If the NBA and NHL playoffs were Denise Richards, then the Bruins and the Celtics would be Charlie Sheen. (Ordered to stay more then 50 feet away).  I love watching the playoffs in every sport, but without local representatives in the big dance (as Bill Parcells calls the playoffs) I must look for teams to temporally root for. I agree with the rules regarding what teams a person is allowed to root for that Bill Simmons wrote in his intro to the book Now I Can Die In Piece, but I would add one more. If your team is not in the playoffs you must root for a team that has players that either came up via the farm system or were drafted by your hometown franchise. People have ridiculed me for this philosophy over the years, but I will always be a fan of Bledsoe, Clemens, Glenn, Vaughn, Law and Nomah (more on Nomah in my next sox blog column) ext. and when it comes to the current NBA and NHL playoffs Walker, Thornton, and Samsonov. Thus, I am rooting for the Heat, Sharks, and Oilers. You may ask since Joe and Sammy are both facing each other who am I rooting for? I would say Joe because he is the bigger name and Joe winning a cup would subsequently validate Joe as an NHL great and make the Bruins brass look like the fools they are. In general I am also rooting for both Joe and Sammy to have good stats and last night they both had a goal and an assist as Edmonton beat the sharks 6-3 to nod the series at 2-2. Walker or as I call him Cybertoine had a solid 16 point game in the Heat win as well. ( I think it was in 98 or 99, but there was a commercial for the E.A. video game NBA Live that featured Walker as Cybertoine. I have called Walker this for the past 7 or 8 and years and thought it was a good nickname because he has these herky jerky moves that remind me of what happens to video games characters when the game starts screwing up on you, but alas this nick name never really caught on with the masses.)