NBA Stars Align in Conference Finals

The NBA Finals are where legends are born. Just ask the NBA, it's been their slogan to promote the Finals for years.

But for my money, I'll take the conference finals over the NBA Finals any day. The reason is simple: there is a basketball game of great significance every day for two straight weeks.

And when you factor in the familiarity of the two teams playing against each other, more often than not you see a higher level of basketball played in the conference finals than that NBA Finals.

The brief moment of disappointment I felt Sunday night after two anti-climatic Game 7s was replaced quickly by the anticipation of the conference finals. After giving each team a once over after the matchups were set, something dawned on me: each team left has one of the five best players in the NBA on their roster.

It's a given that Kobe Bryant and LeBron James rank one and two on the hierarchy of "best player on the planet" (although apparently not in that order if you ask Jerry West), but it's possible that Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard round out the top four in the never-ending argument of who the best players in the league are.

Charles Barkley has said on a few different occasions during these playoffs that Carmelo Anthony is the best scorer in the NBA. I immediately dismissed that statement when Sir Charles made it initially, but the more I think about it, the more I tend to agree with him.

Allow me to play devil's advocate for a moment here. For a player to be a total package as a scorer, he must be able to score in a multitude of ways. Let's say for arguments sake that there are five basic ways to score: getting to the basket, scoring in the post, scoring from mid-range, scoring from behind the three-point line, and free throw shooting.

My logic here is to rank all three players (Carmelo, Kobe, and LeBron) and assign them a point value one through three for each (three points for being the best, two points for the second best, one for the third best) of the five categories in order to get a better idea in a head-to-head-to-head scenario of who really is the best scorer of the bunch.

Here's just a quick look at where I would rank the three players in the five categories, in order:

Three-point shooting (based on % during the playoffs): Carmelo, Kobe, LeBron.

Free throw shooting (again based on playoff %): Kobe, Carmelo, LeBron.

Mid-range game: Carmelo, Kobe, LeBron.

Getting to the basket: LeBron, Kobe, Carmelo.

Scoring in the post: Carmelo, Kobe, LeBron.

Based on those rankings, Carmelo averages out to be the best scorer of the three. He would have 12 points, Kobe would have 11 points, LeBron would have 7 points.

For the record, I think even my own formula is a little flawed because all aspects are weighted equally. For example, LeBron is head and shoulders better than both players at getting to the basket, so much that that in my opinion it makes him the best offensive player in the league. But as far as all-around talent is concerned, Carmelo might have the most complete offensive game of any player in the league.

I may have gotten sidetracked for a second there, but it helps illustrate my point of just how good Carmelo Anthony is. Enough, at least, to validate my point that he is one of the top five players in the league.

Now, back to my original thought. It's very rare that this late in the playoffs that so many of the best players in the league are still alive. What makes it even more special is that each of the four remaining teams has one of the top five players. That means that in every single game during the conference finals there is the potential to see two of the best players in the NBA get into an absolute shootout with one another, with a trip to the NBA Finals on the line.

And in game one of bother series that is exactly what happened.

I wrote earlier this postseason that the show Ben Gordon and Ray Allen put on in game two of the first round was one of the best head-to-head matchups in recent NBA playoff history. Little did I know that it would be topped less than a month later by Kobe vs. 'Melo I. I called it that, because the way these two guys went at it in game one, we could be in store for several epic battles this series between Bryant and Anthony.

The thing that made the Ray Allen and Ben Gordon duel so fun to watch was that both players got crazy hot and they're both weak enough defenders that it allowed the opponent to get off.

Kobe vs. 'Melo I had a different feel to it. Both Bryant and Anthony played exceptional defense on one another in the second half, only the other was so locked in offensively that it didn't matter how good the defense was, they were scoring. It was fun to watch Allen and Gordon torch each other with little resistance, but it was even better to see Kobe and Carmelo duke it out on both ends of the floor only to have exceptional offensive talent win out time and again.

In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, it was more of the same. LeBron put on an absolute clinic shooting the ball in the first half, and would continue it into the second half as well finishing with 49 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 blocks, and 2 steals. It was dominant in every sense of the word.

Dwight Howard, not nearly the scorer that James is, but every bit as dominant when you factor in his defense, didn't disappoint on Wednesday night, either. He finished with 30 points and 13 rebounds for the Magic in their shocking one-point victory over the Cavs ... in the Q!

With both games being decided by less than a basket, it's way too early to read into things as far as the series' eventually winners are concerned. Let's see the adjustments each team makes going into game two before we start crowning conference champions.

In the meanwhile, I'm going to sit back and enjoy the next few days of NBA basketball, knowing that every night there is a great chance that I am going to see two of the best players on the planet put on a great show.

Legends may not be born until next round, but that's not going to stop me from enjoying every second of these legends-in-the-making during the conference finals.

I suggest you do the same.