View from the West

It's easy to hate the Dallas Mavericks. There's owner Mark Cuban's distracting histrionics, Jason Terry's tattoo of the NBA championship trophy, that new and ugly one-legged, step-back jumper from Dirk Nowitzki and the slothful movements of Peja Stojakovic.

But these small potatoes pale in comparison to how easy it is to hate the Heat. What team led by mega superstars LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade cries after a midseason losing streak and whimpers "The world is better now because the Heat is losing"? This after James held his atrocious "The Decision" television special to announce he was moving to South Beach, effectively ripping the hearts out of every fan of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Frankly, Bill Simmons at ESPN had it right when he recently summed up the Hate for the Heat. He said Miami's pairing of Wade and James is akin to playing pick-up basketball with friends, where James is on one team and Wade is on the other but James keeps losing. So instead of trying to battle it out further, James says "Why don't I just join Wade and be on the same team?" and everyone in the pick-up game screams "That's not fair!"