The celebration stopped Byron Scott on his way to the dressing room, Shaquille O'Neal clogging the hallway, arms and hands reaching to touch the MVP of the NBA Finals. So, the Nets coach had to take the long way back to his locker room, passing back through courtside and listening to the Nets fans still there calling Scott's name. The Nets coach stayed on the move, eyes to the floor, his mind fast forwarding to a summer spent searching for someone to spare him the embarrassment of a Finals sweep.

As he marched to his office, Scott could hear the Lakers celebrating the three-peat he could never win with the Lakers, the championship moment that was so far from the Nets. There is no guarantee they're getting back to the Finals with Tuesday's trade for 76ers center Dikembe Mutombo, no guarantee it'll convince Jason Kidd to stay the course.

	Keith Van Horn didn't get the Nets' most important vote of confidence -- from Jason Kidd.

There is just this once unthinkable possibility for the New Jersey Nets: A guarantee they're going for it.

If the Nets were ever going to get back to the Finals with a fighting chance this season and if they were ever going to sell Kidd on the possibilities in New Jersey -- Kenyon Martin had ended the championship series blurting what everyone within the Nets has believed privately -- they'd have do it without Keith Van Horn. They would have to get bigger, stronger and tougher. They had to run him on the rail line.

"Some guys don't have it in them," Martin said. "…Guys come to play every day, and some guys, you don't know when they're going to show up. I can deal with losing. But guys that don't bring it every day, that's something I can't deal with."

When Kidd climbed on Martin's post-Game 4 pig-pile, punctuating Van Horn's pitiful NBA Finals series with a public vote of no confidence, the soft-serve forward was done in Jersey. They left the onus on Nets president Rod Thorn to make his bid for consecutive Executive of the Year awards. So, he didn't just trade the softest max-out player on the planet with center Todd MacCulloch to the Sixers. Thorn traded them for an immense inside presence.

He traded tomorrow for a shot at today.

"This was pretty much a no-brainer," Scott said Tuesday night. "This fits more the mold of the team I'd like to have."

They've always been the franchise pointing to its promise, but those days are gone. Finally, they're going for it. Of course, they have no choice. They're guaranteed one more season with the Nets' most magnificent star since Dr. J, and accordingly, they're treating 2002-03 like their Armageddon. If Mutombo isn't the franchise center to make re-signing with the Nets irresistible for Kidd, he makes the Nets the clear favorite to come out of the East again.

	“	In the East, there are a lot of teams with very little difference. We felt we needed to get stronger ... We got stronger. ”
		— Rod Thorn

"If Charlotte had (Jamal) Mashburn, for instance, what would have happened?" Thorn said. "We beat Indiana in a series that went down to the last second. In the East, there are a lot of teams with very little difference. We felt we needed to get stronger ... We got stronger."

Between Mutombo and Martin, Kidd and Richard Jefferson, these Nets will stop people. Once again, Thorn has had a terrific summer on the job. Chris Childs was a smart signing as Kidd's understudy -- an old-school, on-the-ball defender. For all the progress they made a year ago with the burgeoning, young all-star forwards with Martin and Jefferson, the Nets are pushing for everything now.

They had to do it. They didn't just ridiculously raise ticket prices; they have expectations. The Nets want the state to sign off on a Newark arena plan, insisting they'll move out of New Jersey without it. If they lose Kidd to free agency next summer, they might as well shut the doors on the franchise in Jersey. They ought to just pack up and leave. Kidd has his center now and a fighting chance to get back to the Finals. Just maybe he has his reason to stay.

So, this trade goes back to the night the season was closing down, the night Byron Scott made that long walk past the Lakers' locker room at Continental Airlines Arena, past that familiar scent of celebration's champagne. Shaq was clogging the entrance, so Scott had to walk the long way around him. It doesn't work this way in the NBA. There's just one way to get to that champagne shower: Go through him.

Adrian Wojnarowski is a columnist for The Record (N.J.) and a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at ESPNWOJ@aol.com.