the most exciting players in the game.

Ginobili right now is averaging almost 26 points per game. Between him and Tim Duncan the Spurs are probably the team to beat in the West. Every game, though, Ginobili does some crazy play, a reverse dunk in traffic, a running one hander, something that makes you just say “wow.”

The two star system worked for the Spurs well before when they had the twin towers, and it appears they’ve gone back to that formula again with great success.

Finally, the player whom I have told many people that, “it is a pleasure to watch him play,” Mr. Dwayne Wade. This guy just is tough to describe. He makes everyone around him better and is never looking to do things for himself, he’s looking to do the best thing for his team. Some people thought Shaq had a bad attitude and didn’t like sharing the spotlight with Kobe. Well, has anyone heard him say a single negative thing about Wade?

Just the other day against the Spurs, I saw Shaq pick for Wade and then watch as Dwayne came through with the game winning jumper. The ball was not forced into Shaq, the shot was not rushed, it was a perfectly executed play by an amazing ball player. Take into account that some people thought the Heat made a mistake in drafting Wade due to some questionable injury history.

Call me crazy, but I think they made the right decision, and if you haven’t gotten a chance to see Dwayne play yet, make a note to yourself, mark your calendar and have a six pack ready to go. Like the guy on the Men’s Warehouse commercial says, “You’re gonna like the way he looks. I guarantee it.”

There you have it, five excellent reasons to watch the NBA. Sure, I could have come up with about 100 reasons not to, 12 of those reasons being everyone on the New York Knicks, but let’s look at the positives.

The playoff races are beginning, and although the East is absolutely terrible there are some races that may make it interesting to watch. Not necessarily fun to watch, but at least interesting.

Next week the “Juice is Loose” in baseball so lets have some fun watching the players shrink back to normal human sizes.

Until then, keep on keepin’ on.