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This is not a division. It is a gauntlet. A spiked, imperial gauntlet inhabited by minotaurs, pterodactyls, stone giants, warrior pygmy tribes, and other things that go bump in the night. There is no sense of "If we can just make it to .500" in this division. .500 means nothing. .500 is for the Central division.

The Southwest Division hosts two former MVPs, the MVP runner-up from last season, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, the reigning Coach of the Year, a bazillion All-Stars, elite shooters, elite defenders, elite scorers, and Ron freaking Artest. Yeesh.

There are not headlines here. There are omens, prophecies, and obituaries.

A few teams, including Memphis, had been discussed as potential landing spots for Iranian center Hamed Ehadadi. Political circumstance makes his prospective transfer to the NBA difficult. In fact, according to Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski, politics may have made it impossible.

[T]he league office has sent a letter to its 30 teams instructing that they are forbidden to even discuss a contract with Ehadadi, Yahoo! Sports has learned.

In the letter, which was sent Friday, NBA legal counsel wrote: "It has come to our attention that representatives of Hamed Ehadadi, an Iranian basketball player, may be contacting NBA teams to discuss the possibility of signing Mr. Ehadadi to an NBA player contract. We have been advised that a federal statute prohibits a person or organization in the United States from engaging in business dealings with Iranian nationals."

Wojnarowski goes on to note Ehadadi isn't even that great a prospect; as such, it seems unlikely any team will going hopping through hoops to get government permission to bring him over.

For a while, it looked as if the 2008-09 season could feature both the NBA's first Iranian player and first Israeli. Apparently, it will be neither. (Yotam Halperin has signed with Olympiakos, Lior Eliyahu remains without a European contract but isn't expected to be signed by Houston, his NBA rights-holder.)