NBA Unplugged is joined by Lang Whitaker who is the Editor-at-Large for Slam Magazine and also contributes to NBAtv and GQ Magazine.  Jacob Noble and Brian Geltzeiler will be taking trade rumors, a little bit about All Star Weekend and the second half of the NBA.  So if you want the inside scoop on Rajon Rondo, Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard, Monta Ellis, Steve Nash and more surprise names to be thrown into the trade mix, do not miss this show!

www.blogtalkradio.com/probasketballtalk

Are the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Clippers real contenders for the Western Conference crown? This is the question that stands before you today. Tomorrow, I examine any other potential contenders out West beyond the Clippers and Spurs.

"The" San Antonio Spurs

There are lots of questions starting with Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan. How much do they have left in the tank? Will Ginobili's and Duncan's bodies hold up through an even more intense playoff schedule than usual? Can some of the significant lesser known players (well unless you're a hoops junkie) on the Spurs roster--Danny Greene, Kawhi Leonard, Tiago Splitter and Gary Neal--be significant contributors during a playoff run? Will Tony Parker be able to hold his end of the bargain as the first and second option a lot of nights through the playoff run? Can Richard Jerfferson continue his sterling play during the regular season and carry it over into the postseason?

It's listed for $29 million, putting it in rare air as the highest-priced home listing in the Chicago market.

The secluded compound, with more than 56,000 square feet of living space, has nine bedrooms, 15 full baths, four half baths and five fireplaces. The property also includes a three-bedroom guesthouse, an indoor-outdoor entertaining and pool area, an outdoor tennis court, a putting green, a deep water pond and three climate-controlled garages that hold 15 cars.

And of course, there's an attached indoor basketball complex. The facility, completed in 2001, has a full-size regulation basketball court with cushioned hardwood floors, adjustable backstops and baskets, and a sound system tuned to provide the right acoustics within the court space

For a lot of people not in Sacramento, who don't follow this story (and don't care understandably), and for a lot of people who thought there were good odds that the Sacramento Kings franchise would either relocate to Anaheim or Seattle, guess again. Yesterday TPBT's Payton Wales posted the news in the Daily Dribbles that I think is a strong reflection of how outsider non-Sacramentan/King fans view this ordeal.

News yesterday after intense all weekend slash all day long negotiations have come filtering out from Sacramento reporters and a press conference with Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento, and the Maloof family the majority owners of the Sacramento Kings. The Maloofs have agreed to a 70-75 million dollars (that specific monetary amount is still being tossed around), and potentially 75 million dollars over the life of a new arena deal (a likely minimum of 30 years). Here is video (and a nice writeup of the affair by Fran Blinebury) of the announcement made in the lobby of the Waldorf Hotel at le monde de Disney. This is probably the most important summary of the whole process in a co-written piece by Sacramento Bee City Hall/Political reporters Ryan Lillis, Tony Bizjak, and Dale Kasler.

For an arena deal that has usually tossed around a number of 387 million dollars as the potential number to get a new arena built, this is huge. (Note: This number has also been mentioned as high as 406 million dollars. There is, pardon the pun, a lot of moving parts in this deal from every angle imaginable.)

Good afternoon, Dribblers! Hopefully your Monday isn't nearly as clogged and congested as my nose, or Kobe Bryant's for that matter.

We just had our All-Star Weekend for the NBA. What were your thoughts? What did you like? What did you dislike?

I know what my thoughts are, and of course I am going to share them with you along with my take on a couple other fun issues, like Ben & Jerry's apology for their Lin-Sanity ice cream. But let's get to my take on the All-Star Weekend first.

Likes:

• The Dunk Contest -- No, I'm not kidding. There were props, and there was some lull. But for the first time in awhile, I wasn't really disappointing. I also thought there was a possibility for a couple different winners. Creativity and extreme difficulty played a part in a most of the dunks, but these are the ones I liked the most:

The TRON dunk by Paul George was highly underrated on difficulty. Dunking in any kind of darkness is pretty tough; trust me, I used to do it or should say tried it all the time as a kid. Not an easy feat. Combine that with a 360 windmill, and you are talking about something pretty impressive.

So why didn't it rate higher?