You're invited to the Lakers' locker room following their title-clinching Game 5 victory over the Sixers. As the media crush stampedes its way down the hall, the smell hits before you've even rounded the corner to the doorway. It's not the stinky socks or sweaty seven-footer odor you'd be expecting after a game, but a pungent smell of champagne, with the feeling of carbonation floating up to tickle your nostrils.

Shaq shows off the new hardware. AP Photos

Once actually inside the locker room, the first question that strikes you is, where are the players? All you can see are bodies packed in like sardines, with TV cameras swinging wildly and tape recorders held skyward to capture any free-floating sound bite. Something hits your shoulder and you turn around to discover you're face to face with a rather wet Lakers guard, Ron Harper. At last, a player.

"It's great for our team. It's great to be back," Harper says. "Even though y'all probably thought we wouldn't be here again, but we found our way back. Our team played a great team game and ..." He gets cut off by a deluge of water poured over his head by a Lakers staffer. Water? How'd that slip in amongst the Dom?

"I knew," Harper exclaims, once he's wiped his face. "I told them in February we were going to be NBA champions. I know my teammates and I know how good the team played as a team. It's the heart and pride of this team. We've got big hearts. You all talk about the heart of their team (the Sixers), but we've got big hearts on this side."

A shift in the crowd jostles you away from Harper and into reserve forward Devean George. It's his second ring in his two years in the league -- certainly impressive, although there's a look in his eyes that says he's wishing he could talk about his minutes along with his teammates. Truth be told, this isn't exactly a boisterous bunch, so what he can talk about is where to find the party.

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Guess again. "I don't know," George says. "I think we're leaving in the morning, so there will be one somewhere tonight."

That's great. No help at all. So the question turns to comparing the team's back-to-back titles.

"This one's a lot better than last year," he says. "I think because of the bumps we had on the way through, the injuries, the feuding and everything. I think it made it that much better to come back and win it when a lot of people doubted us."

The media throng suddenly parts like the Red Sea, leaving a wide-open lane to forward Horace Grant. He reiterates the common theme among his teammates.

"I think this one is special because we went through some hard times earlier in the year," Grant says. "As soon as we hit our groove, the rest is history. We knew what kind of a team we had here. The coaching staff knew. We just had to go out and get the job done."

As Grant talks, you're looking around, wondering if you missed the celebration. Where's the crazy jumping up and down, with champagne spewing as if from a geyser? Where's the screaming? Where's the jubilee? The atmosphere in the locker room is one of anticipated accomplishment. Yeah, we did it. We knew we would. Big whoop.

Rick Fox stands on a bench, surrounded by microphones. His wayward curls have calmed for the moment, slicked back by the champagne. The smile on his face reflects some of the glee you were expecting from the whole team.

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The dynasty question comes up. "I don't know," Fox says and then directs a question of his own across the room to Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak. "We gonna keep this team together?"

"Absolutely," is the answer.

Wandering out of the locker room, you see Kobe Bryant carrying the Larry O'Brien Trophy down the hall, engulfed in an entourage that's probably mostly media. There's some visible glee on his face as well and he shouts to no one in particular, "I'm ready to get home to my wife!"

Next, you run into Shaquille O'Neal, who has left the interview room but is still besieged by reporters. His manner remains the same as if it was January and the Lakers had just beaten a lottery team. He keeps his voice low and monotone.

"Everything that happened, happened for a reason," he says, responding to yet another question about the Lakers' midseason travails. "And that's what makes it feel so good now."

As O'Neal disappears into the family area, head coach Phil Jackson walks by, puffing away on his victory cigar. Bryant and the trophy pass through on another lap and meet Jackson in the middle of a nearby room, pausing momentarily before each continues on his path.

Finally Robert Horry clears up the mystery behind the strange, reserved mood of his team.

"You hate to say this, but you wish you did it in front of your own fans. It just doesn't feel right," Horry says. "You love to win a championship, but it feels so much better to do it in front of your fans. To hear their yelling and screaming, it just gets you a little bit more psyched."

But never fear. What the Lakers lacked in a fanfare from the city of Philadelphia, Los Angeles will more than make up for when the team arrives home. They waited this long for their championship. They can wait a little longer for their party.