Ten things that I hope to see during the National Basketball Association season that just started. Feel free to pile on. 

1. I hope the Milwaukee Bucks have good health. I'm not going to wish for wins or anything. I figure that will take care of itself. But if the Bucks stay healthy they have a chance to do some serious damage in the playoffs. They're strong and very deep, which would be a benefit if injuries hit. But that depth also allows for very interesting rotations during games, rotations that can provide serious match-up problems for opponents. If the Bucks fulfill their promise they'll light a much-needed fire in this community.
2. I hope George Karl and the Denver Nuggets have a great season. Normally I wouldn't give two hoots about the Nuggets. But I know Karl and the guy has been to hell and back as he's fought cancer. He's lost a ton of weight and lost his voice but kept his sense of humor. He cracked that he's lost 20 pounds but "I don't recommend the diet I was on." Karl is one of the great coaches in NBA history and it would be very deserving for him to have a great season.
3. I am tempted to make this one all 10 of my wishes, but I hope (I mean I really hope) that the Miami Heat falls apart during the season. I hope Pat Riley ends up going bald. I hope the Three Amigos turn into the Three Enemigos. I just thing the glitz and glamour and wooing and lying and the "taking my talents to South Beach" is kind of what's wrong with all sports. These guys actually put an "I" into the word "team." I know they're all stars but I hope they find out they can't play with just one ball on the court and that they start sniping at each other and, as I said, Pat Riley goes bald. Plus, how would you like to be one of the "other guys" on the Heat. Inferiority complexes abound.
4. I hope that somebody slaps somebody else (David Stern?) upside the head over this issue of upside down headbands. Players must wear headbands provided by the league, and they have the logo of the NBA on them. Some players, relishing individuality, wear them upside down. The league has now decreed that if a player wears his upside down he can be fined. Are you kidding me?
5. I hope the NBA announces that it is putting a franchise in Athens or Slovakia or Paris or somewhere overseas. The league could do its part to help in a reduction of partisanship by helping make the NBA truly the world game. Or maybe they could establish a new franchise that would play half its games in a red state and half in a blue state. I believe in the power of basketball to fix the world.
6. I hope that TNT signs Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley to new long-term contracts. I think this is the best studio show in any sport and I never get tired of laughing and learning something during the same show. Entertainment and enlightenment together. What a concept.
7. I hope Brandon Jennings averages 15 points and double figures in assists and that Andrew Bogut averages a double-double for the season. What that gives the Bucks is a couple of near superstars and a superstar or two can, if they co-exist together, really make a team a contender.
8. I hope that Daniel Gilbert, the crazed owner of the spurned Cleveland Cavaliers gets professional help.
9. I hope Mark Cuban (fill in the blank).
10. I hope the Russian billionaire who bought the New Jersey Nets and likes to party in VIP rooms in laser-filled cocktail lounges in Moscow, Stalingrad, Leningrad and Newarkgrad, hires Charlie Sheen as his director of season ticket-holder relations.