He is a coach's dream and, truth be told, a tabloid's worst nightmare. Eric Snow plays hard even when he isn't playing well, plays in pain, is nice to anyone who is nice to him, and repels trouble the way Allen Iverson attracts it.

"Thing is, I have always tried to be a good guy and do the right things," he was saying yesterday as the Sixers readied themselves for tonight's Game 5 against the Pistons. "Sometimes, that's not good enough."

He paused for a second.

"Not sometimes. It isn't."