In the Rotation: NBA Week 15

"Catch me front and center at the Knick game — big chain — in all my splendor." — Jay-Z in 2002

What is it about basketball at the Garden that's so electrifying?

The song Welcome to New York City, where Jay-Z raps the previous phrase, came out in 2002. The Knicks as a basketball team had stopped being relevant years prior to that.

The last time they won a playoff series was 2000, the last time they had an all-star was 2001, and they last time they weren't a punch line was December 21st, 2003. (Isiah Thomas was hired as President of Basketball Operations on the 22nd.)

None of that matters. Being courtside at a Knick game was, and still is, the place to be.

Maybe that's part of the mystique of playing at the Garden — no one knows for sure why it's such an event, it just is.

Maybe it's the celebs sitting courtside, maybe it's because it the oldest remaining NBA arena, maybe it's playing on Broadway, or maybe it's a combination of all that. Whatever the reason, the world (myself included) can't help but stare wide-eyed, open-mouthed, and in awe of the possibility that something great might happen in that building.

This week, something great happened in that building.

On Monday, Kobe Bryant set the record for the most points scored in the Garden by dropping 61 on the helpless Knicks.

It was a statement game for two reasons.

First and foremost, Bryant was sending a message to his teammates, "even though we lost one of our best players (Bynum), I'm still going to play at an elite level, and you should too." It worked. The Lakers are 4-0 since Bynum's injury, including winning back-to-back road games against the Celtics and Cavaliers.

The second statement that Bryant made with his 61-point game was that on any given night he can still turn it on and show you why he's going to go down in history as the most explosive scorer in NBA history.

On Wednesday night, LeBron James made a statement of his own.

In what was clearly a response to Kobe's record-setting game just two nights before, King James stormed into the Garden and finished with 52 points, 9 rebounds, and 11 assists. Had the NBA not taken away a rebound the following day, it would have been the second most points scored in a triple-double game ever. LeBron didn't set out to make Madison Square Garden history; he was trying to make NBA history.

Now the debate has been raging all week: Kobe or LeBron?

The Rotation's official answer: who cares?

I watched both games this week with a giant smile on my face, because twice in a three-night span, I was experiencing the rare sports phenomena of realizing while it was happening that I was watching something special happen right before my very eyes.

Sometimes it can take days, weeks, or even years to fully appreciate the historical significance of a particular sporting event.

By halftime of both games, I knew what I was watching was one of a kind.

I didn't spend Monday night convincing myself that Kobe was the greatest player in the world because he was scoring 61 in the Garden, the same way I didn't spend Wednesday watching LeBron go 52-9-11 and crown him the greatest.

It doesn't matter who is better. The point is they are two of the greatest to ever play and both are still in their prime. I don't want to waste a second of my time trying to decide who is better, because there's a good chance in that second I'll miss their next great play.

Having both of these players visit the Mecca of Basketball in the week leading up to their final regular season showdown of the season was brilliant, even if I'm not quite sure why.

Maybe we never will find out exactly what it is about playing at MSG that makes superstars salivate.

Kobe said it best on Monday after the game, "It's the Garden, man."

Enough said.

In case you missed it, the other 28 teams in the league also played this week. Just in case you were too busy comparing Kobe and LeBron, this week's Starting Five includes five of the top storylines from around the NBA this week as we reach the unofficial midway point of the season.

Starting Five

1. The Lakers Roll

Kobe's 61 at the Garden stole the headlines this week, but truth be told, it was the fourth most important game of the week for the Lakers. They also played, and won, in Boston and in Cleveland.

I talked earlier about making statements, and the Lakers spoke loud and clear this week.

Not only were they without starting center Andrew Bynum, but they caught the Celtics on the backend of a back-to-back, and ended a six-game road trip in Cleveland, who just so happened to be undefeated at home at the time. Lesser teams could have used any of those three things as an excuse, but the Lakers kept plowing forward.

Coming into the week, the Lakers had a giant question mark hanging over their head. By week's end, they put themselves in a class by themselves, not only by giving themselves the best record in the NBA, but by putting the finishing touches on sweeping the only two teams in the league that can even think about giving them a run this June.

Bynum or no Bynum, the Lakers proved that as long as they have a healthy Kobe Bryant, they are obviously still the class of the NBA.

2. The Injury Bug Bites Again

Andrew Bynum is out for 8-12 weeks. Jameer Nelson is likely done for the year. Elton Brand is done for the year. Andrew Bogut is out 8 weeks with a stress fracture in his back.

I wrote four weeks ago about how the injuries at the time could shape the playoff races in each conference. Now, with this new wave of injuries piled on top of the already lengthy list of injuries, the playoff picture becomes even more muddled as more and more teams find themselves adjusting to life without their stars.

3. So Does the Flu Bug

Remember the scene from My Cousin Vinny where Joe Pesci drops his suit in the mud and has to buy another suit, except the only suit shop in town is closed with the flu, so he goes to a second hand store and buys a bellman's outfit?

When he explains his outfit to the judge, he rants about how ridiculous it is that an entire store has the flu.

That's kind of how the NBA was this week. The whole league, out with the flu, can you freakin' believe that, judge?

You couldn't turn on an NBA game this week without at least one or two guys from each team either out with the flu or having the announcers say that many players on the team are battling flulike symptoms.

Hopefully the extended time off for the All-Star Break gives the league enough time to shake this bug, or else were going to see a lot more games where teams are playing bellmen in crunch time.

4. Trade Rumors Swirl

The NBA trade deadline is just 10 days away, and trade talks have really heated up around the league.

Steve Kerr and the rest of the Phoenix Suns front office have set the tone by basically announcing that they will be trading Amar'e Stoudemire to the highest bidder, but don't expect STAT to be the only big name dealt before the deadline.

Already rumors have swirled around former all-stars Shawn Marion, Brad Miller, Baron Davis, Allen Iverson, Rasheed Wallace, Tyson Chandler, Josh Howard, and even Shaq.

Last year, we saw teams finally shed their recent fear of blockbuster deals, and it's a copycat league, so expect to see a flurry of activity in the next week or so as teams make one last push to make the chase for the Larry O'Brien Trophy more than just a three-team race.

5. Happy 25th Anniversary, David Stern

A gambling scandal; drug problems; a vicious player vs. fan brawl; an image crisis; conspiracy theories galore; the WNBA. All of those terrible events have happened during the 25 year tenure of NBA Commissioner David Stern.

Yet, despite every controversy, David Stern manages to continually push the NBA to new heights.

The NBA is always making subtle changes to put out a better product, and the most noticeable improvement I've seen from the league this season has been the scheduling.

Make no mistake, it was no coincidence that in the week immediately following the Super Bowl Kobe and LeBron both visited the Garden, there was a Lakers/Celtics NBA Finals rematch on TNT, and the four best teams in the league were all featured on the first Sunday doubleheader of the year on ABC, culminating with Kobe vs. LeBron II as the grand finale.

The NBA is a marketing machine, and they know how to steal headlines. In the time between the Super Bowl and March Madness, the NBA is the only game in town. No one cares about hockey, and John Q. doesn't start watching college hoops until the conference tournaments at the earliest.

Instead of lying low, the NBA wisely scheduled several potentially huge headline-grabbing games, dominated the sports headlines for most of the week, and generated a big buzz going into the All-Star Game and into the second half of the season.

You don't have to like him, but you have to admit, the man knows how to run a league.

In the Rotation: H-O-R-S-E Coming to All-Star Weekend

I'm not going to pretend pitting NBA stars against one another in a game of H-O-R-S-E was my idea. In fact, it's been brought up so many times in the past that it's about impossible to say whose idea it actually was, but whatever the case, I couldn't be happier that it finally came to fruition.

The only thing left is to pick the three contestants, but based on how well the NBA has done selecting the competitors for the other events this weekend, I'm confident that whoever they chose will make for an entertaining and hopefully groundbreaking new wrinkle to NBA All-Star Weekend.

H-O-R-S-E coming to the All-Star Game, it's almost too good to be true. I don't see how the league could possibly screw this up...

Out of the Rotation: The 1997 NBA All-Star Game

The NBA All-Star Game is less than a week away and that can only mean one thing: a week full of classic NBA All-Star Games on TV. This week at any given time during the afternoon or late night, you can turn on either ESPN Classic or NBA TV and there's about a 90% chance you'll find an old-school NBA All-Star Game to watch.

This week on NBA TV, I caught the replay of the 1997 All-Star game from Cleveland. It was the All-Star Game at which they introduced the 50 Greatest Players of All-Time at halftime.

If they play it again, it's worth watching if you're into the history of the game for the halftime ceremony featuring so many legends of the game, or if watching Latrell Sprewell raise the roof after ridiculously athletic dunks is more your thing, then the '97 All-Star Game is for you.

But after watching it again this weekend, I realized something: how on earth could the NBA let Glen Rice win MVP?

As I mentioned, the NBA honored its 50 Greatest Players at halftime of the game. Michael Jordan was obviously among them.

In the game itself, Jordan achieved the first and only triple-double in All-Star game history. He had 14 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists, and 2 steals in just 26 minutes.

Even if Glen Rice did score an All-Star Game record 24 points in the second half, how could the league blow such a golden opportunity?

All season, the NBA promoted the All-Star Weekend of its 50th season to be the highlight of the celebration of the 50 Greatest Players of All-Time. The league had a chance to put an exclamation point on its 50 Greatest Players weekend by naming the Greatest of the Great, Michael Jordan, MVP of the much ballyhooed All-Star Game, and they missed the boat completely and gave the award to volume shooter Glen Rice.

Rice finished with 26 points on 10-for-24 shooting from the field. He was not named one of the 50 Greatest Players of All-Time.

Jordan was at the apex of his career, led his team to a record 72 wins the previous season and was in the midst of putting together a 69-win season, was already regarded as one of, if not the greatest of all-time, and had just achieved the only triple-double in NBA all-star history. How could David Stern allow anyone other than M.J. to be the last image from the 50 Greatest Players of All-Time weekend?

I said earlier that sometimes it takes years to realize the historical significance of a sporting event. It took 12 years, but over the weekend, I finally realized how big of a blunder this all-star moment truly was.

Inactive List: Not H-O-R-S-E, But G-E-I-C-O

I knew it was too good to be true. Just when you think the NBA has given us something we can all get behind, they go and sell it out and ruin it before it even starts.

Honestly, how much more money was the NBA able to make off Geico by having the players spell out G-E-I-C-O as opposed to having the "Geico presents the H-O-R-S-E Challenge?"

Here's an idea for you, Geico: sponsor the event, let it keep it's dignity by playing a game of H-O-R-S-E, and during commercial breaks, run a series of ads where your little European lizard miraculously beats various NBA stars in a game of "G-E-I-C-O", therefore putting your own funny little spin on a game that, if it weren't being played in a completely sold-out way, would become wildly popular.

Instead, NBA fans who just want to watch the competition and not an extended car insurance commercial are out of luck, all for the sake of a little extra M-O-N-E-Y.

Be sure to check back at Sports Central next Monday for a special All-Star Weekend recap edition of In the Rotation.