I know I'm not saying anything original or particularly profound here, but that's okay. I'm saying it as much for myself as anyone else. I've just been through...something, and writing about it feels important.

First things first: it may sound strange to say about a 4-1 series, but a few bounces either way and this would have been a whole different encounter. Any number of us could write volumes about what they did wrong against Utah, etc etc etc. It's easy to be critical of a whole lot of things, because there's a part of all of us, I'm sure, that feels like they should have had this one.

And while it's tempting to let that bitterness take over, I want to flip it. So maybe they should have had it...just stop and think about that for a second. What that implies is that the Warriors -- the fucking Warriors, the 18-64 Warriors, the John Starks and Jim Jackson and Todd Fuller Warriors -- had a legitimate shot at the Western Conference Finals.

Did you see that coming? No -- my question is: did you feel entitled to that when this season began?

I didn't think so.

A close friend of mine, who roots hard for Minnesota but has adopted the W's as his step-club over the years, called me two weeks ago this Thursday to confess that he choked up as the clock was winding down in Game 6 against Dallas. I clowned him for a minute, saying I'd kept my composure perfectly. Which was true.

Then I admitted that I'd teared up too, only in my case it was after Game 3. As the clock wound down on that game, I put my head in my hands (I was in a public place) and just kept muttering to myself, "They won." Over and over, just like that. "They won. They fucking won." At one point a much older guy came over and put his arm around me. I opened my eyes, looked and then stood up, and we hugged.

I said it that night, on this board, and I'll say it again now: everything after that moment, everything after Game 3 of the Mavericks series, was pure gravy for me. I couldn't ask for any more than they gave me with that one win.

Something I've been thinking about these past couple of weeks is that sports have been with human beings just about from the beginning. People dismiss them as superficial or trivial, but we have carried sport with us since we first stood upright and decided to band together. A great deal has been written about that fact, I know. People have all sorts of theories.

I don't have a theory. I can't begin to explain why this stuff means as much to me as it does. But whatever it is that sport, at its best, is supposed to do for you...I'm pretty sure that being a fan of the Golden State Warriors has done it for me.

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