There is no more Michael. Scottie is a Houston Rocket. The Chicago Bulls' dynasty looks more like the Ulysses S. Grant Junior High team than a professional squad.

But the NBA is back. And we're happy about it.

Sure, the basketball players will be a little rusty and a little pudgy, but the role they play in our sporting lives is undeniable.

Now we have millionaire basketball players back to bridge gap between the millionaire football players of the fall and the millionaire baseball players of the spring, creating a year-long procession of overpaid athletes.

Most importantly, things are back to normal. The labor negotiations of the past several months have left a void in the hearts of millions of basketball fans. Now, the high-flyin,' rim-rockin' antics of such hotheads as Latrell Sprewell and Allen Iverson have returned to entertain for the next several months.

So, while the work stoppage may have alienated a few fans, the dedicated ones have been rewarded by the intensely shortened season, increasing the importance of even the most drab regular-season game like a Dallas-Denver match-up.

And even for those who have lost interest, the intensely shortened season means they will not have to suffer through 48 minutes of millionaires whining to refs and taking timeouts with eight seconds left and down by 20.

What can we say? We love this game.