Yet Chris Paul is with the Clippers

Yet Chris Paul is with the Clippers, Howard with the Lakers, and players seemingly still are getting where they want, how they want.

But if the Lakers, or other potential suitors, knew the Heat could "franchise" LeBron, would they be as quick to shove Kobe and Pau out the door? We've already seen what can happen to teams that bank on free agency and come up short, such as the Mavericks after their failed offseason bid for Deron Williams.

Just this past week DeShawn Stevenson, now of the Hawks but then of the Mavericks, said the forward-thinking approach of Mark Cuban toward 2012 free agency essentially robbed Dallas of at least getting back to the Finals against the Heat.

To his credit, Cuban wanted it all. To Dallas' detriment, it effectively, at least as Stevenson now claims, cost Dallas a season of championship contention.

In the wake of 2010 free agency, David Stern spoke of how the process drew focus to his league, created the type of offseason interest heretofore unseen in the NBA during the summer months. 

NHL players raise their stick and a skate into the air

After an impressive dunk, NBA players release primal yells. NHL players raise their stick and a skate into the air and do a one-legged jig after scoring a goal. And more than a few baseball sluggers have stood at home plate admiring their work a little longer than usual.

Tiger Woods ... you know, back when he was Tiger Woods... pumped his fist, his face contorting whenever he dropped a big putt in a major championship ... you know, back when he won major championships. Such displays were the antithesis of accepted conservative golf decorum. The old guard considered it tacky and in bad taste.

What Alburquerque did was nothing compared with the competition.

Who is Josh Reddick to stand as judge and jury in regards to respecting the game after he showed up the home-plate umpire by angrily flipping his bat after a disputed called third strike?