‘ ‘ ‘ There is some serious stuff going down in basketball right now. And the thing is, I’m not… ‘ ‘ ‘ There is some serious stuff going down in basketball right now. And the thing is, I’m not talking about the NCAA Tournament. In the NBA, where the heat is being jacked up with year-end races, things are getting interesting. It just might be some of the best pro basketball we’ve seen in a while. ‘ ‘ ‘ It all starts with the three-way race for the league’s MVP award. For most of the season, it’s been a bimodal discussion. Either you had Kobe Bryant, the reigning MVP, or LeBron James, who has somehow led the Cavaliers to the league’s best record. But lately a former teammate of both Kobe and Bron Bron has catapulted himself into the conversation. ‘ ‘ ‘ We always knew Dwayne Wade, who played alongside our two aforementioned superstars this past summer at the Beijing Olympics, was good. From the time he posted a triple double for Marquette in the Elite Eight against Kentucky in 2003 to his Finals MVP in 2006, Wade has been a bona fide intergalactic basketball star. But with a meager supporting cast in Miami, a team coming off a lowly 15-win season last year, it didn’t seem likely that Wade’s bunch would be much to talk about this year. ‘ ‘ ‘ Step up D-Wade, who has willed the Heat to the fifth seed in the conference and is turning in eye-popping, jaw-dropping, ‘oh no he didn’t’ games with such regularity that it’s become impossible to ignore Wade in the MVP discussion.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ This past Sunday, amid a 39-point, six-assist, four-block effort, Wade played all but one minute against the Pistons. Two of his blocks came in the last 22 seconds of the game to help seal the win. With that game, Wade also become only the fifth player in league history to have at least 2,000 points, 500 assists and 150 steals in a single season. ‘ ‘ ‘ Wade has become a utility man, doing anything and everything for his team to win. If I had an MVP vote, it’d be heading to Miami and right onto D-Wade’s mantle. ‘ ‘ ‘ Wade, though, isn’t the only one shaking things up in the Association. Down in Texas, the Houston Rockets have quietly climbed into the lead in the Southwest Division, bumping the vaunted San Antonio Spurs and claiming the second best record in the Western Conference.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ It’s no surprise the Rockets are good, but it is surprising that they’re this good and doing it without their supposed best player, Tracy McGrady, who, as per usual, is out for the season with an injury.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ T-Mac’s absence and the Rocket’s surge cements two things: McGrady is cotton candy sweet. He’s a punk, a loser and completely done-zo in the NBA as a star player. The other is that Yao Ming can lead a team. ‘ ‘ ‘ Ming isn’t the first guy to come to mind when talking vocal leader. He’s a top-three center in the league, though, and lately has been getting his teammates involved and hushing talk that the Rockets won’t be able to do serious damage without McGrady in the line up. ‘ ‘ ‘ But with the ever-growing versatility of Ming, Houston looks legit. In the waning moments of the Rockets’ game against the Spurs on Sunday, Ming popped out to the high post ‘mdash; not where you normally find him ‘mdash; and threaded a chest pass to an unguarded Luis Scola on the low block for an easy layup. Game. ‘ ‘ ‘ That’s why the Rockets are going to get out of the first round of the playoffs this year, regardless of who they play. They’ll play unselfish, hard-nosed basketball and will win with balance and depth. It’s a page right out of the book the Spurs have written over the past decade. And that yielded four championships. ‘ ‘ ‘ From Wade in Miami to the Rockets in Houston, the league is showing its range of styles. It might be the individually spectacular or the cohesive team play, but either way the NBA is coming up with its best play right when you expect it to: down the stretch and into the playoffs. ‘ ‘ ‘ So have fun with the college tourney, I know I will. But when April comes around, don’t forget those guys raking in the dough to be ballers, the ones who were good enough to play on the next level. ‘ ‘ ‘ You might witness something special.