My Los Angeles Lakers are back! Beginning on Christmas Day, the pursuit of a 17^th title will begin against the Chicago Bulls. The fact of the matter is, the NBA really lucked out. Coming off of one of its best seasons, a lockout that persisted until June would have derailed the league completely. Now that the issue is resolved and egos aren’t being hurt, the coming season looks to be even better than last year’s.

The most important part of this season’s success, aside from the level of competition, will be opening day. Over the past few years (more specifically since Shaq was traded to the Heat), Christmas Day games have become a huge part of the NBA. There are teams who play on Dec. 25 every single year, because the league knows millions of people will watch them.

This year, the NBA has outdone itself with its slate of games. Lakers vs. Bulls, Mavericks vs. Heat, Celtics vs. Knicks. Three incredible matchups played on the biggest regular season day in the NBA. What has happened these last few years to create such frenzy over these games is the understanding of Thanksgiving Day games on the NFL. The marketing experts in the NBA saw that, as the most obese people in the world, we Americans enjoy spending time with our families, sitting at home and eating food.

Football on Thanksgiving has been a lasting tradition for sports fans in our generation. When the word “Thanksgiving” comes up, we connote it with food, family and football. Now, the NBA is trying to grab hold of this idea and use it as a tool to expand.

Christmas Day games provide more grudge matches, heartbreaks and thrills than can be counted. Dating back to Kobe’s missed 3-pointer at the overtime buzzer in 2004, the Lakers have had a myriad of disappointing Christmas Day performances highlighted by the beating we received from LeBrick James these last two years. Yeah, I still haven’t gotten over that.

Despite the fact that Chad Johnson changes his name more often than the Lakers win on Christmas, I, along with every other Lakers fan I know, watch the game every single year. Perhaps it is because we follow the best franchise in sports, or maybe just because those games are always enjoyable. As people of the world who enjoy entertaining activities, Christmas Day basketball is a must watch.

The lockout could not have ended at a more perfect time. Assuming people get over their bitterness at the stupidity of the league, we are headed for a magnificent season. Ratings for the season opener should be spectacular, and most importantly, I can get back to pulling my hair out at missed Ron Artest Metta World Peace 3-pointers. Hooray!

What does this mean for the NBA, though? We all knew that this season would be spectacular when the last one ended, and we knew that World Peace would still be awful. What the lockout and the timing of this start have done, though, is create a sense of excitement for the league and the fans associated with it. I personally don’t remember ever being this excited for any NBA season.

If everything goes according to plan (Christmas Day games are exciting, the league is competitive, my hair is being ripped out at a nice pace), the NBA could be in the upper echelon of American sports. It has been trailing football, baseball and NASCAR (really, even NASCAR?) for many years, and this season could change all of that.

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