Merry Christmas everybody. And yes, you’re in for a treat this Christmas.

Because we have LeBron James and the Miami Heat going up against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. If that doesn’t pump you up, I don’t know what will.

Kobe Bryant and Lakers coach Phil Jackson haven’t really checked out the Miami Heat much this 2010 NBA basketball season. They’ve caught late-night highlights and maybe logged a few minutes with a game from the opposite coast, but not a whole lot more. It’s finally time for the two-time champions to get an up-close look at their most intriguing challengers.

When LeBron James, Chris Bosh and—maybe—Dwyane Wade take on the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA’s Christmas showcase Saturday, most players in both uniforms hesitate to pile any extra significance onto a television-manufactured event. Most minimize every aspect of it, saying it’s no more than a holiday amusement for fans seeking a break from present-opening and eggnog-drinking.

“I don’t think it’s a measuring stick for us,” LeBron James said. “It’s just another game.”

Yet competitiveness usually trumps Christmas for elite NBA players. Just ask Kobe Bryant, or don’t, since he tellingly hasn’t spoken to the media since getting ejected from the…

Apparently, that was the plan all along for getting Gilbert Arenas and J-Rich to Disneyland.

The mandate hangs over the Orlando Magic with words spoken and unspoken, an understanding of the ultimate requirement necessary for sparing themselves the devastation of Dwight Howard’s departure as a free agent at the end of the 2010 NBA basketball season.

“Nothing short of a championship,” one league source insists is the burden the Magic are working under to hold onto Dwight Howard. Privately, Magic general manager Otis Smith confessed to his closest associates this week that his franchise’s circumstances have become Cleveland and LeBron James all over again.

The Orlando Magic are burying themselves deep into the luxury tax, taking on risky roster propositions and desperately trying to beat the clock to free agency in 2012. Deep down, Magic officials fear that Shaquille O’Neal long ago crafted the blueprint for leaving Orlando for the bright lights, big city.

For Howard to resist the inclination to test his star power in Los Angeles and New York, the Magic must make it impossible for him to leave. The Magic want him to sign an extension this summer, but that isn’t happening. The Magic had a good team, but good won’t keep Howard. So this is the reason one of the best teams in the NBA tore apart its roster – trading four of its top six players – and absorbed…

Merry Christmas everyone!

Two teams out of the playoff picture collide on Christmas night this Saturday as the Dallas Cowboys battle the Arizona Cardinals in Week 16 of the 2010 NFL football season.

The Dallas Cowboys are 4-2 since Jason Garrett took over as interim coach when Wade Phillips was fired, so he is making a strong case to keep the job. There is no question the Cowboys are playing harder for Garrett. In addition, the Cowboys finally did the expected and put quarterback Tony Romo on injured reserve Tuesday.

Romo has missed the past eight games due to a fractured left collarbone.Romo never had any chance of coming back to play any meaningful games. The best case scenario had him returning for the final two games, but there was never any point in trotting him out there to play out the string with the Cowboys out of the playoff chase for weeks.

Jon Kitna will continue to start against the Arizona Cardinals, and there are no plans to play backup Stephen McGee. Romo will continue to travel with the team. He is on the headset with offensive coaches and Kitna during games.

The Cowboys have given up more than 30 points in their past four games, but it’s hard to see the Cardinals approaching that number. Rookie John Skelton will start a third consecutive game at quarterback, and he is coming off a rough outing against the Panthers. Skelton shows promise, but he tends to lock on receivers and must improve his accuracy.

Christmas night against the Cowboys will bring back nasty memories…

Hedo Turkoglu didn’t even bother trying to hide his smile.

When he cut through that training room door in his first game back with the Orlando Magic this 2010 NBA basketball season, it was obvious the man was back in his element.

“I get my same spot in the locker room and that [number] 15 [jersey] back on and everything,” Hedo Turkoglu joked to the assembled media hovering around him. “The trade was shocking. But in the end, I’m happy because I’m coming back to the right situation for my game. I’ve never been a selfish guy. I’m a team guy and I try to do things that help the team with my passing. In the pick and roll I’m a creatable guy. I can make the decisions and I’m comfortable with the ball in my hands.”

As far as early Christmas presents go, Turkoglu couldn’t have asked for a better one to be dropped in his hands. Orlando Magic general manager Otis Smith, the same man that wouldn’t pay Turkoglu his $50 million asking price on a long-term deal after Turkoglu helped the Magic to the 2009 NBA Finals, rescued him from a dead end situation in Phoenix.

Turkoglu struggled in his role with the Suns much the way he did in Toronto during the 2009-10 season, his first away from the comfort zone he’d found during his five seasons (from 2004-09) in Orlando alongside Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson and Rashard Lewis.

Instead of kicking back Saturday with family in Phoenix, Turkoglu will be…

It’ll be a massacre this Thursday night.

Why? Well, it’s the Pittsburgh Steelers going up against the lowly Carolina Panthers Thursday night in Week 16 of the 2010 NFL football season and judging by the way Carolina’s season has turned out, you should stay away from these guys come game night.

The Pittsburgh Steelers clinched a playoff berth Sunday, but backing in after a tight home loss is hardly the way they were hoping to qualify for the NFL’s postseason party. With two more victories, they won’t care how they got there. The Steelers (10-4) hopped into the driver’s seat in the division with wins over Baltimore and Cincinnati to begin December, and had a chance to move within a win of clinching their third North title in four years last Sunday against the New York Jets.

Tight end Heath Miller, All-Pro safety Troy Polamalu did not play the last time out and backup Matt Spaeth dropped two key passes – including the potential game-winning touchdown with nine seconds left – and Pittsburgh failed to force any turnovers with Polamalu sidelined in a 22-17 loss.

However, as unfortunate as that was for the Steel Curtain, I don’t expect them to drop their second straight game on Thursday against the struggling Carolina Panthers.

Polamalu is expected to return for the postseason, but even when he comes back, Pittsburgh could use some more points from Ben Roethlisberger and its offense. The Steelers have four offensive touchdowns in their last four games, a drought that’s hard to…

How do I know, well, you know something’s wrong when you get benched for Rex Grossman for chrissakes.

Donovan McNabb felt disrespected by the way he was benched by Washington Redskins coach Mike Shanahan this 2010 NFL football season. And in case you didn’t know, Shanahan wants Rex Grossman to start for his Redskins for the rest of the season. Ugh.

“Everything was handled awkwardly,” Donovan McNabb said Tuesday on his weekly radio show on ESPN980, “somewhat to a disrespect to me and to the team.”

Making his first public comments since his demotion last week, McNabb said he strongly disagreed with the decision, but he has a bigger problem with the way he says the Washington Redskins front office leaked the news to the media before informing him.

“Because of the timing and because of all the leaks and everything that was put out there, and no putting out the fire, so to speak,” McNabb said, “I’m hearing everything through the media.”

Shanahan waited until Thursday evening to tell McNabb that Rex Grossman would be the starter for the rest of the season, even though rumblings of a possible switch had been circulating all week.

“I was pulled back by it. All of a sudden you get this news a couple of days before the game, you do feel somewhat disrespected,” McNabb said. “You could have told me earlier or at least prepared me for it. The term I did use was professional. You would like to hear it early, and if you hear it late, it kind of throws off the…

Once the biggest sensation to come out of Maryland, Steve Francis has now turned into a bad joke from China.

The NBA doesn’t have much use for former All-Star Steve Francis in the 2010 NBA basketball season, so he’s flown off to China to work for the Beijing Ducks, same as former All-Stars/tiny shooting guards Allen Iverson (to Turkey, though) and Stephon Marbury (to China, definitely) have done.

And in his first game with the Ducks, yeah, Steve Francis kind of took to the court in his first game wearing an ice pack on his ankle.

The long list of players not being ready to hop into pro basketball games is long, and semi-legendary. There’s former Pacer Bob Netolicky, who once pulled away his sweats at the scorer’s table to see a jock strap and little else where basketball shorts were supposed to be. There’s Rod Strickland, who checked into a game wearing his Wizards shorts backwards.

There’s Stephen Jackson, who Lang Whitaker once witnessed eating popcorn before a game as a ballboy (a kid, mind you) wondered aloud as to how a professional ballplayer could be so flighty with what he puts into his body. And then there’s Rod Strickland, whose pregame (as in, seconds before the game) meal of a hot dog was then thrown up onto the court a few minutes later. The list is mostly Rod Strickland.

But I can’t completely blame Steve Francis for checking into the game with an ice pack around his ankle. I kind of can, but not completely.

Even just hours before the game, Coach Min indicated to reporters that…

“I’ve been doing a lot of smiling lately.”

Arenas’ sentiments in his first game with the Orlando Magic. Not even a 91-81 loss to the Atlanta Hawks in Arenas’ debut could temper his enthusiasm about his trade to the Magic this 2010 NBA basketball season.

He leaves behind a franchise in Washington that’s in the throes of a rebuilding project, as well as the memories of a firearms violation that stained his career, not to mention his legal record. In return, he joins a team still intent on challenging for a championship – one that is also run by a general manager whom Arenas considers to be the “the only person that actually believed in me.”

“I don’t have the pressure of trying to fit in where I’m not wanted right now,” said Arenas, who came off the bench for the Orlando Magic and missed nine of his 11 shots to finish with 10 points and three assists in his debut. “They welcomed me and wanted me to just be me.”

Magic center Dwight Howard declared it a “fresh start” for Gilbert Arenas, and Arenas agreed. When he makes his home debut in Orlando on Tuesday, it will mark one year to the day from when he brought guns into the Wizards’ locker room during an argument with teammate Javaris Crittenton. The NBA suspended Arenas for 50 games because of the incident and he was sentenced to 30 days in a halfway house for his felony charge. He lost nearly $7.5 million in salary during his suspension and millions more in endorsements.

When Arenas returned this season, the Washington Wizards had made No. 1 pick John Wall the new cornerstone of their franchise.

“It was weird at first because I didn’t know how I was going to be…”

Can they finally land Melo this time?

The Denver Nuggets and New Jersey Nets are advancing on another complicated multiteam trade proposal that would likely fit Carmelo Anthony’s criteria for signing a contract extension with the Nets this 2010 NBA basketball season, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Anthony is inclined to accept a trade and contract extension with the New Jersey Nets over his preferred choice of New York only if the Nets are able to bring back a package of significant talent with him, league sources involved in the talks said.

So far, there are trade scenarios that include a combination of Anthony’s Denver Nuggets teammates – including forward Al Harrington – and other league players coming to the Nets.

“The way this is structured now, the Nets will significantly upgrade their team,” said one NBA executive involved in the talks. Said a Western Conference executive whose team has pursued Carmelo Anthony: “Melo wants something similar to the Orlando deal, where he won’t have to go into New Jersey – or anywhere he’s going – without some help right away.”

Denver’s and New Jersey’s trade partners are still unclear, but league executives said the Nets and Nuggets are tweaking several possible proposals with multiple teams. For now, New Jersey general manager Billy King is preparing to send rookie forward Derrick Favors, the expiring contract of Troy Murphy, two or three future first-round…

Because folks from LA know the streets are safer without Raider nation.

The Minnesota Vikings moving to Los Angeles is being discussed, but it really sounds like a ploy for Vikings owners to get a new stadium for the team back in Minnesota once the 2010 NFL football season is over.

It has long been known that the current ownership group for the Minnesota Vikings wants a new stadium, and they haven’t been quiet about requests to get it made. Now strong rumors of a possible relocation are surfacing, and maybe it’s time fans take notice that a move is actually quite possible. Just ask the Cleveland Browns, who didn’t think their owner would just abandon them a few years back, moving his team to Baltimore.

According to sources, two different groups have approached the Vikings to talk about relocating them to Los Angeles area. This information was announced by Vikings vice president of public affairs Lester Bagley, and it could force the hand of a city that has to offer incentives to keep an NFL franchise happy.

“We have been approached by two different groups in Los Angeles, the Ed Roski group and more recently by former Timberwolves CEO Tim Leiweke and AEG,” Bagley said in the chat.

Vikings owner Zygi Wilf has been using the current stadium rent-free, playing in the Metrodome as he watched former residents get new stadiums for themselves. That included the Minnesota Twins and University of Minnesota football team, both of which have nice new places to play. Bagley said the Vikings have told both interested groups that the organization is “focused on resolving the issue in Minnesota.”

“We feel solid momentum and feel we’re well-positioned with…