Everything I do after work is going to take a serious turn for lower productivity. Podcast editing, finishing console games on my backlog, everything except for reviewing games and work that I have to take out of the office -- everything's going to turn out slower... because the NBA season for 2008-2009 has begun, and I couldn't be more excited.

I can't wait for Phoenix to show how much better of a team it will actually be to watch now that it has a coach that knows what "defense" means without having to look it up in the dictionary.

I can't wait for Eddy Curry and Mike D'Antoni to start cat-fighting each other because D'Antoni doesn't know how to coach slow and Curry doesn't know how to run.

I can't wait to see if LeBron will actually shoot free throws above 72%.

I can't wait to see Paul Pierce go absolutely balls-out insane on the court, after knowing what it feels like to win a championship, in pursuit of a second ring.

I can't wait to see what Michael Beasley can do on national television.

I can't wait to see Eric Gordon's jumpshot, something that the incomparable Bill Simmons ranted and raved about all over the most recent Page 2 Sports Guy World entry.

I can't wait to see Ricky Davis flourish in Clipperland with Baron Davis, only to see Ricky flare out a month later because he's a complete jerkhole and doesn't know what team ball means.

I can't wait for Greg Oden to show the world what he can d- oh. Wait. Dammit, Greg, not again!

I can't wait for ignorant people to continue to hate Tim Duncan, while he yet again goes out and averages another solid double-double and perplexes defenses with his long-range bank shot.

I can't wait to see Chris Paul repeat his domination of the point guard spot, with the exception of any game against Deron Williams, when Williams will totally own him individually -- or will that change this year?

I can't wait for DeShawn Stevenson to embarrass himself again and prove himself a pointless, replaceable never-has, never-will-be

I can't wait to be amazed by the Lakers as a whole: Kobe's game, Jackson's coaching, Bynum's youthful energy, Gasol's beard, the Farmar-Walton-Ariza role-player connection, Vujacic and VladRad's ballsy shooting, et al. But more importantly, I can't wait to be amazed at all of that... and yet STILL be devilishly satisfied at the end of the year when they rightfully DON'T win a championship.

I can't wait to see Shane Battier play awesome D yet again.

And finally, I can't wait for more Charles Barkley in the TNT studio. Classic.

Oh, and yeah, this was a thinly veiled post to tell you that the podcast is coming along slowly, but it's coming. Oh, and for anyone who hasn't written in their essays, super shame on you all. By the way, those whose excuses were, "I never played Virtual Hydlide!", you obviously did not listen: The assignment as stated in the podcast was to watch the video and write about it, NOT play the game and write about it. Now you have no excuse Go look up the Virtual Hydlide episode of Broken Pixels on 1up or YouTube
and get your butts to it.