As far as coming out on top with the right mentality and it molding you into the best human being you can be, I think that's what Brooklyn did for me. I became an All-Star, I got to touch the playoffs. To get a piece of that, I'm forever thankful.

Sports exact too harsh a toll on our beautiful women. Like engendered species, they should be protected, and instead, we exploit them and demand they fly too close to the sun for our amusement. We send them into the arena for an exhausting three-setter, an 18-hole playoff, a 200th lap. The burnout factor is insurmountable.

It's cool to make the playoffs. It's not cool to lose in the first round anymore. The goal is to make the Finals.

I really love Philadelphia and all of the fans, my teammates, the front office, the organization, everybody. I know I'm going to miss them. I really appreciate everything we did together. On the other side, I am happy because I have a chance to go to the playoffs. Another opportunity, maybe, to go to the World Series.

In the playoffs, it's win or go home. You might not have a chance to look back at a game and say, 'Man, we didn't box out here.'

It's not how you start the season, it's how you finish. If you wind up helping the team make the playoffs, that's what you play for. You don't play to put up your numbers, but to try to get a chance to make it to the World Series.

The beauty about the playoffs is how you make an adjustment, how you come back game-to-game, and to be locked in and focused to win.

Ultimately if you can say that I'm a bad owner and we're winning championships I can live with that. But if we're not making the playoffs and we're spending and losing money then I have to look in the mirror and say maybe I'm not taking the necessary steps to doing what it takes to run an organization.

When I look back at the tapes your first everything your first All-Star Game your first playoff experience it just seems like it went by really fast.