The Best. The Worst. The Most. The Least. Please remember that you read each of these predictions for the upcoming NBA season here first ? unless they turn out to be gruesomely incorrect, in which case you read them someplace else, spray-painted like uniformed graffiti on some random cyberspace cinder-block wall in a grungy alley somewhere. ...
     Most Valuable Player Shaquille O?Neal is truly in a class by himself. You really get the feeling that the only reason people vote for anyone else, including last year?s winner, Philly?s Allen Iverson, is because choosing Shaq is so ? obvious. Any conversation about the best this or the best that in the NBA starts and ends with Shaq ? and that includes conversations with NBA people themselves, who say things like, ?Well, of course Shaq is first. ??? and, ?Well, not counting Shaq. ??? Not even Michael Jordan is in competition for title of The Best Player. He and the rest of the world compete for The Second Best Player honors.