I am going to make a semi-educated guess and say we are in the midst of a history-making era in sports.

With the current streak of five straight NBA championships by a Western Conference team, coupled with the direction of free agency, I predict that eventually the Western Conference is going to set the record for consecutive titles by one conference/league in any of the three major sports.

The current record is held by the NFC in the NFL, which saw 13 straight titles from 1985 to '97, when Buffalo and Denver both were excellent teams but kept getting run over by Washington, San Francisco, New York or Dallas. Somehow, even though Major League Baseball goes back to 1903, the longest streak is seven World Series in a row, by the American League, from 1947 to '53, when the New York Yankees won six straight and Cleveland won the seventh. And in the NBA, the East won 12 titles in a row, from 1960 to 1971, when Boston won eight in a row, followed by Philadelphia, two more by Boston and the final one by New York before the streak was broken by Milwaukee (then in the West) in 1971.

	Jason Kidd, right, may follow Gary Payton to the Western Conference.

We have a long way to go for the West to win nine more titles in a row, but I don't really see a team in the East, now or in the next decade, which is going to unseat a power base in the West that looks as if it is only going to be more lopsided once this summer is over.

Think about it. Who in the East has a glimmer of hope against a Western Conference whose threshold for making the playoffs is nearly 50 games, while the best regular-season team in the East won 50 games to get the top seed?

The New Jersey Nets? We've seen how well they do against the West, and, for argument's sake, let's say they re-sign Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin; that will tie up their cap space for the next six or seven years, and are they really going to get appreciably better?

The Detroit Pistons? Maybe. Especially with big man Darko Milicic coming in. But Larry Brown never has won a championship, and usually his phobias about players and his retirement somehow stand in the way of ultimate success.

The Indiana Pacers? I don't see it. The Chicago Bulls? They were set back years by Jay Williams' accident. The New Orleans Hornets? Oh wait, they're moving to the West, which should only make the conference that much more competitive.

And this is before we even take into account that the West is about to get demonstrably stronger.

We will know for certain on July 16 and beyond, but we currently have multiple possibilities of the West being so dominant that, in the same way we talk about the old ABA teams making it to the Finals, sometime in the future we will speak that way of the East, as if it was an expansion league joining the fray.

First, the only four teams in this gargantuan summer of free agency that have significant money all are in -- guess! -- the West. Yes, one of them is the Clippers, so that doesn't really count. But the others are the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs (remove the asterisk, please), who have almost $14 million; the Utah Jazz, which has the second-longest streak in the league (behind Portland) of consecutive non-losing seasons and which has $17 million; and the Denver Nuggets, who have almost $18 million to spend. You think $50-60 million isn't going to attract somebody of magnitude?

A few years ago, the balance of power in the NBA shifted dramatically when the premium players migrated West, either through trade or free agency. There was no real discernible explanation, other than in L.A., where the bright lights of Hollywood beckon. Perhaps it is the style of play. Perhaps it is, as ESPN analyst Tim Legler once told me, that Eastern cities take the games too seriously, too live-or-die, whereas Western Conference fans for the most part leave their emotions -- good and bad -- at the arena. Whatever the reason, the shift happened.

We saw Shaquille O'Neal and Chris Webber and Penny Hardaway and Rasheed Wallace and Vlade Divac and Stephon Marbury and Scottie Pippen and Dirk Nowitzki and Elton Brand and Mike Bibby and Ray Allen and, technically, Kobe Bryant all move to the fast-breaking West, while the only players of any significance who moved East were Kidd and Jermaine O'Neal.

Now, it seems, Kidd could move back across to the left side of the Mississippi to join the Spurs. That would, for all intents and purposes, eliminate the Nets from any future championship runs.

	Meanwhile, in the East, Grant Hill is about to retire, Vince Carter already has said he doesn't want the Raptors' first-round draft pick, the Knicks are banking on Maciej Lampe and the Charlotte Bobcats are about to become an expansion team, which means they are 32 years away from making the playoffs.

Granted, it will be very difficult to say who the favorite would be. Because the Lakers, if players are "keeping it real" and not negotiating through the media, could add Karl Malone to Shaq, Kobe and Gary Payton. How would you like to be Rick Fox -- or the man replacing the injured Fox -- during pregame introductions? Instead of playing some get-you-rocking tune, Staples Center would have to play that Sesame Street song and skit, "One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong." It would be like Mt. Rushmore with Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Polk.

I would love to see that team come together, if for no other reason than morbid curiosity. I remember when the Redskins had every Hall of Famer in the game, including Bruce Smith, Deion Sanders and Darrell Green, and everybody was convinced they would win the Super Bowl and the experiment was an unmitigated disaster.

Remember the year of Michael, Scottie and Dennis? Kid's stuff compared to Shaq, Kobe, the Mailman and The Glove. Perhaps Shaq and Karl could form their own precinct of the LAPD.

In any case, the Lakers not only would have to deal with the Spurs, but the Dallas Mavericks have the inside track on adding Alonzo Mourning as their center. At this point, even a one-kidneyed, one-eyed, one-legged Mourning is more effective than Shawn Bradley.

Minnesota recently completed a trade that made them stronger, getting Sam Cassell and Ervin Johnson from Milwaukee for two players whose names I can't remember. And this completely disregards the Sacramento Kings, who many feel should have won the title two years ago, would have won the title this past year had Webber not been injured and may win the title in any of the next three or four years.

Meanwhile, in the East, Grant Hill is about to retire, Vince Carter already has said he doesn't want the Raptors' first-round draft pick, the Knicks are banking on Maciej Lampe and the Charlotte Bobcats are about to become an expansion team, which means they are 32 years away from making the playoffs.

Which would be about the time the West relinquishes its reign.

Frank Hughes, who covers the NBA for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.