What do we think will happen in 2011? Ha! We’re glad you asked. As part of our 2010 Year End Sports Review, we see good things ahead for Duke, the Celtics and the Saints. We see cursed days ahead for the Phillies and Giants, and one Florida Gator-sized reunion in Denver. We also like Carmelo to play for the…hey, why are we telling you all this? Read for yourself below, lazy. (And have an open mind – we had some fun with this section.)

Contributors: Anthony Stalter, John Paulsen, Paul Costanzo, Drew Ellis and Mike Farley

You think he’s gone? He’s not gone. He’s never gone!

Brett Favre has duped us before with his retirement talk, so why should we buy what he’s selling now? Lord Favre says 2010 will be his final season, but after spending a couple of months on his ranch next summer, he’ll get the itch to return. And some team will welcome him back. And the media will torture us with their 24-hour Favre watch. And the dreaded cycle of death will continue. So which lucky team will have No. 4 in uniform next season? While we wouldn’t rule out the possibility of Favre returning to the Vikings for one more year now that Brad Childress is gone, that’s not a very fun projection. Thus, what about Da Raaaaaaaiders? Huh? Can you see it now? Lord Favre and Al Davis at the podium holding up their pointer fingers and saying, “Just win baby.” No? Ah, you’re no fun.

Carmelo will be a Knickerbocker next year.

Book ‘em, Danno. The writing is on the wall. He hasn’t signed the three-year extension that the Nuggets offered last summer and has reportedly decided that the only team he’ll agree to be traded to is the New York Knicks. This means that if the Nuggets are hoping to get something substantial for him, they’ll have to move him before the February trade deadline. Since there appears to be only one team in the running, the deal isn’t going to be very good. We wouldn’t want to be Nugget fans right now — the rebuilding process is about to begin.
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Via ESPN Chicago…

Scottie Pippen, during Hall of Fame festivities Friday morning, took exception to a prediction Van Gundy made to the Miami Herald that the Heat will break the mark the Bulls set in the 1995-96 season.

“Those guys’ biggest goal is to win a championship and not try to win 72 games,” Pippen told reporters. “But if Jeff Van Gundy wants to take a bet, I would bet him that they won’t break it.”

“I think that Boston is still the best team in the East. Miami has to prove themselves.”

Steve Kerr said something funny on Bill Simmons’ B.S. Report the other day about turning into the Mercury Morris of the ’96 Bulls:

I’m gonna put the champagne on ice and Jud Buechler, Bill Wennington and I are going to get together when they lose their 11th game.

He wasn’t serious, but the thought of the three of them celebrating the Heat’s 11th loss with champagne is funny as hell.

The Miami Herald spoke with Jeff Van Gundy, who is…um…very optimistic about the Heat’s chances this season.

“They will break the single-season win record [of 72],” Jeff Van Gundy said. “And I think they have a legit shot at the Lakers’ 33-game [winning] streak [in 1971-72], as well. And only the Lakers have even a remote shot at beating them in a playoff series. They will never lose two games in a row this year.

“They have put together a much better roster than anybody could ever have expected,” Van Gundy added. “There is now no good way to defend them. They are unguardable. They are indefensible. They are just too good and have added so much shooting and are so versatile that they will score at will.

I’m not quite that optimistic. The Heat will have a few kinks to work out, and will have a bull’s eye on their backs for the entire season. I don’t think they’ll break the Bulls’ record 72 wins, but they should definitely finish with 60-plus.

They may very well win a title next year, but I don’t think they’ll be a juggernaut until the 2011-12 season when the kinks are worked out, the newness fades and they can add one or two cheaper veteran players.

The Big Lead says ESPN’s coverage was unimpressive.

We’ll get into some detail below, but here are our main gripes with ESPN’s 2010 NBA draft coverage: 1) College players are being drafted, so why are NBA analysts the ones doing most of the talking?; 2) Far too much LeBron/free agency talk (a smattering was inevitable, but it was relentless; food for thought – Does the NBA need to consider pushing up free agency or pushing back the draft?); 3) there was zero energy from the ESPN talking heads. Maybe it was just a dull, predictable draft, or perhaps the flurry of trades killed whatever flow the draft could have had. But in a word, last night was dull. Was there even one distinguishable moment?

There are two separate issues here: 1) the predictability of the draft, especially the early picks, and 2) the quality of the coverage.

The first part of the draft was a snoozer, and that pretty much made the whole night a snoozer. Chad Ford nailed the top 8 picks, and there were no trades, so there were no surprises. After the marquee names are off the board, the draft became a grind, and that’s not really ESPN’s fault.

I thought Van Gundy was funny when given the opportunity and did a decent job adding levity to a night that needed it. Like TBL goes on to say, Jay Bilas needs a foil, someone to argue picks with, so ESPN should bring in another college scout type to play McShay to his Kiper. One NBA guy (JVG) is enough. He can put the pick into perspective and discuss the free agency rumors that are bouncing around.

- Ever wonder what’s going on with those bags under Jeff Van Gundy’s eyes. The fine folks at COLLEGE HUMOR did, and they made a video about it.

- INSIDE HOOPS reports that the Kings have hired Paul Westphal after a failed courtship with Kurt Rambis.

- SPORTSbyBROOKS has photos of Bob Huggins with two black eyes. WTF?

- DEADSPIN quotes from UCLA QB Chris Forcier’s press release in which he announces that he is transferring to Furman. Fact: It’s pretty weird for a press release.

- AWFUL ANNOUNCING says that Jeff Van Gundy is making it no secret that he’s rooting for the Magic in the Finals.

- SPORTSbyBROOKS has the lowdown on the three Texas high school cheerleaders who decided to pull a prank on one of their classmates by crapping in a sock and then smearing it in the victim’s locker. Man, high schoolers are really turning up the notch on pranks these days. I remember when knocking books out of the hands of unsuspecting schoolmates while they were walking down the hall was considered cruel. Now we’ve got kids crapping in socks and smearing it lockers…yikes.

- THE LOVE OF SPORTS compiles a list of five athletes they’d like to share a meal with and details how the conversation would play out.

- In wake of Cardinals’ shortstop Kahlil Greene being placed on the DL with “social anxiety disorder”, (the third major leaguer to miss time with this complaint) DEADSPIN tries to get to the bottom of what is wrong with our fragile baseball players.

- YARDBARKER details 100 things that NBA commissioner David Stern would enjoy more than a LeBron-less Finals.

Jeff Van Gundy says that he isn’t going to return to coaching for the foreseeable future.

“Without question, I miss coaching,” Van Gundy said. “I miss the competitiveness, the camaraderie there is no doubt about that. With that being said. I’m just happier with what I am doing.”

He wasn’t afraid to criticize a couple of players in the same interview.

Van Gundy was mostly complimentary of the Knicks’ new regime during an interview for Friday’s NYP TV Sports, but did criticize a couple of players who are weighing down the team’s future.

“Where as Isiah Thomas believed in the post offense, Mike D’Antoni has a much different style, obviously and has little use for [Eddy] Curry,” Van Gundy, who turned 47 yesterday, said.

“Here you have a guy that has a bad heart and a big contract and he would be very hard to move to another team, whose plan he would fit into. And Jerome James Jerome James , I don’t know whose plan he would fit into. And they also drag down your work ethic. You have guys that are out of shape it’s a drag on your team. Because what’s that saying to the other players is that they don’t care as much about the team.”

Van Gundy has developed into one of the top color commentators in all of basketball. I don’t have much use for Mark Jackson, but Van Gundy is knowledgeable and self-deprecating, and along with Mike Breen, the trio makes for good announcing. Van Gundy and Jackson tease each other and argue about hoops, while Breen plays the straight guy. It works.

That said, I’d like to see what Van Gundy could do with a few of the teams on the cusp of success. His brother, Stan Van Gundy, is the frontrunner for Coach of the Year honors with what he’s doing in Orlando, and I think Jeff would have similar success.