NEW SPORTS GUY: I guess I'm on the NBA beat today. Here's Bill Simmons' latest, a rundown of the season so far. The NBA by his own admission is his favorite sport and I think his take is particularly knowledgable and distinct, like when he argues that Kobe Bryant would be tons more interesting if he didn't have Shaq to clean up for him, or that Dirk Nowitzki is the second coming of Larry Bird. He's usually pretty funny too. And --contrary to common wisdom-- he argues that the NBA is in its greatest period talent-wise since the Bird-Magic-MJ era. I think he'd take issue with Gregg Easterbrook's recent NBA-NFL comparisons. I love Easterbrook in his Tuesday Morning Quarterback persona, but his comments sounded like the comments of someone who hadn't watched an NBA game in a while.