In the NBA's tightest playoff race ever, the post-season seems to have begun around the beginning of March, showing just how superior the NBA is the far lesser college tournament.

There are other issues in the NBA right now though, despite how fun the race our West has been. For example, who isn't going to the playoffs out West?

The fight for the 7th and 8th seeds is a battle between Denver, Dallas and Golden State, with Dallas beating the Warriors in a huge game last night. The loser of this triotic battle will most likely make NBA history as the best team to miss the playoffs.

Of course Portland, who is missing their number overall pick this season, was up there for awhile and still done a great job of finishing the season strong in an uber- competitive titan conference. They actaully still have the right to be upset about missing the playoffs, too. The reason being is that in the Leastern, er, Eastern conference, the 8th seed Atlanta Hawks are five games below .500, and have a four game cushion over 9th place New Jersey Nets.

We need to change the playoff system. Not only because the best teams aren't playing, but because last year's NBA finals were played in the Western Conference Finals. LeBron and co had a terrific run last year, but in all reality stood no chance against either San Antonio or the Suns.

Just take the top 16 teams and pair them one through 16. That way, Boston plays Portland, Denver, Dallas and Golden State all get to the post-season, and Atlanta keeps it's playoff drought alive. Doesn't that sound better than Washington, Toronto, Philidelphia and Atlanta playing? Isn't the purpose of the playoffs to take a title shot? None of those teams are close to contention, while those three Western "bottom dwellers" could all potentially compete for the Eastern crown.

The race to this years MVP award is over and the right winner is clear to those who know what they're talking about. Kevin Garnett got a lot of praise early, and deservedly so; with the Celtics winning their 60th last night after winning only 24 last season. But he simply isn't playing that well himself; he could be defensive player of the year, but he is not this years MVP.

Early in the season it was flat out LeBron, who, contrary to popular belief is the best player in the league. The Cavs haven't won enough games for him to win, though. But his head to head games and numbers verus Kobe Bryant have shown one thing: he's more clutch, he's a better finisher, he's more rounded and more physical. He's the Best player in the game.

But this years MVP is Chris Paul. Do you realize that the Hornets are still number one in the Western Conference? The ridiculous, playoffs-started-40-days-ago Western Conference? And he's 6'0" and doesn't have half the talent on his team that the Lakers, Suns, Jazz or Nuggets have? Do you know that he leads the league in assists and has a super low turnover rate? Or that he leads the NBA in steals? Or that he is the third most effecient player in the league, trailing only LeBron James and Amare Stoudemire?

Do you know why you don't know these things? Because you have never seen this kid play. He has been on national TV two times and chances are you didn't tune in because you hadn't heard of him. And because no one knows him, not because he's not deserving, is precicely why he can't win the MVP award this year.

The MVP is decided by the media, beat writers, most of whom follow around a specific team and will only see him 2-4 times a year. Even when their in a hotel room, they don't have league pass at the Holiday Inn, so they see only nationally televised games, which means they've seen Kobe play approximately 704 times this season. And that's why Kobe is going to be the MVP.

People will justify it, saying "Kobe's a better winner." But he's not, since he hasn't won as many games this season as Paul.

"Kobe's a better closer." While in fact he's not. Not only does Kobe have the worst end game percentage of all time, a stat deliberatley ignored by everyone, but Chris Paul has given New Orleans the NBA's best ever streak of OT games in row won, which is around 13 OT games.

"Kobe deserved it last year." While that's not true either (didn't the Kobester tank a game 7?), it wouldn't matter, because this award is for the 07/08 regular season. Last year Nash was denied his third in a row despite having better numbers, the Suns having 63 wins and outplaying Nowitzki in head to head matchups. He didn't win because Michael Jordan didn't win three in a row, and a factor outside of the 06/07 season decided it's MVP.

It is an unfortunate reality that much like last year, the actualy MVP will not be getting the award, and once again for the wrong reasons.