'C'mon, man.' -- The entire Charlotte Bobcats organization. (Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports)

After the Miami Heat scored a 105-92 win over the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night, pro wrestling legend and Charlotte resident Ric Flair visited the Heat locker room, where he was greeted with a chorus of "Whooo!"s and dubbed "the creator of swag" by Heat star LeBron James. But perhaps Miami's truest tribute to Flair came during the fourth quarter, when All-Star guard Dwyane Wade broke out one of Flair's longtime favorite moves on Bobcats point guard Ramon Sessions.

No, not the Figure Four. A different longtime favorite:

Yikes. Way to split the uprights, Dwyane. You've done "The Nature Boy" proud.

The beauty part: It was Sessions, not Wade, who got whistled for a reach-in foul on the play. Most gentleman observers would submit that Wade's reach-in was far more damaging, but hey: We're not NBA referees.

'Wait, what day is it?' (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Basketball fans will wake up on Tuesday morning to find a full slate of NBA games under their Christmas trees, beginning with a 12 p.m. ET tip between the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets, ending with a prime-time West Coast battle between the streaking Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets, and featuring a trio of marquee stocking-stuffer matchups crammed in the middle. One of those hotly anticipated contests will see the Atlantic Division-leading New York Knicks travel to Hollywood to take on the 13-14 Los Angeles Lakers, who've struggled out of the gate due in part to injuries to stars like Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol, but are finally starting to get healthy as the new year approaches.

While a jam-packed day of hoops is just about the perfect present for any NBA die-hard — assuming, of course, your local music retailer was all sold out of "A Very NBA Christmas" — it's not always so nice for the athletes who have to lace 'em up instead of relaxing with the family. To hear Lakers forward Metta World Peace tell it, the regular work schedule not only bums out his young ones — it actually makes him forget about the holiday entirely. From Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times:

"My kids don't like it. My youngest doesn't like it at all," [he] said. "I'm to a point now I forget it's Christmas, to tell you the truth. I buy the presents and I'm never home, so I totally forget about Christmas."

You'll never see this on All-Star Saturday Night. Sorry. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

For years, fans have dreamed of watching LeBron James — one of the most athletically gifted and remarkable in-game dunkers the NBA has to offer — compete in the Slam Dunk Contest at the league's annual All-Star Saturday Night festivities. And for years, from James' thrilling early days with the Cleveland Cavaliers through his heel-turn move to the Miami Heat to his redemptive title-and-Finals-MVP-winning 2012, we've found ourselves disappointed by the King's decisions to decline.

Sure, the inferred rationales were understandable — the competition has largely become a showcase for younger, lesser-known players; a star of LeBron's magnitude has more to lose in terms of reputation/public perception by posting an unimpressive showing in the contest than he has to gain by winning it; adding more All-Star Weekend work rather than getting rest where you can doesn't do you any favors in a season expected to extend into June, etc. But the heart wants what it wants, and since he entered the league with the top pick in the 2003 NBA draft, NBA fans' hearts have wanted to watch LeBron throw down in the midseason exhibition. Unfortunately, it's never going to happen.

[Also: The top five NBA stories of 2012]

After scoring 30 points in the Heat's 105-89 win over the visiting Utah Jazz on Saturday — his 29th straight regular-season game with 20 or more points (45th straight, including playoffs) and his sixth straight game without being called for a personal foul — James put the kibosh on any speculation about whether he'd take part in the dunk contest this February, or in any other year. From Chris Tomasson at FOX Sports Florida:

James told FOX Sports Florida that, while he has thought seriously several times about entering the dunk contest during All-Star Weekend in his nine previous seasons, it never will occur.

"No," said James, who turns 28 on Dec. 30. "It's over with. I'm getting too old for that. ... There were times when I wanted to do it. But I came into All-Star Weekend a few times banged up and I didn't want to risk further injury."

On one hand, it was pretty thoughtful of the San Antonio Spurs to decide to give the Dallas Mavericks a thematically appropriate gift to celebrate the return of perhaps the greatest long-range-shooting big man in NBA history. On the other, I'm willing to bet that Mavs coach Rick Carlisle didn't really love San Antonio unleashing hell from behind the 3-point line on Sunday; he probably would've preferred, like, a copy of "Born in the USA" or something.

The Spurs hit 20 of their 30 3-point attempts on Sunday night, setting a new franchise record for long-range success en route to a 129-91 trouncing of their in-state rivals. Nine Spurs made a triple, with shooting guard Danny Green led the way by hitting seven of his eight long-distance tries (and shooting 9 for 10 overall) to score a game-high 25 points. Small forward Kawhi Leonard went 3 for 7 from deep, scoring 17 points and adding five steals in his second game back after missing five weeks with left quadriceps tendinitis, and Tony Parker, Stephen Jackson and Matt Bonner each hit two 3-pointers to help push the Spurs to 21-8, a game ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies in the Southwest Division.

Merry Christmas Eve, Dallas Mavericks fans. I got you a 7-foot German. I hope it fits:

After being sidelined for the Mavericks' first 27 games following mid-October arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, legendary power forward Dirk Nowitzki made his 2012-13 season debut for Dallas on Sunday, checking in at the 6:28 mark of the first quarter of the Mavs' contest against their longtime nemeses and in-state rivals, the San Antonio Spurs. Dirk took a few minutes to work himself into the flow of the game, grabbing a pair of defensive rebounds and testing out the knee as he loped up and down the court before beating the Spurs' defense in transition, slipping to the rim and finishing a Darren Collison dish with a dunk for his first points of the season.

From Russia, with Love. (Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports)

C'mon, Andrei. We're just starting to get healthy here, we're only two games over .500, there's only one game between a playoff spot and 10th place, and Dirk and Nash are coming back soon. We can't be risking citrus-related setbacks to our leading scorer, man! Go eat that on the bench, please. Or better yet, throw it out. God forbid you get a seed in Ricky's eye.

Best caption wins a Nick Fury branded eye patch (not really). Good luck.

In our last adventure: Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant get their "Coneheads" on.

The three sharpest-dressed men in the NBA, apparently. (Getty Images)

At this point, the only thing NBA players want more than championship rings seems to be recognition for having unique fashion flare and a sharp sense of style. From the fashion-show oneupsmanship at postgame press conferences during the playoffs to the men's fashion magazine internships, as TBJ's Trey Kerby noted, it all seems to be getting a bit out of hand, but like it or not, looking good — or, failing that, looking interesting — has become a major point of emphasis for NBA stars.

So you'd have to figure that Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook, Miami Heat shooting guard Dwyane Wade and New York Knicks center Tyson Chandler will now have major-league bragging rights over their ball-playing peers, as the three NBA stars were included in GQ's year-end list of the 25 most stylish men of 2012. The iconic men's magazine picked 25 dudes who "got serious about taking risks and looking good" in Twenty-Doz; while those of us with a regrettable blogger's style might disagree about the "looking good" part, I think we can probably all agree that this year, NBA players (Westbrook, especially) started to get serious about "taking risks." Congratulations to these three men on their momentous achievement; way to go, fabric-clad athletic marvels.

[Also: The Knicks' best player may not be Carmelo Anthony]

That said: I think there are reasonable questions to be raised about either each player's style or the magazine's justification for their selection. And so — respectfully, briefly and in full recognition of the fact that I myself am nobody's idea of a fashion plate — I offer some thoughts in rebuttal:

It's just a matter of time now before Amar'e Stoudemire rejoins the New York Knicks. After practicing with the Erie BayHawks, the team's D-League affiliate, and reportedly looking good and explosive in his scrimmage work, the 30-year-old power forward appears to be nearing the end of his rehabilitation from surgery to remove dead tissue in his surgically repaired left knee.

He's not ready yet, but he's close to once again donning a Knicks uniform ... which, according to Howard Beck at the New York Times, is something that New York's front office worked very hard this offseason (and even before that) to prevent from happening again:

This past summer, the Knicks offered Stoudemire to nearly every team in the league — “available for free,” as one rival executive put it. But they found no takers because of his diminished production, his health and his contract, which has three years and $65 million remaining (counting this season) and which is uninsured against a career-ending knee injury.

In February, the Knicks wanted to send Stoudemire to Toronto in a deal for Andrea Bargnani, a person briefed on the discussion said. But the proposal was vetoed by James L. Dolan, the Garden chairman, before it ever reached the Raptors (who would not have made the deal anyway, team officials there said).

Before that, the Knicks tried to package Stoudemire and Chandler in a bid to land Dwight Howard.