Love & basketball in the air

Bryan Ramos | The Rider

Traveling, technicals and too little defense. The NBA is back.

The 2016-2017 season tipped off the last week of October to usher in a new year after an offseason of major changes.

Three legends of the game hung them up over the summer as “The Black Mamba” Kobe Bryant, “The Big Ticket” Kevin Garnett and “The Big Fundamental” Tim Duncan walked away from their Hall of Fame careers. No more Kobe face, no more K.G. trash-talking opponents and teammates to tears, and no more Tim Duncan blocking somebody’s shot, then giving them advice on how to get better. Name a more iconic trio–I’ll wait.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are the reigning NBA champions after coming back from a 3-1 deficit to take out the Golden State Warriors in last season’s finals. LeBron James is back to his role as player/coach/GM/owner for his team and J.R. Smith still doesn’t have a shirt on. In true front-running fashion, James hosted a Halloween costume party with decorations celebrating the Warriors’ finals demise with a drumskin with a 3-1 design and tombstone-shaped cookies with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson’s names on them. Then, the Cleveland Indians proceeded to blow a 3-1 lead in the World Series to the Chicago Cubs. Good job, LeBron.

The Warriors became the greatest regular season team of all time last year with a 73-9 record only to fall short in the finals to break the hearts of all their bandwagon fans. Curry was voted the first unanimous MVP in league history, angering all the old heads dying for a chance to hand check the Warriors’ golden boy. Now, joining the Warriors to help them “rebound” after their historic season is Kevin Durant, as if they need the help. They’re on a mission to dethrone James, but as Omar from “The Wire” says, “You come at the King, you best not miss.”

After Duncan retired, the Spurs got “younger and more athletic” by signing Pau Gasol. They opened the season by running the Warriors off their home court out on opening night, beating them in convincing fashion led by robot assassin Kawhi Leonard. Nicknamed Debo for his habit of stealing from people on the court, the league better be prepared because he has again upgraded his programming and will now drop 30 on you with no expression on his face while Greg Popovich sits back and laughs.

James Harden uniting with Head Coach Mike D’Antoni is a match made in heaven for the Houston Rockets as they will score all the points this year and make little to no effort on defense.

Russell Westbrook is treating the league as if he’s a scorned ex-girlfriend out to prove he’s the hottest thing around and Durant done messed up. He legit might murder the rim on a dunk trying to prove his point.

Boogie Cousins is back to his lovable old self, receiving technical foul after technical foul and smiling about it afterward. Hopefully, he finds his happy place soon.

The newest Super Team has not gotten off to a good start. No, not the one in the Bay area, the one in New York. Carmelo Anthony, Porzingod and newly added Derrick Rose hope to bring the Knicks back to prominence. Maybe, if it were the Olympics, Melo would win something.

In Chicago, the Bulls now have Jimmy Butler, Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo, whose personalities are bound to clash like the ladies on “The View.”

The Philadelphia 76ers, who have spent the last few years in basketball purgatory, seem to finally have struck gold as Joel Embiid is back on the court and looking like a bigger Hakeem Olajuwon. Too bad this year’s first-round pick, Ben Simmons, broke his foot before playing his first regular season game. The 76ers stay taking L’s.

The Clippers are the show in town in Los Angeles now. Hopefully, Blake Griffin can refrain from punching a team manager, breaking his hand in the process. Chris Paul will do anything to get to the finals and maybe this will be the year. Asked about rough play between him and Kobe during one game, Paul responded, “I don’t care if my mother was on the court. I’d hit her too.”

The Lakers are kind of, sort of back. With Luke Walton as head coach, the baby Lakers can finally flourish with their young core of Julius Randle, Brandon Ingram and everybody’s favorite Snapchatter, D’Angelo Russell.

Now that the NBA is back, the season is sure to have plenty of drama, excitement and controversy. That’s what makes the sport of basketball one of the most entertaining to watch.