While I know it’s not as exciting as the UFC 101 fight card coming this week (picks coming later in the week), the NBA has released its schedule for the year. Things to watch out for:

October 27 – Shaq makes his Cleveland debut when the Cavaliers host Boston. Some LeBron James guy may show up, and the Celtics will be out to prove they’re not that old yet.

November 11 – Remembrance Day will be easy to remember for NBA fans: Shaq and Cleveland hit Orlando, and it’ll be interesting to see if he has anything to say about Dwight Howard or the “Master of Panic”, Stan Van Gundy, who was busy coaching the Finals while Shaq was off doing something non-basketball related.

December 25 – Five games, but all eyes will be Los Angeles when the Cavs meet the Lakers in a possible betting preview of the NBA Finals. If anyone can remember the last time that a Christmas Day game that didn’t feature either Kobe or Shaq, that would be awesome.

February 18 – Celtics/Lakers…do I even need to talk this up?

March 7 – Lakers/Magic….second meeting of the season between last year’s Finalists, and sportsbook software puts the over/under for amount of “Kobe reflects on the Finals win” segments at five, down from 37 in the first meeting of the year.

April 11 – Magic/Cavs, Trailblazers/Lakers…..good luck making sports picks on this day.