Betting site favors Miami Heat, over the Lakers, to win 2011 NBA title

Bodog.com has released its odds on who will win the 2011 NBA championship, and the star-studdedMiami Heat, with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, are their favorite to win it all, at 7-4 odds.

The Lakers, who are going for a three-peat (it would be Coach Phil Jackson’s fourth career three-peat), is the second favorite to win next June, at 11-4. They're followed by the Orlando Magic (11-1), the Boston Celtics (12-1) and theChicago Bulls (15-1). The youthful Oklahoma City Thunder, Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets follow at 18-1.

By the way, the Clippers are listed at 100-1, and Kurt Rambis’ woeful Minnesota Timberwolves squad pulls up the rear (with the Sacramento Kings, New Jersey Nets and Toronto Raptors) at 150-1.

Celticstown.com has its own take on the next champ and, surprise, lists "10 Reasons why the Boston Celtics will win the 2011 NBA Championship."

Reason No. 1: "To lose a Game 7, to the Los Angeles Lakers, in LA, after leading by 13 midway through the third quarter is as devastating as it gets. ... That pain, that memory can only be cleansed by raising banner 18."

LeBron James says he's "taking mental notes of everyone taking shots" at him

It's official: just as we previously hoped for, LeBron James has crossed over to the Dark Side, announcing via Twitter that he's "taking mental notes of everyone taking shots at me ... and I mean everyone!"

In other words, smack-talkers beware. Vengeance will be his. Likely starting with the guy who invented Comic Sans font.

Thing is, if the once happy-go-lucky James embarks on a 2010-11 payback tour -- as Chris Bosh has suggested -- he won't be the first athlete fueled by Haterade. Far from it. In fact, without naysayers, doubters and straight-up player haters, sports stars ranging from Clinton Portis to Michael Jordan to Tim Tebow -- yes, even our beloved football savior! -- probably wouldn't be motivated to get out of bed in the morning, let alone crush their sporting enemies underfoot.

All of which is why I'm proposing a new front office position: official hate coordinator.

Look, it's time to bring real and imagined slings and arrows in house. In fact, it's overdue. Back when bulletin board material was clipped out of newspapers and posted on actual bulletin boards, athletes in need of adolescent, me-against-the-disrespecting-world motivation could reasonably expect to stay on top of whom was saying what about them, and then plan in-game comeuppances accordingly. Indeed, insult-hungry jocks even had the time and luxury to make up slights, as Jordan famously did with unsuspecting chew toy LaBradford Smith.

No longer.

In the here and now, there's Twitter. Sports talk radio. Satellite sports talk radio. Online message boards. 'Round-the-clock sports news. YouTube parody videos. In short, way too much stuff to effectively monitor without becoming utterly exhausted. James says he's taking "mental notes;" given the sheer scope and volume of anti-LeBron sentiment, I hope he has a backup hard drive somewhere.

That's where the hate coordinator comes in. Surfing the web, plugged into social media, trained in reading body language and able to listen to three podcasts at once, my proposed position will take the hard work out of self-fire-stoking, producing concise, comprehensive, team-approved Enemies Lists so that talents such as James can spend less time hunting for put-downs and more time, er, practicing basketball or something.