Shaquille O’Neal’s star is on the wane. The Big Cactus is 35 years old and coming off his worst season since joining the league in 1992. His arrival in Phoenix wasn’t enough to get the Suns past their archrivals from San Antonio. Maybe Shaq should pack it in.

Except, why would he? O’Neal may be ancient in NBA terms, but he’s still a better than average center. His 17.17 Player Efficiency Rating was right up there with Tyson Chandler (17.56 PER). O’Neal’s production should drop a fair amount next year at age 36, but David Robinson was still good for 14.9 points and 10.1 rebounds per game at that age.

O’Neal also has the chance to win a title with the Suns, presumably with a new coach who can sympathize with Steve Kerr’s makeover. And there are 40 million other reasons to stay that Shaq has coming over the next two years.

It’s beginning to look a lot like 2008. After careful consideration and consulting the oracle, I’ve decided these will be the 10 best sports wagers (both teams and single events) in the New Year.

Indianapolis Colts (9-2) to win the Super Bowl: Fading the Pats is fashionable.

San Antonio Spurs (3-1) to win NBA title: Fading the Celtics will be, too.

Toronto Raptors: Still ignored and undervalued against the spread.

Drake Bulldogs, NCAAB: Already 7-0 ATS and far better than expected.

Chelsea (6-1) to win English Premiership: Just six points back of Arsenal.

Germany (8-13) to win Euro 2008 Group B: Croatia is their best opponent.

Rafael Nadal (6-1) to win Australian Open: Will pass Federer soon.

Ottawa Senators (2-1) to win Eastern Conference: Great team, shaky conference.

Phil Mickelson (10-1) to win 2008 U.S. Masters: Great odds for 2004, 2006 champ.

Frank Mir (+145) over Brock Lesnar at UFC 81: Classic anti-public pick.

As expected, the Mitchell Report has turned Major League Baseball on its ear. Dozens of players have been implicated in steroid use, from big-league sluggers to journeyman scrubs.

With tongue planted firmly in cheek, we humbly suggest these four athletes, if they haven’t done so already, join the parade and grab a bottle of “Vitamin B-12.”

Brandan Wright, Golden State Warriors: Generously listed at 6-foot-9 and 205 pounds. Needs significantly more bulk to play the post in the NBA.

Martin Biron, Philadelphia Flyers: Those rules limiting the size of goalie equipment aren’t helping this 6-foot-3, 163-pound beanpole.

Garrett Wolfe, Chicago Bears: Get this man some HGH. Listed at 5-foot-7 and 186 pounds, the rookie RB has had trouble staying healthy on the football field – go figure.

Randy Johnson, Arizona Diamondbacks: If you want to extend your career another few years, think Roger Clemens. Plus, imagine the fastball you could throw at 6-foot-10 and bigger than your current 231 pounds.

Greater Boston is the 11th biggest metro area in the United States. But their fan base for sports covers roughly the entire galaxy. The Boston Celtics, freshly loaded with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, are favored at 5-2 to win the Eastern Conference and play in the NBA Finals.

The Detroit Pistons are next at 7-2, followed by Chicago, Cleveland and Miami at 9-2. These odds are just begging to be exploited. The Heat might be a playoff bubble team – a year older, and without Eddie Jones to help save them like he did last year. The Bulls, meanwhile, appear to be on the cusp of Eastern greatness, and the Pistons are at least a proven commodity.

Nobody can say for sure what the new-look Celtics are going to accomplish. They certainly have plenty of star power, but that bench? Somebody call Greg Kite and see if he’s busy this year.

What do they pay Mike Brown to do?

If you’re a Cleveland Cavaliers supporter, and it looks like many of you are, that’s the question on your mind after Game 1 of the NBA Finals. The Cavs kept pace with the San Antonio Spurs for most of the first half, going into the dressing room down 40-35. Cleveland’s best play during that half, as it has been during the past couple of weeks, was when Daniel Gibson was on the floor. Boobiemania is sweeping the nation.

And then Brown started Larry Hughes in the second half. It’s bad enough that Hughes is still in the starting rotation at point guard now that he’s playing with an injured foot. Some veterans get that kind of respect from their coaches. And some rookies sit even though they’ve already proven themselves the better player – at least, better for this team at this time. Cleveland was down 58-47 by the time Gibson came in with 3:20 left in the third.

If you saw the game, you could tell how ineffective Hughes was. Even if you didn’t, the numbers don’t lie: Gibson had 16 points in 28 minutes on 7-for-9 shooting, including a pair of threes, and was a plus-4 on the night. Hughes hobbled his way to a single bucket in five attempts over 23 minutes and was a team-worst minus-18. And did we mention Gibson’s defense? He had four steals and did a commendable job guarding the perimeter.

The Spurs cruised to an 85-76 win, although they did rely heavily on their Big Three for scoring. Everyone on the Spurs not named Tim Duncan, Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili shot a combined 7-for-23. That’s not going to be enough, provided Brown does the right thing in Game 2 and shows us some Boobie. Keep your eyes glued to this one.

NBA Finals odds

When exactly did Ringling Bros. buy the NBA?

This is really getting on my nerves, Mr. Stern. Your product has taken self-promotion to a level usually reserved for pro wrestling. I don’t mean the basketball itself – that stuff is as great to watch as it always was.

I mean the incredibly off-base corporate sheen your marketing gurus slap on the sport. Public address announcers have become public address cheerleaders, squeezing every decibel and dollar out of the fans. I’m surprised you didn’t get Kenny G to write your TV theme music. Even the interviews look fake.

Seriously. The NBA recently posted a series of 10 advertisements – I mean, entertaining and educational video clips – on its website, purporting to examine the star player’s passionate state of mind during the playoffs. The videos are shot with the player facing directly at the camera (stealing a page from the NFL), so that you can look into their passionate eyes and gaze into their passionate souls.

Ah yes, the Passion of Tim Duncan. You can just see the fire in his eyes during his interviews, can’t you? Or how about Mr. Playoffs himself, Tracy McGrady, telling us how he will celebrate when he hits the winning shot in Game 7? One of these years, T-Mac, one of these years. And since when is Damon Jones a star? Inside the playoff mind of Damon Jones, there is a man who used to wonder why the coach wouldn’t put him in.

Passion is indeed an integral part of playing basketball at its highest level. But star players aren’t always as good at communicating that passion. LeBron James has that skill; when King James talks about the importance of the playoffs, he looks like he’s ready to jump right out of the TV studio and take the ball to the hole. That’s the kind of personality the betting public appreciates and supports.

Meanwhile, more stoic players like Mehmet Okur go underrated and undervalued. The public might wonder if these Euros even care about basketball, but a sharp eye can see whether someone is motivated to perform, even if that player isn’t throwing his headband or howling at the moon like a P.A. announcer.

Odds to win the 2007 NBA Championship, NBA basketball odds are here!

If this week’s NBA Draft Lottery taught us anything, it’s that the team favored doesn’t always come out on top. Of course, the Dallas Mavericks basically taught us the same lesson a few weeks ago. That being said, here are the teams with the best odds to take home the NBA title.

The odds on favorite to win the NBA Championship on everyone’s list has to be the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs received some big help from Golden State when they knocked off Dallas and the Spurs were able to handle their other biggest competition, the Suns, in six games. In their first two games against the Jazz the Spurs have romped. The Spurs should easily be able post another pair of wins against Utah and will be better than any team coming out of the East, because, well, it’s the East.

If Tim Duncan was as healthy and productive last year as he has been during the Spurs’ current playoff run, San Antonio likely would have met up with – and defeated – Miami in last year’s NBA Finals. The odds on the Spurs taking home the title are a strong 1/3. Odds don’t get much lower than that when you’re talking major championships.

After the Spurs, the odds shoot upward considerably. When you’re starting with odds less than 1/1 you have nowhere to go but up. The Pistons have made it to the NBA Finals in two of the last three years, and after handling Cleveland in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, three out of four looks promising. The Pistons are contenders because they boast so many different scoring options and they can also play stifling defense. Another big plus for the Pistons is they play in the East. Sorry to any East fans out there, but take any team from the East and plant them in the West and they’ll have a tougher time. Odds on the Pistons wearing another championship crown sit at 9/5 right now.

If you looking for the long shots in the NBA Championship race there are two horses to choose from: Cleveland and Utah. The Cavaliers at least have a legitimate shot, according to the oddsmakers at Bodog, who have given them odds of 15/1 right now. The Jazz seem to be done already, and are currently tagged as a 25/1 dog.

Get your NBA basketball odds at the Bodog Sportsbook!

I’ve seen better rivalries at pee-wee hockey games.

The television gods did their best to hype the Detroit Pistons-Chicago Bulls series. They trotted out the old footage of Michael Jordan and Bill Laimbeer and Isiah Thomas as proof of a long-standing feud between the two clubs. Yeah, right. Comparing those years to today is like comparing apples to road apples.

If you really want to link the Bulls-Pistons battles of the past to the 2007 playoffs, the Eastern Conference final is where you start. LeBron James is playing the role of Michael Jordan. He’s the preternaturally gifted swingman who is doing his best to lift a moribund franchise out of its doldrums. Eventually, if the script goes according to plan, he will be surrounded by the teammates he needs to reach the top of the mountain.

We’ve barely even cleared base camp yet. The Pistons are the established class of the conference, as they were during the “Bad Boys” years in the late 1980s. It took Jordan’s Bulls four kicks at the can before they finally eclipsed Detroit and won the title in 1991. It’s difficult to imagine the Cavs pulling it off in just their second attempt.

Mind you, they almost did it in their first attempt, extending the Pistons to seven games in last year’s Eastern semis. But that was a Detroit team in flux. Flip Saunders was in his first season as Pistons coach, and his clashes with Ben Wallace exposed the difficulty Detroit’s vaunted starting five was having with the transition from Larry Brown. Replacing Wallace with Chris Webber (on the cheap, no less) is yet another gold star on GM Joe Dumars’ report card. The resurgent Pistons have lost just five games since the beginning of April, going 11-7-3 against the spread.

Over in Cleveland, there is hope that LeBron can come up with a Jordanesque performance and carry the Cavs on his back. But His Airness had some fantastic players around him during Chicago’s championship run. For King James to get this version of the Cavaliers over the hump, he’ll have to play like Jordan, all right – in Space Jam.

Odds to win the NBA Championship:

Cleveland Caveliers: 17/1

Detroit Pistons: 3/2

San Antonio Spurs: 1/2

Utah Jazz: 15/1

Anyone who doesn’t agree the Detroit Pistons are the best team in the Eastern Conference playoff bracket is just kidding themselves.

Detroit breezed through the Orlando Magic in the opening round and if Game 1 of their second-round series with Chicago means anything, that matchup won’t last long either. The Pistons simply obliterated the Bulls in Game 1 by a lopsided score of 95-69. The Pistons and Bulls looked like a pretty even matchup on paper, but in the opener Detroit outplayed Chicago in every facet of the game. That win clearly anoints the Pistons over the Bulls in the Conference, but what about the rest of the East?

Let’s start with the New Jersey Nets because, really, that won’t take too long. The Nets are lucky to even be in the playoffs, period. Sure, they knocked off Toronto in the opening round, but they didn’t exactly make it look easy. The Nets, to put it bluntly are Vince Carter, Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson. Take one out of the equation (which isn’t as hard to do as it seems) and the Nets are sunk. Carter has a reputation of coming up short and the Nets will too in the playoffs, at least as long as VC is their go-to guy.

That leaves the Cleveland Cavaliers. With LeBron James in tow the Cavs probably have the best chance of taking away the Pistons’ Eastern Conference crown. Cleveland did almost send Detroit packing in last year’s postseason before Detroit regrouped and throttled Cleveland when it really counted. LeBron James may yet hoist the NBA Championship trophy, but he’s still a year or two – and another player or two – away from even getting out of the East just yet.

The reason the Pistons are so good is because of their balance. Not only do the Pistons do an excellent job of balancing offense and defense, but their roster excels at balancing the scoring output. When you have Richard Hamilton, Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace and Chris Webber all running down the floor toward you, which one do you expect to score? With the Pistons the answer is all of them, making them incredibly difficult to guard and contain.

NBA playoff odds can be found here.

Somebody’ got some ‘splainin’ to do.

The Dallas Mavericks are going to have one of the worst offseasons any pro sports franchise has endured. Dirk Nowitzki will have to wear a brown paper bag over his head when he collects his MVP award. All because the 7-5 favorites to win the NBA title hit a rough patch and were eliminated in the first round.

Nobody said winning a championship was easy. That’s why you probably wouldn’t have wanted to play the Mavs on the futures market, even if you believed they were the best team in the league. The risk wasn’t worth the reward. The “best” team doesn’t always win.

Now that Dallas is no longer in the mix, the San Antonio Spurs are the favorites to come out of the Western Conference. They’re 7-4 to win the title, thanks in part to their series-opening win over the Phoenix Suns (11-5). Golden State and Utah were tied at 10-1 heading into the first game of their second-round affair.

It’s easy to see why the Spurs have vaulted to the top of the odds table. Teams like Dallas and Phoenix tease with their ability, but have yet to make the leap to true greatness. San Antonio has done it three times since Tim Duncan came to town. A casual bettor would look at this and simply say the Spurs know how to win.

Nonsense. There is a different environment in the NBA playoffs – away crowds are more daunting, and facing the same team over and over again requires tweaks in strategy. But basketball is basketball. Every pro player knows how to win; it’s just a question of whether they’ll perform at a higher level than the opposition when the time comes. That’s why they play the games.

In my evaluation, Phoenix is a better team than the Spurs, although the Suns’ effort in Game 1 was subpar – and they still might have beaten San Antonio had Steve Nash and his bloody nose not been forced to the bench in the last minute. But my evaluation also assumes the Suns will play up to their own level. Would I bet on it? That’s another story.