I love me some 30 Rock and The Office, but "Inside the NBA" might be the funniest and most interesting show on television.

They just did their "Gone Fishin'" for the Mavs, along with a (terribly) photoshopped picture of a bunch of hicks with various Mavs heads, Charles Barkley, Kenny Wilson, and Chuck Norris in the pic. (Charles was a really fat white guy in the picture, by the way.)

And before the unbelievable beat-down of the Mavs tonight by (as Pete calls them) "America's Team" Golden State, Charles looked legitimately sad and pissed when coming to the realization that Houston and Utah will be going to Game 7, which will be Saturday. Which means that Chuck and the "Inside the NBA" crew will be working. Which means he is going to miss the De La Hoya fight.

To this realization, Chuck said--repeatedly--"No one cares about the first round of the NBA playoffs!" God, it was hilarious.

And my rebirth as an NBA fan officially commenced this evening. I'm back on board. You got me again, David Stern...you sneaky bastard.

But I should thank Jim Paxton and Chris Mullen--two of my favorite old players. Because of the Chicago Bulls and the Golden State Warriors, I have been reminded about how much fun basketball can be to watch (which Tubby Smith slowly drained out of me--as UK basketball was the only basketball I really watched for the past 5-8 years). I mean, look at the box score linked above for Christ's sake! In case you are too lazy, here is what the Warriors' starting five's line looked like:

Jason Richardson: 15 pts, 5 rbs
Matt Barnes: 16 pts, 11 rbs
Andris Biedrins: 12 pts, 12 rbs
Baron "Willis Reed" Davis: 20 pts, 10 (!) rbs
Stephen Jackson: 33 (!) pts, 5 rbs

Could you possibly--as a coach or a fan--dream of a finer looking box score from your starters? Incredible. I am still having an incredibly hard time believing this team is coached by Don Nelson. Maybe Avery Johnson is that much worse of a coach. I don't know.

On the negative side, here is an incredible stat line that would make a Dallas fan start "It's Time To Trade Dirk" threads on a message board:

Dirk Nowitzki, PF: 39 min, 2-13 FG, 0-6 3PT, 1-2 FT, 2 OR, 4 DR, 6 REB, 2 AST, 0 BLK, 2 TO, 4PF, 8 PTS.

That is EMBARRASSING. Nice job voting for the MVP award, NBA journalists. Yikes.

Anyways, a great series. The fact that an NBA game and post-game show kept me up until 1:00 am is insane...and I'm glad to be back in the fold as an NBA fan.