A lot of people voice their disgust for the NBA. All of my life I've heard people say, "I can't stand the NBA," "I hate the NBA," "How can you watch the NBA?"

One thing I never get from people is an explanation to follow up their first statement. Often times I get a, "It's boring" or "they get paid way too much."

But, I've never once got a solid argument from anyone as to why they dislike the NBA so much. A lot of it probably has to do with growing up in the south and the closed mindedness of some people. They think the NBA is full of thugs, so they won't watch. And some of it just has to do with the fact that until I got to college I never really knew any people that were as interested in sports as I am.

Well, I'll admit, I've been a hardcore NBA fan since about 1992, but the last few years my NBA watching has tapered off. Part of that was due to the fact that I got busier as I got older, part of it was the fact that my favorite player, Michael Jordan, and my favorite team, the Bulls, disappeared.

But, I think the NBA is on its way back to some of the luster it had during the MJ-era.

Two of the big reasons that I'm so jacked about the NBA this year are the Dallas Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns. Both teams are up-tempo, they score in bunches and they just win, baby.

The Mavs lost at the hands of Chicago last night (which I enjoyed), but before that had won eight consecutive. The Suns have won 15-straight, for the second time this season.

If you're a basketball fan, I don't see any reason how you can't enjoy watching these two teams play.

Two more reasons to like the NBA nowadays: Gilbert Arenas and LeBron James. LeBron is just amazingly talented. It makes me feel old to see that one of the NBA's best is younger than I am. (I guess I should get used to that, since it's going to continue to happen).

Arenas is seemingly the talk of the league this year. He's second in the league in scoring at 29.7 points per game and he's got a Washington Wizards team leading the Southeast Division. WIthout him, the Wizards would most likely be as crappy as they have been.

But aside from his game, Arenas is also an interesting cat off the court. He sleeps in some sort of tent that replicates the air in Colorado to improve stamina (and he says it works), he threw a big birthday bash that didn't involve a shootout later in the evening and he came out of nowhere to win a starting spot in the All-Star Game.

But that's not all, he's also pissed at Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni and Portland coach Nate McMillan for making him the final cut of last summer's U.S. team.

So, he dropped 54 on the Suns last month. And now he's promising that his next 50-point outing will come on Feb. 11 when the Wizards travel to play Portland.

Of course, hearing this sparked D'Antoni to fire back with a little joke.

"I can't wait to see what he does against Duke," D'Antoni told The Associated Press, "He's gonna KILL Duke."

Arenas fired back on his NBA.com blog, of all things.

"He'd like to see what I'm going to do against Duke," Arenas wrote, "I thought it was funny because if I have the chance to go back to college, I'll give up one NBA season to play against Duke. One college game that's five fouls, right? ... 40-minute game at Duke, they got soft rims I'd probably score 84 or 85. I wouldn't pass the ball. I wouldn't even think about passing it. It would be like a NBA Live or an NBA 2K7 game, you just shoot with one person."

And that is hilarious. And probably not far from the truth. Duke's already dropped two ACC games this year, jeez.

It appears the NBA is in good shape. Plenty of young stars, two teams that resemble the great NBA squads of old, and it even went back to the old ball.

Yeah, it's getting harder and harder for those folks to explain to me why they don't like the NBA.

But, to help them out, I will give them the excuse former Cleveland Cavalier Brad Daugherty used when Sports Illustrated asked him if he enjoyed the NBA now:

"Absolutely not," he told the magazine, "I really don't watch NBA basketball. That's no slight to the guys playing — some are tremendous. But i think expansion killed pro basketball."

Expansion!?

Maybe he should've just stuck with, "it's boring."