Our subscriber figures -- and the resulting gains on both the top and bottom lines -- reflect the most successful year Iridium has had since our service re-launch in 2001. With four profitable quarters in a row, Iridium is on an exceptionally strong financial foundation with a business model that is self- funding.

I said at the start of the year, from top to bottom, this is going to be the most competitive the league has been. I made the statement the league wouldn't be determined until the last weekend, and that's still the case. It seems like anything can happen.

Top to bottom, it's been terrific all year long. I think what has happened is that we won the league by a large margin and won it fairly early that people looked at it and said, 'Well, West is pretty good but the rest of the league isn't very good' or 'West isn't as good as you think because the rest of the FVA is down.' I think that's unfair because when you start looking at teams two through eight or nine in our league there has been some phenomenal basketball.

Think about a descent from top to the bottom.

These figures start getting bigger and bigger and bigger each year.

The clay figures don't keep well. They do keep for a year or two, and then the clay cracks up and falls off the skeleton. I guess they could demand a facelift.