LeBron James is incredible, but …

Jerry Tarkanian

Tuesday, April 21, 2009 | 2:57 p.m.

I had a lot of fun coaching in college, because that’s what I did my whole life. But the NBA would have been fun if I had been there longer and we would have won.

But you have fun wherever you’re coaching. It’s the same in high school. When you’re winning, it’s fun. Losing, it’s bad no matter where you are.

I especially like watching the NBA in the playoffs, not the regular season. In the regular season, they go through the motions. I don’t think they play hard.

In certain games, they might play hard if it’s two top teams going against each other. But it’s not the players’ fault. They play too many games. They play four times a week, travel all over.

They just don’t get into the game very much. You don’t see the intensity. You don’t see the real effort. They should cut the regular season to 60 games and cut salaries by about 30 percent.

But the playoffs are really great.

I’ve been a little disappointed, so far. I didn’t think Denver or New Orleans have played especially hard in that series. I didn’t see the intensity, but it was a blowout.

I tell you, the Chicago-Boston series will be great. They’re really getting after it. Derrick Rose, the Bulls’ point guard, is so good. But I think the Celtics will pull it out, even though you can see they’re not the same team without Kevin Garnett.

They don’t have that defensive presence in the middle. And so far, Paul Pierce hasn’t been dominant.

I remember we almost got Pierce when I went to Fresno State. We were on him. He loved us. Had I gotten the job earlier, we might have been able to get him. He had a half-brother playing baseball at Fresno.

But Paul had already committed to Kansas and Roy Williams.

The Lakers looked awesome, just awesome. I don’t picture Utah doing anything against the Lakers. The Jazz doesn’t have the size to defend them, let alone the depth or anything else. They may get one win in Utah, but I don’t think it’ll go more than five games.

In Cleveland, LeBron James is so good it’s incredible. He’s what, 24 years old? It’s hard to believe. He’s the greatest young player who ever played the game.

Michael Jordan was a lot older when he started accomplishing what he did. But what LeBron is doing is unbelievable. I don’t think there’s ever been a better athletic guy, with speed and strength.

If LeBron had played college ball, he would have destroyed the game. You could have put him on any one of 50 teams and they would have won it.

What he’s done is make Cleveland a real contender for this whole thing. And I don’t think Cleveland has great players. Mo Williams is a good player, but he’s not great.

The Lakers have three great ones.

I just don’t particularly like Cleveland’s offense. If they get running, keep the court spread out and LeBron is running, he’s unstoppable in the open court. He’ll blow by anybody and he’ll dunk on anybody.

The only thing that can stop them is if they stay in a half-court game. Even then, it’s hard. He goes right by people and he’s so strong to the bucket. If Cleveland ran more, they’d never stop him.

But you gotta pick the Lakers, even though Cleveland has the home-court advantage. If the Cavs can hold court, they’ll win it. In the NBA, home court is so important.

But the Lakers are so talented. It’s hard to believe anybody will beat them, and I don’t think anyone will.

Cleveland would have to win all four of its home games in that series, and I think the Lakers would get one of them.

But I really like watching playoff basketball. I was watching Monday night with friends at the Daily Grill here in Fresno, and you can see that the players really care.

It’s a whole new game. The intensity level goes up about three notches. They really get excited about winning.

I was on hiatus there for a little while, but look for my next column soon and keep the questions coming. I’ll address a bushel of them next time.