No Bird, no Magic, no MJ ... no need

Full disclosure: I'm a LeBron guy.

The National Basketball Association, more than any other sports league, is a players' league. College athletics is about the college. You root for your school in all sports. Or at least you should. If you don't, you're a poser. The NFL is about teams. It's the ultimate team league. Was your dad a Cowboys fan? Then you're a Cowboys fan. If you grew up in Louisiana, then you're a Saints fan. Unless you're from Shreveport. Then you might as well be from East Texas. But that's another story. Major League Baseball has its star sluggers and ace pitchers that fans root for, but the passion is about the team -- the Yanks, the Sawx ... and everybody else.

But the NBA, oh the NBA is different. It's about the names on the back of the jerseys, not the front. It's always been that way. Wilt, the Pistol, Bird, Magic, MJ ... you root for superstars. And, man, are there plenty of superstars in the NBA right now.

For many years, we didn't know if the NBA could ever recapture its glory years. In the '80s, Bird and Magic dueled as the game's top two players. They lifted the league to a new level, and then passed the baton to Michael Jordan, who took the game into a new stratosphere in the '90s. The glory years. The MJ years. Then he retired. But he came back! And won three more titles to go with his three previous ones. And then he retired. But, unfortunately, he came back again, and wasn't the same player. Ever since, fans have been wondering if the league would ever see a player as good as Jordan.

As I've watched the first few games of this year's NBA playoffs, I'm not convinced that the league doesn't have more great players than ever. There have been some great players in the post-MJ era. Tim Duncan rivals Karl Malone as the greatest power forward ever, even if he's really a center masquerading as a power forward. Shaquille O'Neal won four titles and will go down as one of the top 10 or 15 players ever, even if he had the physical ability to be the greatest center of all-time and didn't fully reach that potential. Kobe Bryant has been a great player, perhaps the closest to MJ in terms of physical skills, even if he has never been as beloved as Jordan.

But I look at the young talent in the NBA right now and think that the next decade could actually be better than anything we've ever seen. Like I said at the beginning of this blog, I'm a LeBron guy. I've followed his career since he first burst onto the scene as a high school sophomore. I began buying into the hype as soon as I watched him play and thought this kid -- who at 16 looked like a 6-8, 235-pound man already -- could become the greatest player of all-time. His skill set is an unbelievable hybrid of Magic Johnson meets Karl Malone. He's 6-foot-8 and somewhere between 250 and 280 pounds, built like a defensive end with the athletic abilities of a running back. He's an athletic freak with a feel for the game very reminiscent of Magic Johnson, and he enjoys passing and playmaking so much that he goes out of his way to get his teammates involved. He'll soon garner his second straight MVP award and, at age 25, could conceivably win the award for the next 5-8 years. I honestly believe, if he stays focused and dialed in during crunch time, he could surpass Jordan as the greatest player of all time.

But LeBron isn't the only great young player. That draft in 2003 also produced Dwyane Wade, who already has won an NBA title with Shaq, and Carmelo Anthony, who is one of the top two pure scorers in the league. Dwight Howard, the No. 1 pick in '04, led the Orlando Magic to the NBA Finals last year, and although he still has a lot of growth left in his game, has a chance to be the top center in the game for the next decade.

Deron Williams and Chris Paul went third and fourth to the Utah Jazz and New Orleans Hornets in the '05 draft, and along with Derrick Rose, the top pick in '08, are the point guards of the future in the NBA. Brandon Roy, the sixth pick in '06, looks to be the best player in a weak draft, but if his knees can stay healthy, he has the appearance of a future star for years to come for the Blazers.

Kevin Durant, the second pick in '07, looks like he could develop into the greatest scorer the league has ever seen. At 21, he became the youngest player to lead the league in scoring this year, and he's only going to get better as the leader of an up-and-coming Oklahoma City team. I'm not sure there is a player in the world with a more complete offensive skill set. Durant can simply put the ball in the basket.

And there are several promising rookies from this year in point guards Brandon Jennings, Steph Curry and Tyreke Evans, who joined MJ, LeBron and Oscar Robertson as the only rookies to ever average 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists during their first years in the league.

That's not even counting two No. 1 picks -- '07 top choice Greg Oden and '09 first selection Blake Griffin -- who have earned incomplete grades because of injuries. Even if he ever gets healthy, I'm not sure Oden is ever going to be more than a solid 15-12 center. He's not going to be a perennial all-star or the franchise center many expected, but Griffin has the athleticism and skill set to become a fixture on all-NBA teams at power forward.

With all of these young players, Team USA would appear to be in solid shape for the next two or three Olympic games. How's this for an Olympic roster:

PG Deron Williams
PG Chris Paul
PG Derrick Rose
SG Dwyane Wade
SG Brandon Roy
SG Tyreke Evans
SF Kevin Durant
SF Carmelo Anthony
PF LeBron James
PF Blake Griffin
C Dwight Howard
C Greg Oden

Sure, it's certainly a guard-heavy squad, and it's weak in the post. You could swap out one of the guards (Evans and/or Rose) for a young post player like Andrew Bynum, Al Jefferson or Al Horford. But I think you could win with this team in international competition. You're not going to find a better backcourt with those three point guards, or more prolific scorers from the small forward position. Heck, Durant and Melo might be the two best scorers in the world. LeBron could easily play the 4 in international play and present some very difficult matchups, and Howard should be able to hold his own at the center position.

These days, though, the NBA is a guard's league. More importantly, it's a scorer's league. And there are plenty of young guards and scorers in the league. It's pretty safe to say that the NBa is going to be safe for years to come, and in 20-30 years, fans may be talking about this upcoming decade as the glory years of the NBA as compared to the Bird, Magic and MJ days of the '80s and '90s.