21.   Great potential to become playoff contender after first two or three seasons, just like Panthers and Jaguars.

22.   Golden State is still trying to decide whether it wants to be a playoff contender or hope for a good pick in the draft lottery.

23.   He can look at the Eastern Conference and figure his team, if healthy, would be a viable playoff contender.

24.   He has had conversations with some of the veterans on the team about what it will take to become a playoff contender.

25.   He insisted the remarks to his team were in keeping with previous statements that he would step down if he could not mold Boston into playoff contender this season.

26.   He knows very well that his team remains a viable playoff contender because of the whims of incompetent referees.

27.   He is the biggest reason the franchise has gone from its sorry state last year to a playoff contender.

28.   He is playing for a playoff contender.

29.   --He said the team would be a perennial playoff contender.

30.   He saw the work it took to become perennial playoff contenders, and he is one of the players who feels personally responsible for not letting it slip away.