It's an argument you hear all the time in bars, at the workplace, and at home with friends.

What's the best sport? What do you like watching? Who are the best athletes?

It's an argument I've had a lot with friends over the years. One of my friends is a baseball devotee of the highest order. He loves the strategy, the pace and the tradition-bound wonder of baseball.

I have another friend who loves the power and the intricate task of coordinating the movements and timing of men of such size and speed in the National Football League.

But, I've got to tell you that I am falling in love all over again with the National Basketball Association.

The rekindling of this love affair began last Saturday night (which should tell you something about my social life). I was home and I watched the sixth game of the Eastern Conference playoffs, a game and series won by the previously hapless Cleveland Cavaliers.

It wasn't that long ago that people in the know said the team's nickname should be the Cadavers. But as I watched the game, the overwhelming emotion that got me was one of sadness that our Bucks weren't in this game, playing for a berth in the finals.

I wanted the Bucks in the game because there is just about nothing more exciting, more beautiful and more special than NBA playoff action. And there is just about nobody I'd rather watch now than LeBron James.

Talk about an athlete who can carry a team on his shoulders; James has everything a great athlete needs. Forget the sport, he has everything.

He's big, fast, strong, smart, disciplined, inventive, supportive, bold when he needs to be and cautious when it's called for. I talked recently with a friend who covers the Cavaliers on a regular basis.

She said LeBron was a wonderful guy to have on the team. Other players think he's a great leader, both by word and by example. He's humble and funny and truly is one of the guys. He's honest and not afraid to tell you what he thinks.

He practices very hard, perhaps harder than anyone else on the team. And he lights up every room he enters.

As I watched James and other players in that game, I was again struck with the immense skill of professional basketball players. Baseball players don't come close. Football players come closer, but not by much. It's basketball that is like watching a beautiful, extemporaneous ballet performed without music or toe shoes.

I've heard all the arguments against the NBA. People say it's boring, that the players don't try until the end of a game or the playoffs. I hear the talk about thugs and the unbalanced influence of hip-hop and rap music stars.

I know about the complaints about too much bling and not enough substance and the in-your-face celebrations that are so over the top.

And like most criticisms, there is an element of truth. I don't think the NBA is perfect.

But watching James and a rookie named Daniel Gibson, or Rasheed Wallace or Rip Hamilton, or Tim Duncan or Tony Parker is unlike anything else. And if push came to shove, I'd let you have baseball and football and leave me with an NBA playoff game, any day of the week.

I've been in all the situations before, and nothing matches the excitement of a momentum-switching comeback in the NBA. In football, it happens with a big play or two. In baseball, a comeback plods along. But in basketball, you can feel the momentum swinging and the change in fortunes is electric.

I'm hit with Brewers fever. And I'm keeping track of the OTA's in Green Bay. But I really, really wish the Bucks were in the Finals and we could share a joy that is, truly, unparalleled.