The meek shall inherit the East

Take a moment, if you will, to look at the standings in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the NBA. Aren't they beautiful these days? The world has been absolutely turned upside down.

The Miami Heat and Mr. Pat Riley are in the basement. The New Jersey Nets are in first. (The mouth has trouble even saying the name of the team and the position in the standings in the same sentence.) The Boston Celtics, back from the comatose, are pressing the Nets for the lead. The Philadelphia 76ers and Allen Iverson are near the Heat at the bottom, along with the New York Knicks and Orlando Magic, everyone under .500.

And the third-place Washington Wizards -- with former owner Michael Jordan switching jobs to move to the backcourt -- are just the hottest team in the NBA. How good will they be when Abe Pollin decides to play a little power forward?

If a Biblical-sounding letter had arrived from the office of commissioner David Stern decreeing that the meek shall inherit the earth and that the last shall be first, the job couldn't have been done any better. This is exactly what the league has needed for a long time: different teams doing different things. The old form charts, the Heat and the Knicks for the 700th time, have been replaced by fun.

Now maybe if general manager Jerry Krause could suit up and play a little point guard and the Chicago Bulls could get rolling again ... watch out.

Leigh Montville's commentaries appear regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.

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