Gerard Spalding

The NBA playoffs this year have been as entertaining as ever, but you could put together a pretty decent starting five solely composed of players who have been unable to play due to injury: Derrick Rose, Kobe Bryant, Danilo Gallinari and David Lee are just some of the star contributors who have spent the majority of these playoffs watching the games courtside. Perhaps most significant in terms of impacting the playoff bracket, has been the injury to Oklahoma City point guard Russell Westbrook. Gerard Spalding explains.

In 2004, the Detroit Pistons accomplished something that will probably never be done again: they won an NBA title without a superstar. It may seem somewhat premature to make such a bold declaration, but the facts certainly support it. We are fully entrenched in the era of the “superteam” and there is seemingly no looking back.

On March 30, the Philadelphia Sixers celebrated Allen Iverson bobblehead night during a home game. The diminutive former MVP shooting guard was in attendance himself, making the media rounds and enjoying the adulation of Sixers fans. Of course, this wasn’t the first time that Philly has trotted out Iverson during a home game and it probably won’t be the last, but it has been the most transparent so far.

We all know about the 1984 NBA Draft, Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon have made sure of it. Then 1996, with the likes of Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Allen Iverson, is hard to forget as well. If we can assume that 2003′s offering of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony reaches that same level, then does 2008′s with Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love?

Everybody in the world loves Brandon Roy, except perhaps his own body. The former Portland Trailblazers star is among the most recent NBA greats to have their promising careers cut short by injury. With Roy’s current comeback in Minnesota in question, might Roy’s playing days be officially behind him?