Basketball fans are hyped that the NBA returned to action yesterday and what better way to be welcomed than this amazing TNT commercial, “NBA Forever”. Derrick Rose giving daps to Michael Jordan?! Dirk going heads up against Larry Bird?! So many classic shots!

Shout outs to whatever agency (I believe it was the work of Goodby & Silverstein) produced this commercial because it’s just an incredible piece of work.

When you think of Carmelo Anthony, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Scoring. There’s no question that ‘Melo can put the ball in the hole from anywhere on the basketball court — he’ll give you 26 a night, easy –, what about his passing, though? For starters, his career average of 3.1 assists doesn’t exactly jump-out at you, but Ive watched this guy play ball since his days at Oak Hill and I’ve seen him make some incredible passes, when he chooses to do so. I’ve seen him make no-look passes, behind-the-back passes, half-court passes and plenty of other jaw-dropping passes.

This video is a perfect example –

Amazing, right?

When ‘Melo was traded to the Knicks last February, things didn’t exactly go the way they had hoped. Did Amar’e and Anthony score a lot of points together? Yes. They even scored a bunch of points as a team, but their defense was non-existent and they had a 14-14 record post-signing. They couldn’t find the right spacing — which makes sense since both guys play from the same spot on the floor — and at times they looked lost. Shockingly, although not really since he’s playing under Mike D’Antoni’s offense, ‘Melo’s offensive stats skyrocketed once he could officially call Madison Square Garden his new home.

2010-11 stats with Denver: 25.2 points per game, 2.8 assists, 82.3% from FT, 33% from 3s and shot 45.2% from the field.

2010-11 stats with New York: 26.3 points per game, 3 assists, 87.2% from FT, 42.4% from 3s (which is just astounding) and 46.1% from the field.

Last month, D’Antoni stated that the Knicks offense would run through ‘Melo, not Amar’e (which makes sense). From high school, to college, to the pros, the offense has always ran through whatever team Anthony has played on. Offensively, he’s that good.

Kevin Clark of the Wall Street Journal put things in perspective when it came to Anthony’s new point guard duties:

So here’s how it will work — Anthony will decide when to run point (it’s mostly based on feel) and dribble up the floor. The former point guard will sprint to the corner and simply act as another shooting option or in some incarnations, there will be no point guard on the floor at all. Landry Fields, the team’s shooting guard, will be on the other side. From there, Anthony’s bottomless bag of moves will start. According to those that have guarded him, he is at an advantage because he is six-foot-eight, at least two inches taller than almost every guard, meaning he can see the defense in front of him without interference. He has fast enough feet to jet past even the peskiest of defenders and he has a quick release to his pass.

According to Iman Shumpert, the rookie who has guarded him in practice, he’s a threat to shoot as soon as he’s within 30 feet. Mostly, though, he’ll start a pick-and-roll, a play in which a player (Chandler or Stoudemire) sets a screen for the ball handler (Anthony) before slipping behind the defender. The big man not in the pick-and-roll will almost certainly be open for a jump-shot. It is, coaches say, an unguardable play.

Before this idea came to mind, ‘Melo always was an unarguable player. You can’t stop him. The only way he’ll be stopped is when he does it himself, which is when his shots aren’t falling and he decides to get trigger happy.

Although he’s basically done this his entire career, D’Antoni believes the Melo-run offense can be sustainable for at least 30 minutes a night:

“Oh yeah, it’s harder to isolate all the time and go one-on-one all the time. He did that 20, 30 minutes a game before anyway,” D’Antoni said. “I think it will be easier for him to run the point-forward, run the pick-and-roll and get easier shots. I think it will be easy for him.”

D’Antoni then went on to say that Anthony’s height is key:

“He’s 6-foot-9, he sees over the top of everything, he’s got good pace for it. Melo is a complete player, he understands the game, he has a finesse passing game with it and you can almost run anything with him at the point guard and it’s going to work,” Dan D’Antoni said. “I think Melo understands the positions to put Amar’e in, where can score, that’s what a point guard does. I think he has that mentality, he might be ‘Magic’ [Johnson] Melo, I don’t know.”

I mean, really, how do you stop a point-forward who’s 6-foot-9? Did you see how many guys struggled to guard Hall of Famer’s like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird? There’s a reason they have jerseys hung up in their respective team’s arenas. Those guys were phenomenal at what they did and paved the way for players like LeBron James and Carmelo to bring different attributes to the game than most would ever daydream about.

During the Knicks-Nets preseason match-up Wednesday night, I didn’t see a whole lot of the new offense, which is understandable considering that it’s only preseason (I wouldn’t want to play with all my new toys at the same time, either). The most important thing about all this doesn’t have to do with a new playbook, it’s the fact that ‘Melo has taken on an even bigger leadership role than he ever has. The ball is literally in his court now.

He’s now the guy who will have to develop a Chris Paul mind-state while maintaining his Michael Jordan scoring mentality..

If he makes the right decisions, the Knicks could be playing in the NBA finals come May.

And f he makes those decisions, he has a chance to do something LeBron never could.

You’ve already seen the three iconic legend covers, some gameplay trailer and footage – now check out this new mode being dubbed Greatest Mode. In continuing to provide fresh features to their NBA2K series, 2KSports is allowing players to access an even wider pool of NBA legends besides the cover players Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird.

Three of the greatest players to EVER play grace the new cover of 2K Sports’ NBA 2K12.  All retail stores will receive a 33% split of the Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and Magic Johnson covers. With a NBA Lockout that doesn’t look like it’s ending anytime soon, these legends on the cover couldn’t have come at a better time. I already got NBA 2K11 with MJ on it so it’s an easy decision to pick up 2K12 with Larry Legend on it. #Celtics.  Hit the jump for the full size covers.

Shouts to AP for posting this awesome photoshop of Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan rocking some black Miami Heat jerseys.  If you’ve been living under a rock, MJ recently said he would never call Bird or Magic up to play on the same team together because he was trying to beat them and not be teammates with them.

What’s the better commercial?  This new age LeBron James and Dwight Howard dunk off commercial or the old school Michael Jordan and Larry Bird horse commercial?

Complex Magazine drops their picks of the top 50 best NBA slam dunks of all time.  Obviously, this is just the opinion of the Complex Magazine team so take this list with a grain of salt.  There have been so many GREAT dunks in the history of basketball so your favorite dunk of all time may not have been included but go through their list and enjoy the posterization of those helpless defenders.  Their top 10 is listed below:

Vince Carter vs. Frederic Weis

Kobe Bryant vs. Dwight Howard

Shawn Kemp vs. Alton Lister

Scottie Pippen vs. Patrick Ewing

Tom Chambers vs. Mark Jackson

Dwyane Wade vs. Anderson Varejao

Chris Webber vs. Mark Jackson

Dominique Wilkins vs. Larry Bird

Shaquille O’Neal vs. Chris Dudley

Michael Jordan vs. Patrick Ewing

Two of the greatest NBA players ever appeared on the Conan O’Brien show.  Part 2 is after the jump.