The Miami Heat

I definitely did not see this Miami Heat late-season cohesion coming at all. All year they looked like a good team that had no shot at getting to the NBA Finals. But now all the talent is coming together. Everyone from Antoine Walker to Gary Payton to James Posey has accepted their role. Add in Shaq playing solid basketball and a superstar like Dwayne Wade and you've got the makings of the 2006 NBA Champions. Yeah, I said it. I'm picking the Heat to beat whoever comes out of the west (most likely the Mavs). They've got the best player in the playoffs in Dwayne Wade (no offense to Dirk, who has been playiong out of his mind as well), and a center who can still dominate for small stretches of time. They have made a good team like the Pistons look silly in the eastern conference finals, and been playing great basketball since about a month left in the regular season. These playoffs have established who the three best players in the NBA are, and Kobe is not one of them. 1. Lebron 2. DWade 3. Dirk.