Dominance is nothing without dynamism.

The San Antonio Spurs may become the gold standard of professional sports by winning four NBA titles in nine seasons, but they don’t inspire goose bumps.

Amassing championship hardware is wonderful, but it doesn’t hurt to win with style, panache and few hurt feelings along the way.

The Spurs not only respect one another, they actually - gasp - like one another . There’s not a whisper of animosity. Tony Parker probably will have all of his teammates serve as his best men at his wedding later this summer to starlet Eva Longoria because he couldn’t choose just one.

And then there’s NASCAR.

It had the most valuable free agent in all of sports in Dale Earnhardt. And what did Junior do? He signed a five-year deal with the NASCAR equivalent of the New York Yankees - Hendrick Motorsports.

So Earnhardt will join Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, with their combined five Cup championships. They’ve won. Junior hasn’t. Yet he’ll be the golden child devouring all the oxygen that surrounds the team.

Egos will be trampled. There’ll be ill will.

Great! Love it! It makes for compelling theater.

More important, it brings added attention to your sport when you have a dominant team that nobody can ignore. Personality determines the level of publicity as much as performance. It skews priorities but nonetheless sells tickets and keeps your brand relevant.

NASCAR spins itself as an extension of family. It weaves a tale of sentimentality and talk about how Earnhardt looked upon team owner Rick Hendrick as a surrogate father and how it was the wish of Hendrick’s late son, Ricky, that one day Junior would race for Hendrick.

Nice try, but I’m not buying it. This was cold, cruel business.

Junior finally is growing up. At 32, he knows his performance hasn’t matched his hype.

Earnhardt’s dominating advertising presence - hawking cars, blue jeans and beer - has elevated the sport’s profile, but true believers have one standard for gaining credibility - winning championships.

Earnhardt is moving on with his life and his career. The only way he will win a Nextel Cup title is with Hendrick Motorsports. The team has better cars, better financial backing and better technology.

Meantime, NASCAR will thrive thanks to the confrontations that Hendrick’s uber-team will inspire.

The Indy Racing League recently forced Danica Patrick and Dan Wheldon to kiss and make up after Patrick accused Wheldon of throwing her car into the wall.

It was beautiful. She lashed at him. He retorted that her hissy fit was the result of her never having won anything.

It was a display of unvarnished personality that had people actually talking about IRL for once when it didn’t involve the Indianapolis 500. Would they come to blows in the future if their emotions kept percolating?

But the IRL choked on the opportunity. It was an easy lay-up, but the IRL looked as lost as Anderson Varejao with the basketball and time running out on the shot clock.

NASCAR would have kept the embers smoldering.

There’ll be combustibility when Junior joins Jeff and Jimmie because he’ll have the most juice. How well all three can get along on one team will be one of the more intriguing subplots of 2008.

And exactly what’s wrong with that?

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