With the NBA preseason getting under way Tuesday night, there are many questions that must be answered concerning the league this season.

Will the Lakers dominate again this season and take their fourth straight title?

Will Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley help Michael Jordan achieve the only record he doesn’t have — participation in the oldest starting lineup in NBA history?

How long will it take 7-foot-5, No. 1 draft pick Yao Ming to hit his head on the rim?

It’s anybody’s guess what will happen this year, but a few things are certain.

Allen Iverson will get in another hissy fit with Larry Brown.

Zero fans will show up in Charlotte for the Hornets’ season opener.

And the bulk of this season’s NBA programming will shift from NBC to ESPN (ABC and Turner Broadcasting will be the league’s other broadcast partners in 2002-03).

That said, I’ve devised a list of the top 10 reasons why this is a good move for basketball fans as well as the networks.

10. If you are a cable TV or satellite dish subscriber, you will now be able to find at least one televised game every night of the season. That is better than a two-year-old, edited movie on NBC any day.

9. Ahmad Rashad and Tom Tolbert (otherwise known to me as the bald white guy with a goatee next to Ahmad Rashad) had a decent studio show for NBC. However, they didn’t even compare to the team of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley on TNT.

I won’t soon forget the day Barkley guaranteed he could lose weight by a certain time.

And then weighed himself in front of the national viewing audience. Now that’s television.

I can only imagine what ESPN will devise.

8. The new deal calls for the formation of a new national cable sports channel jointly owned by AOL Time Warner and the NBA.

Another sports channel is always a good idea.

7. ESPN, which proclaims itself as the nationwide leader in sports, won’t have to worry about a game running into another movie of the week.

And fans who want to stay on the same channel to see postgame comments and press conferences are more than welcome to do so at ESPN.

6. NBC has horse racing — otherwise known as the greatest minute in an hour of coverage — so it’s only fair that they give up the NBA. Nobody wants to see one network have a monopoly on major sports coverage, unless it’s ESPN.

5. There has been talk of Brent Musburger and Al Michaels handling play-by-play for ABC/ESPN, and that Marv Albert could also be lured into the mix, although he already does some work for TNT.

All I can say, is look out world.

4. The minds at ESPN are a little more creative than the minds at NBC when it comes to basketball coverage. Just look at ESPN’s commercials. The new one — in which ESPN’s Dan Patrick gets snubbed out of a bathroom spot by Tracy McGrady and Wally Szczerbiak — is a gem.

3. Can you imagine Jack Arute on the sidelines of an NBA game?

Instead of talking about the type of cleats the football players are using, he could mention which players are talking the most smack to each other and paraphrase it for us.

Also, Jack Arute rolls off your tongue like a compliment to a generous boss, unlike Jim Gray, which rolls off your tongue like a compliment to Richard Simmons.

2. Three to seven words: No Bill Walton — at least not yet.

Maybe now the viewing audience can focus on who’s playing instead of who has already had their glory days, although it’s likely ESPN will pick up Walton for something.

A new reality show perhaps.

1. The “NBA on NBC” theme song is one step up from Muzak and one step down from elevator music.

Jeff Raasch

is a junior in journalism

and mass communication from Odebolt. He is the

assignment sports editor

for the Daily.