There was a time when compiling the league's best record meant something.

Now, I'm not so sure.

No disrespect to Boston. The Celtics are playing wonderful basketball and should be applauded. But the quaint notion that the team that wins the most games during the regular season will probably win it all has taken a hit.

Only once in the last seven years has that happened. And the team that did, San Antonio, tied with the Mavericks for the best record that season.

The last four champions finished nine, 12, three and seven games back in the race for the best regular-season record.

This is not an aberration. It's a trend.

The regular season is no longer about dominance. It's about management.

It's no longer a time to impose your will on the rest of the league day in and day out. It's about keeping players fresh physically and mentally.

A lot of this has to do with the lack of a dominant team. Sure, the Spurs are good. You can even call them a dynasty in a 2000s kind of way.

But San Antonio has yet to win back-to-back titles. The Spurs don't rule the regular season like Chicago, the LA Lakers and Boston Celtics before them.

When the gap among the top teams is closer, the regular season resembles a game of cat-and-mouse more than it does a smack down.

"That one game we won in December last year," Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said. "I don't remember it either.

"There's an argument to be made that management skills are just as important as coaching skills. You have to have great people and management skills."

Here's another factor. The attention that goes with being the best is so intense, the demands and distractions so abundant, it's a relief not to occupy the top spot.

Detroit is ecstatic that the Celtics have stormed to the top of the Eastern Conference. Let them deal with the spotlight. The Pistons don't feel it diminishes their chances to beat Boston in a playoff series.

Think of how the Mavericks and coach Avery Johnson have approached this season. They embrace the role of lowered expectations.

"First of all, I think teams don't really play well being the favorites," Johnson said. "Guys who have that underdog mentally feel they don't have any sort of pressure on them. They seem to play better.

"Everyone wants to be the underdog. Teams that don't have as much pressure on them seem to play a little bit more relaxed. They don't play as tense. When you play with a lot of tension in your game and your mind and your body, you're not going to play very well."

How a team performs from November to mid-April still matters. The best record does bestow home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

"I still believe the teams that have the best record throughout the course of the season and have stayed the course, stayed healthy and stayed committed probably will prevail nine out of 10 times," Miami coach Pat Riley said. "Every now and then there are those unique circumstances.

"But there is a tremendous amount of pressure on the top seed. It's not easy on the favorite."

So why do it? That's the prevailing attitude in today's NBA.

Unless you happen to live in Boston.

We all knew the NBA wouldn't last in New Orleans.

Now we know when it will be leaving.

Any city interested in luring the Hornets away needs to circle the 2009-10 season. That's when the club can pay $10 million, break its lease and move to a city that has the corporate base and interest to support it.

New Orleans will keep the Hornets if the team averages 14,735 fans from Dec. 1 of this season to the end of next season. Guess what? The club is already more than 2,500 below that figure. The Hornets must average 15,036 in their next 76 home games to make up the difference.

New Orleans is a great city, but it's not an NBA city.

It won't have to pretend to be one much longer.