At least once in life, if you're lucky, you're in the right place at the right time when profound steps on your foot. I was in the locker room of the Philadelphia 76ers in the spring of 1983, amid a gaggle of reporters surrounding Moses Malone sitting casually at his locker after a shower.

You always listened closely to Moses. His deep voice, combined with the slow Southern tone of his native Petersburg, Va., and the fact he tended to clip the end of his words, made understanding him a challenge. Malone was a very smart man, wise in a down-home way, but most folks hardly knew it because he was difficult to quote.

On this occasion, the 76ers were preparing for the playoffs, which were three rounds at the time. The 76ers boasted, besides Malone, Julius Erving, Maurice Cheeks and one of my favorite players of all time, Andrew "The Assassin" Toney. They were far and away the league's best team (they were 65-17) and Malone, an undersized center with a deft scoring touch who was a rebounding machine, was the game's most dominant player.

The question put to him was simple: How do you think you guys will do in the playoffs?

"Fo', fo' fo'," was what he said, which caused us all to pause for a bit, pens stilled as we deciphered and digested his words.

"What?" someone asked.

"Fo' fo' fo'," he repeated, this time with a slight hint of incredulity.

Almost at once, we all seemed to realize what he was saying - that the 76ers would win all three playoff series in four-game sweeps. Fo', fo', fo'.

It almost happened. The Sixers swept the New York Knicks, took out the Milwaukee Bucks in five games, then swept the Los Angeles Lakers.

So it was fo,' five, fo', but who was counting. Those of us who were there when Malone uttered his prediction still talk about it like fans who were at a game when something historic happens. We chuckle about it, and are amazed that the words still stand a generation later, as if Moses had carved them into a set of stone tablets...

...then handed them to LeBron James.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are not those Sixers. After James, there's not a Hall of Famer among them, nor even a perennial All-Star.

But they are far and away the best team still standing in he NBA postseason and, right now, they're threatening to go fo' fo' fo' (fo') for real.

They trampled Detroit as if the Pistons were the Washington Generals and spanked Atlanta so badly in Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference semis that the Hawks looked as if they might lose to the Generals.

While most of the other combatants are slugging it out in their respective series (Denver being the exception where opponent Dallas has so far been only the slugee). the Cavs act like they're auditioning for "Dancin' with the Stars," putting on a running, passing and dunking show that looks more like a performance than a competition.

"I'm having a ball," James said after Thursday's 105-85 romp. "I'm having a ball."

It isn't exactly fo' fo' fo' but it'll have to do for now.

AP photos