Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant led Team USA to a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. (GETTY IMAGES)

USA Basketball recently announced the 20 finalists who will compete for the 12 spots on the senior men’s national team that will represent the U.S. in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Among the finalists are holdovers from the 2008 gold-medal winning team in Beijing: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Carmelo Anthony. Assuming all eight accept invitations to London, there are 12 players fighting for four spots which leaves USA Basketball president Jerry Colangelo and head coach Mike Krzyzewski the dirty task of having to cut star players without embarrassing them in public.

RELATED: USA Basketball selects the 20 finalists for the 2012 London Olympics (July-August)

Injuries will certainly play a big part of the selection process, especially with Bryant (wrist) and Wade (foot). Both have hinted they would love to play in London, but it’ll depend on how their teams finish and if their injuries will get worse should they play through the summer. Not having Kobe or Wade in the Olympics will be a huge blow to Coach K but those two were the go-to guys in Beijing. When Team USA needed a basket in the fourth quarter, Coach K called on Kobe’s number first and then Wade was a very close second. That was evident in the gold-medal game against Spain when Wade was the catalyst in the first half and Kobe closed the deal.

With or without Bryant and Wade Team USA should field a dynamite team in London and be heavy favorites to win gold again. But just like the 2008 team Colangelo and Krzyzewski can’t pick a team based on star power or All-Star game appearances. Talent alone won’t get it done in London, just ask the 2006 U.S. squad that lost to Greece in the FIBA World Championships. The 2012 Olympic squad needs to be balanced and flexible enough to adapt to any situation. The guards must be physical enough to play through a lot of contact because the international referees oftentimes will allow physical play, the forwards have to knock down 3-pointers, and the big men must be quick enough to defend the perimeter.

Here are the 12 players who should make the 2012 U.S. Olympic team:

CENTER: Dwight Howard

Comment: Because the majority of the big men in the Olympics are perimeter oriented, you really don’t need more than one true center. Dwight Howard wasn’t a huge factor four years ago in Beijing and, at times, struggled to guard the 3-point shooters. Hopefully four years of experience will help Dwight adapt to the international game.

FORWARDS: LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge, Andre Iguodala

Comment: Two years ago in Turkey, Kevin Durant showed the world what he can do in the FIBA World Championships. Now, it’s time for USA Basketball to recognize Durant as the centerpiece of the 2012 U.S. Olympic team. Durant has the perfect game to play against international competition. We know about his consistent outside shot (something LeBron and ‘Melo struggle with at times), but what the 6-foot-10 Durant presents is a mismatch at the forward position. He’s too big for small forwards and too quick for power forwards. Iguodala played well in the 2010 world championships, especially on defense. Iguodala can match up against guards or forwards, and his length and athleticism really bothered the great scorers from Europe. Love and Aldridge are better fits because they can knock down shots, which is extremely important in opening up the court for dribble penetration. Love and Aldridge can also play some center if needed, and in some instances Love or Aldridge are probably better options at center than Howard. This means the committee will have the tough choice to exclude Chris Bosh and Blake Griffin from the team. There will be a ton of pressure to add Griffin on the squad because of the excitement and hype he’ll bring to London, but it’ll depend on how many guards Coach K will carry on the roster.

GUARDS: Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, Deron Williams

Comment: It will be hard to knock off any of these guards off the team, but if Kobe or Wade decide to pass on the Olympics, then Eric Gordon should be the next man up. Gordon played well in Turkey in 2010 and he has the game and built to play against the rugged competition. One key factor to watch is how Paul and Rose will keep defenses from zoning on them. Teams will gladly give up 3-point shots to CP3 and D-Rose to take away their dribble penetration. Rose was up-and-down at the 2010 worlds because he wasn’t too confident with his jump shot, something he has aggressively worked on the past four years. Coack K also has the option of playing Williams at shooting guard with Paul or Rose at the point, and won’t rule out moving Iguodala at guard to make room for another forward if Bryant and Wade are not available.

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

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Lakers star Kobe Bryant is surrounded by reporters at the team's practice facility in El Segundo. (US PRESSWIRE)

You can’t blame Kobe Bryant for looking and feeling a little surly these days.

On the eve of training camp and the start of the 2011 free agency period, the Lakers thought they had All-Star point guard Chris Paul in a three-team deal. Just hours after the CP3 trade began circulating, commissioner David Stern nixed the trade citing the NBA-owned New Orleans Hornets were not getting enough in return.

Days after the Paul trade fell apart, the Lakers moved popular teammate Lamar Odom, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, to the defending champion Dallas Mavericks. How did Bryant react to the news? He said “I hope management knows what they’re doing!” Not exactly a ringing endorsement for general manager Mitch Kupchak and team executive Jim Buss.

Then, on Wednesday, the Clippers – the junior varsity team of Staples Center – landed the coveted Paul, and the Twitterverse started blowing up with plenty of chatter on how the Clippers have now surpassed the Lakers as the No. 1 in Los Angeles.

Two days later, on a very windy Friday afternoon in Southern California, TMZ reported that Kobe’s wife, Vanessa, filed for divorce citing “irreconcilable differences” and asked for joint custody of the couple’s two daughters. TMZ said Vanessa is ending the 10-year marriage because Kobe has been unfaithful.

Talk about a rough last 48 hours for the Black Mamba! No wonder he left Friday’s practice without speaking to the media and was extra terse with reporters on Thursday when he was asked about the CP3 deal to the crosstown rival Clippers.

Despite all the trouble in Lakerland, Kobe Bryant remains focused on the task at hand, which is to chase his sixth NBA championship ring and a 17th title to the Lakers franchise.

Bryant reportedly looks great in practice and his troublesome knee seems to be healing well. Bryant still has 7-footers Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum to lean on offensively and defensively, and he still has good friend Derek Fisher by his side when things get crazy in the locker room. Newly acquired forward Josh McRoberts is a terrific athlete who will add energy and punch off the bench, and could start on occasion should Bynum or Gasol gets hurt. And don’t think for one second that the Lakers are done wheeling and dealing. They are still in play to obtain All-Star center Dwight Howard and they are still in the market for a point guard.

There are lots of questions left to be answered for the Lakers, including how the team will function without Phil Jackson’s trusty triangle offense and how long it will take them to trust first-year head coach Mike Brown. But one thing is for certain, Kobe Bryant is still one of the best players in the league and he will never allow the Lakers to play second-fiddle to anyone, especially the Clippers.

Kobe will file all the negativity surrounding his life and use them as motivation. Don’t ever count out Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

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All-Star guard Chris Paul remains in New Orleans for now, but he'll likely be wearing a different uniform this season. (US PRESSWIRE)

LeBron James opened a new can of worms last summer with his controversial “Decision.”

Chris Paul and Dwight Howard are now following James’ villainous lead, holding their teams hostage by refusing to sign long-term deals with their current teams. Paul is on his way to the Los Angeles Clippers after the Hornets were unable to convinced him to sign an extension. The Orlando Magic are on the brink of losing Howard, who recently told Orlando management that he wants to be traded.

If these storylines look and sound familiar it’s the same predicament the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Denver Nuggets found themselves in 2010 when LeBron held the Cavaliers hostage before signing with the Miami Heat, and months later Carmelo Anthony practically followed LeBron’s lead by putting the Nuggets on pause until he found a new home with the New York Knicks.

This player power play is the very reason why NBA owners wanted to change the system. Small-market teams don’t want another LeBron or Carmelo situation in which they were left empty-handed and nothing to showcase for their fans. Teams want a headliner to fill seats. The Hornets will feel the sting of losing Paul, considered one of the top points guards in the league and a four-time NBA All-Star. Even though the Hornets got some nice pieces in the trade – Eric Gordon, Al-Farouq Aminu, Chris Kaman and a first-round pick – you don’t give up a Chris Paul and get equal value. The same goes for the Magic. Should Howard leave Orlando, how are the Magic going to satisfy their season-ticket holders at new Amway Center without the best center in the game today? These are legitimate concerns by the owners, but their hands seem to be tied because today’s stars seem determined to dictate where they want to go.

“First and foremost, we want Dwight to re-sign here,” Magic president Alex Martins said. “We’re going to continue to give him every resource, every asset that he needs and that we need to be successful. I think we’re proven that over the course of the last four years in particular, but certainly his entire time here. Only two other teams in the league have won more than we have over the last four years.”

An Orlando Magic fan shows her support for Dwight Howard during the third quarter of game five of the 2011 NBA playoffs at Amway Center. (US PRESSWIRE)

Howard publicly criticized the Magic recently for not doing enough to meet his demands. His wise list, of course, includes big-market, sexy teams like the Lakers (so he could join forces with Kobe Bryant), the Mavericks (so he could play with Dirk Nowitzki), and the Nets (so he could play with Deron Williams). The Magic went through this before with Shaquille O’Neal in 1996, and it took the franchise nearly a decade before they were able to recover from Shaq’s departure.

It’s a little baffling that current star players are hell-bent on joining other stars. It is definitely a complete turn from the 1980s and ’90s when megastars such as Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan would never dream of playing elsewhere. What ever happened to competitive ego? Twenty years ago, superstars preferred to build their own niche and won championships as the centerpiece. Now, it seems today’s stars are more than willing to share the limelight with other all-stars.

“Gone are the days when teams are built around [star players] and they end their careers there,” said former Toronto Raptors coach Sam Mitchell. “These players today are about quick gratification. They see guys moving around and they see guys having success [elsewhere]. So what you have to do is make the best deal you can. Try to make a deal, get young players , draft picks, be bad for a couple of years and suck it up.”

Paul says he wanted out of New Orleans because he didn’t think he had a chance to win a title with the Hornets. Howard’s Magic career so far has been defined by his numerous failures in the playoffs and the big man is becoming impatient with each passing season. However, not everybody can play in L.A. or New York. Someone has to play in these small markets.

Message to Dwight: Suck it up and try to win in Orlando instead of riding someone’s tail.

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President Barack Obama shows his basketball skills at a 'Let's Move' clinic with members of the NBA, WNBA and the Harlem Globetrotters. (GETTY IMAGES)

President Barack Obama has recently announced that he is launching the Obama Classic Basketball Game. The game is set to feature more than two dozen NBA players, including superstars such as Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant, New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, and Orlando Magic Center Dwight Howard.

The game, set to take place on Dec. 12 in Washington D.C., will also feature Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets, Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat, Ray Allen of the Boston Celtics, and many others. There is no word whether the game will be televised on ESPN, Direct TV, or elsewhere yet. According to the CS Monitor, tickets for the Obama Classic will price from $100 to $5,000, all of which will go towards the Obama Victory Fund, a combined fundraising effort between the Democratic Party and Obama’s re-election campaign.

The news of The Obama Classic comes in the middle of one of the most heated labor disputes in National Basketball Association history. But the lockout may be ending soon as the league and the players have tentatively reached a new collective bargaining agreement. There is much paperwork needed to be done, but Commissioner David Stern expects both sides to agree to the deal and open training camp on Dec. 9.

Two weeks ago, the NBPA and the hardline NBA owners couldn’t seem to agree on a new labor deal, which forced the players to unanimously dissolve their union and restructure it into a Trade Association.

Doing so set the stage for the two antitrust lawsuits that have been filed against the owners of the NBA in the name of the players. The two lawsuits, which had been filed in the Northern District of California and in Minnesota. However, attorney David Boies, who had been hired to represent the players, recently decided to consolidate the two lawsuits into one, which will be heard in Minnesota.

The listed plaintiffs for the newly consolidated case includes Chauncey Billups, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Rajon Rondo, Steve, Nash, Baron Davis, and others. The owners have yet to officially respond to the lawsuit, though David Stern did hold a conference call with each of the owners, and also described the lawsuit as a waste of time. However, Boies stated at the time that after giving concession after concession, the players had no other choice.

– Home page photo courtesy of US Presswire

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Kevin Durant wears the Goodman League All-Stars jersey during a game in August at Morgan State University. (GETTY IMAGES)

Kevin Durant has been one busy dude this summer and fall. He has been involved in seemingly every exhibition game since the NBA lockout started on July 1, showing up in player-organized events in Baltimore, Miami, New York’s Rucker Park, Long Beach and Philadelphia.

The beat goes on for the Oklahoma City Thunder all-star and Washington, D.C., native as he hosted his own star-studded pickup game Sunday night at Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City. Durant didn’t disappoint the announced crowd of 13,000 as he scored 42 points, grabbed 26 rebounds and had 10 assists to lead his White Team to a 176-171 overtime victory.

Durant’s triple-double overshadowed a scorching performance from Minnesota Timberwolves forward Michael Beasley, who lit up Cox Center with 56 points. But in the end of a long shootout, Durant got plenty of help from LeBron James (40 points) and Russell Westbrook (34) to pull out the win. The Blue Team was led by New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony, who had 43 points and seven rebounds, and Oklahoma City’s James Harden, who is playing with a ton of confidence. Check out his alley-oop dunk off a bounce pass from New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul.

The White Team also included Portland Trail Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge, Boston Celtics forward and ex-Thunder Jeff Green and Atlanta Hawks guard Jamal Crawford. Aside from Anthony, Beasley, Paul and Harden, the Blue Team featured  Hawks guard Damien Wilkins and Houston Rockets guard Jonny Flynn.

There were several no-shows, including Golden State Warriors guard Monta Ellis and Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire. Memphis Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay showed up late and sat on the bench much of the game. Gay said his flight was delayed.

The game was a carbon copy of the other exhibition games during the summer: lots of threes, lots of one-on-one, and very little defense. There were a few highlights, such as Westbrook’s breakaway dunks and follow-ups, but for the most part the game resembled a Rookie Game All-Star contest. Maybe the players need to include Hollywood celebrities to spice things up.

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With the absence of a new NBA collective bargaining agreement – and neither side isn’t budging at this point – basketball fans are stuck with glorified scrimmages organized by the league’s superstars.

The latest installment of this very expensive pickup game is Saturday night’s exhibition game in Miami featuring a team led by LeBron James against a squad headed by Heat teammate Dwyane Wade.

Team LeBron has some serious star power on its roster. Scheduled to play with LeBron are Heat forward Chris Bosh, Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo, Atlanta Hawks guard Jamal Crawford, Memphis Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay, Houston Rockets guard Jonny Flynn, Philadelphia Sixers guard Lou Williams, guard Damon Jones (LeBron’s former teammate with the Cleveland Cavaliers), Cavs rookie forward Tristan Thompson, and Oklahoma City Thunder stars Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. It’s interesting that LeBron picked up Durant on his squad because the last high-profile exhibition game had James going head-to-head with Durant, who has been on a tear this summer.

Team Wade features Heat guard Mario Chalmers, Dallas Mavericks forward and D-Wade’s good friend Caron Butler, Wade’s former Heat teammate and current Golden State Warriors forward Dorell Wright, New York Knicks stars Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul, Washington Wizards guard John Wall, and Thunder guard James Harden.

In the end, Team Wade outlasted Team LeBron, 141-140, in overtime. It was a typical offseason exhibition game. Lots of dunks, lots of alley-oops, lots of breakaways, lots of one-on-one, and very little defense. Somewhere in New York, David Stern is chuckling.

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Chris Paul scored 27 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and dished out 15 assists in leading the Hornets to a victory in Game 4 against the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the 2011 Western Conference playoffs. (GETTY IMAGES)

Chris Paul is having fun again, and that’s bad news for the rest of the league.

After two injury-plagued seasons, the Hornets superstar point guard is back in the mix in terms of BPG (best point guards), and he’s proving all those naysayers wrong for doubting he’d ever return to his old form.

Chris Paul is still the best point guard in the NBA, despite all what you’re hearing from the experts who have fallen in love with Derrick Rose. Nothing against Rose, who deserves to be the 2010-11 NBA MVP, but he’s more of a lead guard than a true facilitator. Rose is more dangerous when he’s scoring. Paul is more dangerous when he’s setting up his teammates, which is a true definition of a point guard.

“Chris Paul . . .  that was one of the better performances that I have ever seen in the playoffs,” said Hornets first-year coach Monty Williams after Paul’s triple-double against the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. “A lot of guys have performances where they score. He scored, he dished it out, he rebounded; he made tough, tenacious plays. A lot of times when that ball goes up and the rebound is a 50-50 ball and you see a 6-foot guy go up and get it just describes his heart. He makes me look better as a coach.”

Williams added, “Chris doesn’t have to score to control the game. He can pick his spots.”

The most impressive part of Paul’s triple-double against the Lakers was his 13 rebounds. The points (27) and the assists (15) can easily be attained, but grabbing 13 rebounds by a 6-foot guard (and that’s probably pushing it) is just mind-boggling.

“When you get to the playoffs, no one feels sorry for you,” Paul told reporters during his postgame press conference after Game 4. “They don’t care what’s wrong with your ankle, what’s wrong with your knee or anything like that. This is where players are made. I just looked at it as a great opportunity, for us as a team, to forget about the [regular] season and try to seize the moment.”

He added, “I play with a chip on the shoulder day in and day out. I’m not trying to make a statement. There’s nothing that I’m trying to do new or anything like that. I’m just being me.”

Paul’s relentless pursuit of the ball is a microcosm of how the Hornets were able to extend the two-time defending champions to six games. Even though the Hornets lost the series, Paul embraces being relevant again. “I’m just so thankful. This is my way of life. They pay me to do this,” Paul said. “I’m just happy I get to hoop.”

Spoken like a guy who truly loves the game and loves his job.

When healthy, nobody in the league can do what Paul does. Offensively, he runs the offense, he sets up shots for his teammates, he destroys a defense with his dribble penetration and when all else fails he has found his shooting stroke, which had been missing for most of the season. Defensively, Paul is a pest. He gets through screens and has extremely quick, strong hands, which allows him to disrupt a team’s offense.

“I just try to impact the game, whether its rebound or defending or getting those guys open shots. Just trying to be a point guard,” said Paul.

Paul will be a free agent at the end of the 2012 season, so there’s a 50-50 chance he’ll leave New Orleans. If he stays, the Hornets will remain a contender. If he leaves, basketball in New Orleans will become a ghost town.

Joel Huerto is the publisher and editor of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow hi on Twitter: twitter.com/onemanfastbreak.

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Chris Paul is averaging 18.7 points, 10.2 assists and 6.0 rebounds through six games, leading the Hornets to a 6-0 start. (GETTY IMAGES)

NBA TV is currently airing a show titled “24 Hours with …. Chris Paul.” It shows a very revealing look at the life of an NBA star, from the time he leaves his home to attend practice, to his game preparation and then back home again to recharge and deal with family life.

If you haven’t seen it, I suggest watching it because it provides a very personal look at the best point guard in the NBA. Yes, the BEST point guard in the NBA. He’s back! Just like the song, “Y’all must have forgot,” we all seem to have forgotten CP3.

Last year, he missed most of last season with an injury and a lot of pundits elevated guys such as Deron Williams, Rajon Rondo and Derrick Rose to the top of the point guard competition.

Well, the king is back and he wants his crown back.

D-Will is nice, but he doesn’t have CP3′s ball-handling and passing skills. Rondo is an amazing passer, but he can’t score like Paul can. And D-Rose may be the quickest PG in the NBA, but he still has a long ways to go in terms of managing a game and running an offense.

Chris Paul is the most complete point guard in the league, and if there were any questions regarding his status as the top guard he has certainly answered the call with the way he has played during the first two weeks of the 2010-11 season.

Paul has the Hornets buzzing again, sitting atop the Southwest Division at 6-0. The Hornets are one of three undefeated teams in the Association and one of their wins came against Eastern Conference power Miami. Against the Heat, Paul had 13 points and 19 assists and powered the Hornets to a 96-93 victory at home. It was New Orleans’ signature victory of the young season, and the team owes it all to its perennial All-NBA performer.

“We just got to keep playing, man. I’m not surprised just because we’re all professionals,” Paul told the Associated Press. “It doesn’t matter what it looks like on paper, you just have to go out and play the game and that’s what we’re doing.”

The Hornets are off to the best start in their history, but it depends on how this season ends that could decide what Paul will do in the offseason. He will become a free agent after this season and the Hornets are caught in a LeBron-like situation. They could very well lose Paul without any compensation (sound familiar), which would likely end basketball in New Orleans.

Paul said publicly during the offseason that he wants to play for a championship and he’s getting a little frustrated with the direction of the franchise. Then he saw his good friend LeBron James jump ship and join forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, so that got his blood boiling even more.

That was before Paul met with Monty Williams, a young and bright assistant coach who was hired last summer to be the head man of the Hornets. Williams has convinced Paul that things will be different, and so far he has delivered on his promise.

The Hornets are playing with more energy and their defense has been superb. Also, offensively, Emeka Okafor and David West have benefited greatly from Paul’s return and the addition of Trevor Ariza has given the team a versatile player who can score and defend at the wing position.

“It’s nice to be part of a group who plays hard every night. Different guys are stepping up. The start is great, but we are going to win a lot of games if we play defense like that,” said Williams, who worked as Nate McMillan’s assistant coach from 2005-10 so he knows a thing or two about playing defense. He also played for Gregg Popovich so he puts a premium on stability and organization.

Seems as though Paul has bought into Williams’ philosophies and things are looking up. Their relationship will ultimately determine whether the New Orleans Hornets will be a perennial playoff team or a franchise that could be contracted.

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The 2010-11 NBA season is under way and the league’s elite players and powerhouse teams are monopolizing the headlines. Also, point guards are off to fast starts: Rajon Rondo established a new mark in most assists through the first five games, and Derrick Rose at one point was leading the league in scoring, Chris Paul has put the New Orleans Hornets back in contention (for now) and rookie John Wall is the real deal.

Some observations through the first two weeks of the season:

– Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo has 82 assists through five games and leads the league with a mind-boggling 16.4 average. He also recorded a triple-double on Oct. 29 against the Knicks: 10 points, 10 rebounds and 24 assists. He followed that up with 17 assists against the Pistons and 15 against the Bucks.

– Chris Paul reminded basketball fans that he is healthy and ready to reclaim his crown as the best PG in the Association. The Hornets All-Star guard led his team to a perfect 5-0 mark and averaged 21.2 points and nine assists. If this is going to be his final year in New Orleans, CP3 is certainly going out in style.

– The league appears to be armed with outstanding point guards and should be for years to come. Just check out these young studs: CP3, Deron Williams, Rondo, D-Rose, Russell Westbrook, Brandon Jennings, Steph Curry and John Wall.

– Speaking of John Wall, the rookie race will come down to the Wizards’ guard and the Clippers’ Blake Griffin. The lightning-quick Wall has taken a slight edge over the power forward Griffin with outstanding performances against the Hawks (28 points and nine assists) and the Sixers (29 points, 13 assists and nine steals).

– What knee injury? Kobe Bryant posted a triple-double, including 12 assists, against the Sacramento Kings on the tail end of a back-to-back set for the defending world champs. The Lakers are already in midseason form, sitting at 5-0 and leading the Western Conference. Pau Gasol was named Western Conference Player of the Week and Lamar Odom has picked up where he left off since the FIBA World Championships in August.

– After an embarrassing loss to the Celtics on opening night, the Three Kings of Miami seem to have found their form and have rattled off four impressive victories. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade have taken turns in leading the new-look Heat in scoring, and the defense has been stifling. Once Chris Bosh figures out where he can pick up his points, the Heat will be scary good.

– As good as the Heat has been, the top spot in the Eastern Conference belongs to the Atlanta Hawks. First-year head coach Larry Drew has tweaked the offense to highlight the team’s speed and quickness rather than run those low-percentage isolation plays during the Mike Woodson era. Josh Smith has 20 blocks in five games.

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All-Star point guard Chris Paul should reconsider his trade demands and try to bring a championship to New Orleans. (GETTY IMAGES)

There are now several published reports that point guard Chris Paul wants out of New Orleans and lists the Orlando Magic as his No. destination.

This has LeBron James’ fingerprints all over this sudden trade demand from the NBA’s best point guard. James and Paul are very good friends. In fact, the week of LeBron’s “Decision” Paul was at his basketball camp in Akron, Ohio. James probably told Paul what his intentions were and planted the seed on this whole “super team” idea.

Paul dropped hints last month during Carmelo Anthony’s wedding that he would love to play with other superstars. He mentioned playing in New York with Amare Stoudemire and possibly Anthony (if he decides to leave Denver), and he also mentioned Dallas, Portland and Orlando. 

Forming super teams are becoming the latest trend in the NBA, much like the headbands and arm sleeves. What every happened to being an original instead of a copycat? Michael Jordan certainly disagreed with LeBron’s decision to leave Cleveland to be with two other All-Stars in South Beach. Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley couldn’t understand why a reigning MVP would smudge his star like that and hop on someone else’s bandwagon. That was complete foreign to super studs in the 1980s.

With James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh joining forces in Miami, Paul looked at his own situation in New Orleans and got star envy. I guess David West and Emeka Okafor won’t suffice at this point.

That’s where the Orlando Magic comes in. Paul sees Dwight Howard and his mouth begins to salivate just thinking about all those alley-oop passes he can serve up to Blankman. But Orlando already has a point guard, Jameer Nelson, and he just happens to be Blankman’s best friend. Would Blankman toss his good friend under the bus so he could team up with a better PG? Not likely to happen.

The second team on Paul’s wish list is the New York Knicks. Again, Paul would love to run pick-and-rolls all day with Stoudemire, but at some point you have to play defense which is something head coach Mike D’Antoni doesn’t have in his playbook. If D’Antoni, hypothetically, had 100 pages on his playbook, 99 of them would be devoted to offense.

Even if the Knicks somehow convince Paul and Anthony to come to the Big Apple it still wouldn’t guarantee the Knicks a spot in the NBA Finals. Championships are not built overnight (unless you’re the Boston Celtics in 2008, which is somewhat of an anomaly).

Which leads us back to New Orleans.

Paul, who has two years left on his Hornets deal, has been the face of the New Orleans Hornets the day he was drafted into the league. He’s more than just a starting point guard to the people of New Orleans. He’s the ray of hope that lifts spirits of a ravaged community that is still recovering from a devastating hurricane. Losing CP3 would be like losing the Superdome or the French Quarters on Bourbon Street. It would pretty much signal the end of basketball in New Orleans.

The Hornets brass, which includes GM Dell Demps and head head coach Monty Williams, are scheduled to meet with Paul and convince their superstar that the team is doing everything they can to piece together a contender. If the talk goes well, Paul will likely stay in New Orleans. If not, the Hornets better have a Plan B.

I’m hoping CP3 would come to his senses and think better of leaving the franchise that worships him. Bringing a championship to New Orleans would easily trump three or four titles with the Magic.

Paul should call Drew Brees and ask him how great it feels to lift a downtrodden football team all the way to the Super Bowl. Brees won’t have to win another championship in his lifetime. Bringing ONE championship to New Orleans is worth a thousand mardi gras.

Memo to CP3: Stop listening to LBJ.

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