The Best NBA Stories ESPN Won't Talk About

ESPN has long be accused of having a bias towards East Coast teams in every major sport and the Lakers. I'm not going to dispute that because quite frankly, it's true. The Western Conference gets very little coverage on ESPN other than the Lakers to the point that the Spurs are a non-story to ESPN and the Mavericks holding on to the #2 seed even without Caron Butler is ignored, instead focusing on "what's wrong with the Lakers?" There's nothing wrong with them idiots, they're just bored! This same shit happened to the Shaq & Kobe Lakers during their three-peat year and both three-peat years for the Bulls.

But there's other stories that ESPN simply will not acknowledge whatsoever, and I'm here to tell you them and why they're so fascinating.

• The Philadelphia 76ers are above .500 for the first time this season and are playoff contenders. This is huge news because Doug Collins was seen by ESPN as a coach with only marginal talent, but he's taken a team from the bottom three all the way back to .500 basketball. Expect them to do better in the playoffs this year than the Bobcats did last year.
• The Phoenix Suns have been above .500 for a while now, receiving lot of benefit from that trade with Orlando. At this point in the season, it's become incredibly obvious that the General Manager for the Orlando Magic should have his ass fired for getting Vince Carter, Gilbert Arenas, and Jason Richardson on the team while giving up key players to their rotation. Who the fuck trades away their backup center in exchange for another 3-point shooter? Phoenix has been doing so much better that it looks like the Warriors will have no hope of getting a playoff berth.
• The Houston Rockets have quietly become the most improved team in the NBA compared to the first month of play. They had a very rough schedule after expecting Yao to be healthy, only to see him get injured AGAIN. The Rockets have clearly given up, choosing to trade away Shane Battier and Aaron Brooks, while getting Hasheem LOL Thabeet to hopefully start rebuilding mode. Expect Rick Adelman to say sayonara if this is the case.
• This one's a bit of a twofer. The Carmelo-less Nuggets are now ahead of the New Orleans Hornets in the standings. After beginning the season as the final team to lose a game, the Hornets have crashed and burned in more ways than one. With the team now owned by the NBA after their owner declared bankruptcy, the team having the possibility of being contracted, and their star player possibly leaving whether the team is contracted or not, things can't possibly get much worse for the Hornets.
• Here's one ESPN is simply just dodging the elephant in the room about. The Los Angeles Clippers are one of the worst road teams in the league, having won just 5 games on the road so far (including against the Lakers). Management clearly sees this as an issue, just by seeing their trade deadline actions and players getting bought out.

 That's all for this edition of NBA Stories that ESPN Won't Talk About.