choice was football, and from his own days as a high school quarterback.

That is partially true. Sure, football taught him to embrace physical play, but Harpring pinpoints the starting point of his

enforcer role to the first moment he stepped on the court as an NBA player when he was with Orlando and the Magic were playing the New York Knicks.

"My first play of the game, I got in a scuffle with Chris Childs," he said, a twisted grin playing across his face as he relived the

moment. "He pushed me, I pushed him, and that started the whole thing."

Harpring went from being the quick-scoring machine that he was in college to a guy who built a reputation on doling out as many hard knocks as he took.

"They used to fine us a lot and I was getting a lot of technicals," he said. "I had to learn to tone it down a bit."

That he was reliving his early rough-and-tumble days while still sporting a bruise on his left cheek he sustained in the series with

Golden State is evidence he may have toned it down some, but not too much. He might not be as hotheaded, but the love for a physical game

is still there.

Half the highlights shown of Harpring seem to be of him flying into the fans' seats chasing down loose balls, sticking his mug into the elbow of an opponent to draw a foul or coming out of the bottom of a scrum with the ball.

He can make nice, clean mid-range jumpers, but not surprisingly Harpring's trademark offensive move is a strong cut to the basket

that takes him behind or sometimes through a defender and finishes with a layup.

Harpring was a quarterback in high school; now he plays basketball more like a fullback.

"We call him 'inside banger,' " teammate Mehmet Okur said. "He's always trying to bang people. He bangs defenders to create the

contact and space for himself. He brings energy for us off the bench and we need him out there."

Harpring hasn't been in the starting lineup on a consistent basis after his first year with the Jazz in 2002-03. Some would take being

demoted to the backups as a slight, but Harpring has learned to relish it, so much so that coach Jerry Sloan hesitates to start him

even when Andrei Kirilenko is in a major slump as he was at times in the regular season.

In talking about the Spurs' Tim Duncan, Harpring said he admires the star because of all the little things he does to help his team win such as deflections, hustle plays and assists. He could have been talking about himself.

"I just want to provide a spark, something different than what the starting five presents," Harpring said. "There is a different

mentality, and you have to be ready to go right away as opposed to starting when you get a couple trips up and down the court to get

loose and get a feel of the game."

With Kirilenko finding his game once again, the combination of playing Harpring and Kirilenko together was too much for the Warriors to handle, and Kirilenko hopes the two can do more damage together in

this series.

"He likes to bang people, it's like a hockey style or American football," Kirilenko said. "I'm more flexible, so it's hard for teams to guard two forwards who are different. If they seal one off, I can just flex right around them."