Yuri, for his part, was on the verge of saying Come on, let's blow this place, find something better to do. It would have been what he'd said when they were kids. And the sentiment was more or less the same--suddenly, the pageantry of the whole situation was grating; he wanted to call a time out, tell the shrinks to take a hike because this was real . It felt like the first conversation he'd had in months. Maybe more.

He glances at the clock to see how much longer they have to do this before settling back into the game. "I've grown," he says with heavy irony. "Sure. We'll, let's see, I've got three kids, and I still don't like the color blue. No offense. "