The Indiana Pacers have traded their most talented player, Jermaine O’Neal for Toronto Raptors T.J. Ford, Rasho Nesterovic, and the 17th overall pick in tomorrow’s draft. This is the first of possibly many trades that should take place until the end of tomorrow’s draft. This ends Jermaine O’Neal’s tumultuous era in Indiana and begins a new one for T.J. Ford.

The winner in this trade isn’t the Raptors or the Pacers, it is Jermaine O’Neal. O’Neal is easily one of the most talented players in the league and has yet to truly show it on the Pacers. He will now head over to a stronger Raptors team who made it into the playoffs last season as a 5th seed. The Raptors lack athletic size and will certainly appreciate what O’Neal can do, but the loss of a star like Ford will be difficult.

T.J. Ford has to be considered the loser in this trade. Ford will head to the Pacers where he will certainly dissapear. His talent was beginning to shine during his short time with a talented Raptors team. Indiana has no upside and Ford will find it difficult to perform as well as he did on the sharp-shooting Raptors. With Ford comes Rasho Nesterovic who cannot be enamored with the move either. His shooting improved drastically over the 07-08 season since he was surrounded by other pure shooters.

In what looks like a trade heavy draft, this may just be the first of many in the next 24 hours. The Knicks, Heat, and Mavericks all may trade their picks and move players around. Only time will tell, but this looks to be one of the biggest no matter what happens tomorrow night.

I guess when you look at this trade you can consider the Pacers to have gotten the better deal. They pick up another first round draft pick which will certainly improve their building process, and they dump a significant amount of salary in Jermaine O’Neal. They also pick up a fan friendly T.J. Ford, who with his talent can fill the stadium. If they can do well in the draft, they might have a chance to return to the form they had when Reggie Miller was around.

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You don’t tug at Superman’s cape, and you don’t ignite a fire under LeBron James. With some careless trash-talk, the Wizards have given LeBron and the Cavaliers more to win for this post season. “He’s overrated…and you can say I said that,” Deshawn Stevenson said of MVP candidate, LeBron James. First of all, Who the hell is DeShawn Stevenson? Stevenson is a nobody. LeBron showed that he’s a nobody by owning him in the first game of the playoff series, winning 93-86. In the game, LeBron scored ten times as many points as Stevenson. Stevenson put up a total of 3 points, compared to LeBron’s 30. Stevenson needs to shut his mouth very quick because already he’s been proven wrong. If you’re going to talk trash about some one, make sure they’re a worse player than you. Here are LeBron’s season stats next to DeShawn’s.

DeShawn Stevenson VS. LeBron James

PPG: 11.2 PPG: 30.0

RBP: 2.9 RPG: 7.9

APG: 3.1 APG: 7.2

SPG: 0.8 SPG: 1.8

BPG: 0.2 BPG: 1.1

FG: 38% FG: 45%

If that’s not enough to make Stevenson shutup than maybe these examples of “Jordanism” that LeBron displayed this season may. In a game against the Toronto Raptors, T.J. Ford had a few fans on the sideline who began heckling James. LeBron, noticing that they were there for his opponent Ford of the Raptors, went on a hot streak which brought the Cavs back to win. He yelled at the hecklers, “it’s your fault!!”

In yet another episode of Jordan-esque like performance, maybe more remniscant of Reggie Miller, LeBron scored 50 against the Knicks. Spike Lee was of course on the sidelines, jarring at LeBron. LeBron mouthed, “50″ to Spike, and then went on to hit a string of three-pointers which gave him a 50 point game in MSG.

Stevenson’s comments even startled Charles Barkley. Barkley went as far as saying, “I think the Washington Wizards have got to be the dumbest team in the history of civilization.” That sounds about right, even coming from Chuck.

Stevenson isn’t the only one talking for the Wizards. Even Gilbert Arenas got into it. He didn’t gave the courage to talk openly so he decided to do it in blog form. “I think everybody wants Cleveland in that first round. They’ve been a .500 team ever since they made that trade and everybody wants a chance at that matchup. We want Cleveland for our own reasons, we don’t think they can beat us in the playoffs three years straight. It’s hard to beat a team three years straight. We want to try our luck.” Arenas said in his seasonal blog he posts on the NBA website. Arenas has posted more blogs this season than he has played games. Isn’t that something? And, just remember the old saying Gilbert, be careful what you wish for. So far, LeBron has made the dream of playing the Cavaliers a nightmare.

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