From shooting team commercials to shooting fictitious family portraits, the 2008-2009 Cavaliers are as complete of a team as I’ve ever seen.

Their chemistry is off the charts, you can tell by looking at them - their expressions towards one another - that all 15 of these guys truly and sincerely like and care for each other.

Not only are they winning, but they are having a blast while doing so.

Guys on the bench who don’t even sniff playing time are just as into the games as LeBron James, who rarely sniffs the bench.

Credit is due to general manager Danny Ferry and head coach Mike Brown who preach character and attitude, which often time for them, trumps talent.

Ferry got rid of the guys who didn’t want to be here (Larry Hughes, Damon Jones) and those who were a few tools short of a tool box (Drew Gooden).

A lot of the guys on the team this year have been looked over or were given up on by their former teams.

Delonte West was a third-string point guard for the lowly Seattle Supersonics (who are now the Oklahoma City Thunder). Ben Wallace’s career was on a severe decline and Detroit, nor Chicago, no longer wanted him. Wally Szczerbiak was on his third team in three years and Joe Smith, who some consider a bust, was the journeymen of all journeymen and has been to more cities than Carmen Sandiego.

The common characteristic with the aforementioned athletes is they are all good character guys with a team-first attitude.

Yes, Wallace, Szczerbiak and Smith are on the decline but these types of players are found on every single championship team. Guys who are selfless and don’t mind being sixth or seventh fiddle on the team. All three are former career starters, as well as former all-stars, who have happily accepted their roles coming off the bench on a championship contending team.

West is as tough as a player I’ve ever seen for a guy his size. He makes up for his lack of size with his heart and determination. He guards guys nightly who are six to seven inches taller than him and have much bigger bodies.

And it goes down the line. You don’t hear a peep from Sasha Pavlovic or Daniel Gibson for losing not only their starting positions at one point, but the majority of their minutes.

Never has their been a superstar who has been so unselfish in LeBron James. Rarely, if ever, do you see a 7-foot-3 center dive on the ground for loose ball as Zydrunas Ilgauskas does almost every game.

You don’t hear about off the court troubles which is so prevalent now for other teams in the NBA, you don’t hear about scuffles in the locker room and you don’t hear about players complaining about their roles, or lack thereof.

Countless times this season, when a player is down on the court, not only do the four other guys on the floor rush over to his side, the whole entire bench makes their way over.

This TEAM truly has one goal and they have bought into it.

As a life long Cleveland fan, we should be so lucky to experience 15 guys who literally pour their heart and soul into the game on a nightly basis, whether they are playing or not.

Cleveland hasn’t experienced a professional championship since 1964 and it’s good to see the team that has a real chance of bringing that drought to an end couldn’t happen to a better group of guys.

-Nick Carrabine