At Cleveland April 18 3:00PM Round 1 Game 1

Whatever works to to rally everyone together. One thing all championship teams have in common is that everyone is on the same page. You can't have any players stepping out and doing their own thing.

He may have been different but he did what he was asked to do.

Worthy is more like, "Where is my kiss?"

Or just not play any defense other than the third man over who blocks the shot from behind and then flexes about it.



In some ways this series will be about the character of this team in ways that none of the others have. I don't think there is any option for this bunch to return next year in anywhere near the same form. So the only real question is how gently they will choose to go into that good night.

Because it is a choice. They can put up a facade, maybe win a game at home, maybe just get close in one, prove that '04 was indeed a fluke, and quietly fade off into obscurity, holders of the also-ran record that no one will ever remember. Or they can get out of their heads and just play and make it interesting. I still don't know if they can win, but they can walk away, heads high with a little of the old swagger.

For too many years this team thought it was too good to scratch and claw to gain any advantage possible - to do the things that cause champions to be champions. They cruised and didn't bother with the dirty work because they thought it was beneath them. And we all know exactly how far a boatload of talent and that attitude will get you.

Did they lose to Miami and Cleveland and Boston because they were the less talented team? No, they lost in two of those three because the refs favored a player who choose to fight, to expend the effort required to win, to lay it all on the floor without worrying about whether they would look pretty doing it. They lost because they choose to be affronted by the calls rather than choosing to fight back. And if they had fought back those calls would have dried up.

Make no mistake about it. It is a choice. Call it the switch, call it whatever you want. It's about looking in the mirror and deciding that you will do whatever it takes not to lose, all the while knowing that might not be enough. And more importantly, knowing that you just don't care as long as you can look in the mirror tomorrow.

I hope this team chooses to play this out with their heads high. Held high from the shoulders, and not drawn up by noses that stick into the air. That team can wake up on the day after and feel proud, not to be winners or losers, but to have played the game, dare I say it, the right way. In the end, can any of us hope for anything else?