A Little Locker Room Juice

Awvee Storey (Greg Fiume - Nbae/getty Images)

Whatever happened to drinking fountains? Before Game 4, we spotted Awvee Storey of the Washington Wizards' Largely Inconsequential But Unfailingly Polite Six toting a case of Vitamin Water around the locker room. His personal space also contained SmartWater, and Dasani water, and mango-flavored Gatorade.

Then Antawn Jamison approached and, unprompted, attempted to convince us that Fiji Natural Artesian Water is the world's best. (That water's slogan is "Untouched by Man," which, coincidentally, is also the Wizards' defensive strategy.)

And after the Wizards' stirring Game 4 win, Antonio Daniels chugged a mysterious bottle of fluorescent red liquid. Turns out it was tropical fruit punch-flavored Nutri-build III®, a dietary supplement that includes the always-yummy glucosamine hydrochloride, d-calcium pantothenate and cyanocobalamin. Cyanocobalamin is a synthetic form of Vitamin B12 that, like every self-respecting dietary supplement ingredient, has its own Web site ( http://www.cyanocobalamin.com/ ). We can only assume that cyanocobalamin will soon start its own blog.

Anyhow, Nutri-build III® can be mixed with plain water, or with Fiji Natural Artesian Water, or with a "fluid replacement beverage" of your choice. Daniels is particularly partial to a blend of tropical fruit punch-flavored Nutri-build III® and "orange-orange" flavored Vitamin Water.

"It tastes like something from Dairy Queen when you do that," Daniels confided to us yesterday. "I don't know the exact terms, but it puts whatever goes out of you back in you."

Feeling a bit peaked after the morning media session, and loving us some Dairy Queen, we attempted to locate Nutri-build III® in downtown Washington. Alas, it is not available for retail purchase in this market.

"We're heading up there soon," promised the friendly salesperson we spoke to.

Sign of the (Playing) Times: After playing 71 games in the regular season, Etan Thomas logged a total of seven minutes in Washington's first three playoff games.

Some players might pout. Not the Bard of F Street. The Thomas household went freeform on the problem; wife Nichole showed up to Game 4 with a Gatorade-green sign, bearing the words "Put 36 IN!!!" There were red hearts in the corners.

Not exactly Nikki Giovanni, but it was quite evocative, conjuring up memories of those all-star baseball games in which mom lobbied for us to get a shot as a pinch runner or something.

"That's right, we're trying to bring it back to where you fell in love with the game," Nichole said. "We'll get home, talk to [Etan], see if this did anything and go from there."

Did the sign work? Well, Thomas didn't play in Game 4, but Coach Eddie Jordan said yesterday that the center is "on my mind." Because of the sign?

"I heard about that," Jordan said. "I'm happy for the support."

Who! Who! Who?: "Who is he?!" shouted the well-dressed man as he entered the Wizards' locker room.

"Who Is He?!" roared Jared Jeffries, wearing a shirt that identified him as a "Top Gun."

"Who Is He?!" the well-dressed man shouted to Brendan Haywood.

"Who Is He?!" Haywood replied.

Is this what Donte Whitner felt like?

We had a simple question about the well-dressed man -- "who is he?" -- but were too bashful to ask. Yesterday, though, the question was answered. "He" is Keith Veney, a Nike NBA player representative who set the NCAA record for three-pointers in a career (409) and single game (15) while at Marshall. The first time Jeffries and Haywood saw Veney, they asked . . . well, you can probably figure out what they asked.

"So now he's the Big Who Is He, and Brendan and Jared are the Little Who Is He, whatever the hell that is," a team employee told us.

-- Dan Steinberg