Opening Night 2012

Here. It. Is. The 2012-2013 NBA season is underway, and it couldn't have come at a better time. With tension from the upcoming election, tragedy from Sandy and turmoil over all the holidays coming up, as usual basketball has arrived to ease the stress and give us some entertainment.

In honor of soon heading into 2013, these are the top 13 NBA-related things I'm looking forward to this year:

1.  Derrick Rose making a full recovery. I know it will take time. And once back, things may be rough for a while. But what matters is forward progress, and it seems like so far, so good.

2. Lebron James constantly reminding people of the fact that he finally has a championship ring. And no, I'm not being sarcastic. Its about damn time and although I'm sure people will soon start criticizing him for something else, at least they can shut the hell up about the lack of a title.

3. All the new and great NBA commercials. The one about fantasy basketball with Steph Curry is already killing the game.

4. Monta Ellis in general. So hes not on the Golden State Warriors anymore...whatever. I still love him, and whats more is that I now get to watch him and Brandon Jennings together. Win.

5. Ray Allen showing the league hes not finished just yet. And how lucky am I that he gets to do this while on the Miami Heat? I may not like the Boston Celtics as a team, but I've always admired Ray Ray. Enjoy that Kevin Garnett.

6. The TNT team. And no, I don't mean Reggie Miller. Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and company always make watching games that much better. I'm usually crying of laughter by the third quarter.

7. The new Los Angeles Lakers. Not necessarily because I want them to succeed, or even think they will, but because of how many great, but mostly old, players have been thrown together. Does anyone really believe that Kobe Bryant is happy that Dwight Howard is now sharing his spotlight? Or that Steve Nash wants to deal with Ron Artest's antics? Come on. There are going to be so many behind the scene issues here.

8. Carmelo Anthony. Again in general. And for no particular reason. Hes always been one of my favorite players and while I'm still not sure how great of a move going to the New York Knicks was, hes so freaking fun to watch.

9. Seeing who will say what on Twitter. So I'm a social media junkie. Sue me. You know you love reading your favorite players' Twitter feeds too.

10. How the Oklahoma City Thunder will fair without James Harden. I don't know about all of you, but I didn't see that coming at all. Nor am I happy about it. But I get it, so now its just a matter of seeing how OKC will cope.

11. Seeing the Heat win it all again. Yup. I said it.

12. Watching Taj Gibson's development. It seems like year by year, week by week, day by day, this guy gets better. And although I'm not happy at all about what the Chicago Bulls' front office did, or rather didn't do, this summer, I'm so very happy that Taj is still around.

13.  Finding out who the next "hot topic" will be. Last year it was Jeremy Lin. Who will be a headline this time around?

And there you have it. But really, I'm excited by it all. ITS GAME TIME BABY.