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Gary Forbes' team trailed by 14 points midway through the fourth quarter, the atmosphere in the gym had gone flat and nobody would've faulted the Denver Nuggets swingman if he packed it in, got ready for his first vacation in five years.

Instead, Forbes treated the Fireball championship Sunday at Baruch College in lower Manhattan like it was an NBA tryout. He put together a memorable 25-point fourth quarter with ferocious drives to the hoop, jumpers, offensive rebounds and put-backs, steals, trips to the free throw line as X-Men rallied for a thrilling 127-126 win over Bingo's All-Stars.

"When I'm on the court, I always feel like I'm one of the best players on the court," he said. "I always have that confidence."

It's that relentless mindset that has propelled the 25-year-old Forbes into the NBA after a meandering career that included two high schools, two colleges and stints in the NBADL and overseas in the Philippines, Italy, Venezuela and Italy.

"It was my deram since I was little kid, everybody knows I just work hard, it's ataetmnet to working hard and not giving up, just dedication trying to get your dream," he said.

Forbes, a rugged 6-foot-7, 220-pound wing, finally made it last winter with Denver. He averaged 10.1 points per game during the preseason and stuck the whole year, tallying 5.2 per game in 63 appearances (11 starts) and even saw minutes in the postseason.

"He's an NBA player," New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony told reporters then, as a member of the Nuggets. "He's got an NBA body, a guy who's willing to learn. He's just a good addition to the team."

True to his nature, Forbes didn't celebrate the accomplishment; no he was back at Denver's training complex shortly after the first-round loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder feverishly working at his game even though the looming NBA Lockout could delay what now seems like an extremely bright future.

"Whenever the season does start, I'll be ready," said Forbes, a restricted free agent who received a one-year qualifying offer from the team.

And when the former All-City talent at Banneker and 2007-08 Atlantic 10 Player of the Year at UMass came back home to Brooklyn, he didn't rest, either – playing with X-Men at Fireball, a league featuring many local stars still looking to make it like Forbes has.

"The best players in the world always work when everybody else isn't working," he said. "I'm trying to model myself after them, the Kobe Bryants and Michael Jordans of the world."

In many ways, the Fireball championship followed the same path as his career. He's never been that flashy star, never been a dead-on marksman from the perimeter or highlight film producer, but was always successful. Forbes led Banneker to a PSAL Class B championship and the 2003 PSAL Class A title game, a loss to Lincoln and Sebastian Telfair, and enjoyed a standout two-year career at UMass after transferring from Virginia.

He's like a fine wine, getting better the longer you watch him, which was true in the Fireball championship game.

He kept on pushing, getting to the rim and the free-throw line, pushing like has to finally make the league. The final result was successful, Forbes leading X-Men to the crown.

After the title, he said he's finally ready to relax somewhat. Before participating in the FIBA Americans Championships in Argentina in late August, he will take a week-long vacation to Hawaii. It, of course, won't be all relaxation, however. Forbes plans to bring his basketball.

"I'm still gonna do some workouts and do something productive," he said. "I play basketball all year round."

A long line stretched down the block in front of New York's first Potbelly sandwich shop just an hour after it opened on Maiden Lane Tuesday morning.

A steady stream of downtown office workers arrived throughout lunchtime to check out the chain's signature toasted sandwiches, fresh-baked cookies and live music.

"I like the hot peppers," said Rohan Tilak, 23, an Upper East Side resident who frequented Potbelly in his home state of Michigan. "The level of quality seems to be higher [than other sandwich shops]. And the prices are awesome."

The two sandwiches that had the most fans on Tuesday — "A Wreck," with salami, roast beef, turkey, ham and Swiss cheese, and "Italian" with capicola, mortadella, pepperoni, salami and provolone cheese — each cost only $5.80.

Many of the customers said they remembered Potbelly from business trips to Washington, DC, or from their college towns in the Midwest, and they were excited to see the shop open in Manhattan. Potbelly started in Chicago in 1977 and now has more than 200 locations.

Marilyn Oza, 27, a Financial District resident, said her favorite is the vegetarian sandwich with mushrooms and Swiss, provolone and cheddar cheeses.

"It's spicy, it's greasy and the cookies are really good too," Oza said as she enjoyed the sandwich Tuesday.

Anne Ewing, a zone manager for Potbelly, said New Yorkers have been begging the company to open a restaurant here for years.

"It's been fantastic," Ewing said at noon on Tuesday, looking at the line of hungry customers.

In a nod to the speed of life in the Financial District, the Maiden Lane location is the first to offer a takeout section with salads and yogurt for people who don't want to wait in line.

Potbelly plans to open five to six locations in Manhattan this year, including one at Lexington Avenue and 44th Street in mid-July and one at Rockefeller Center in mid-August, Ewing said.

The company hopes to open an additional five to 10 locations in Manhattan in 2012.

As the Tour de France kicks off at Passage du Gois this Saturday, Lance Armstrong, the man who has won the race a record seven times, won't be there. He's due to appear at the Aspen Ideas Festival, an event put on in part by the Aspen Institute, where he'll be giving a speech about using social media for social good.

Armstrong, who retired this year, stopped by earlier this month for the opening of Livestrong Sporting Park, a pro soccer stadium in Kansas City, Kan., named after his cancer foundation's brand. He pedaled in a recent event called the Harpeth River Ride near Nashville, Tenn., and joined the board of trustees of the Aspen Art Museum, which is planning a new 30,000-square-foot building by architect Shigeru Ban. "We are about to break ground on a new museum right downtown," Armstrong said in an email earlier this week.

Armstrong's public schedule and his visibility as an endorser have been topics of conversation in and out of cycling in recent months as he faces a public relations challenge and a potential legal fight. In the past 15 months, two of Armstrong's ex-teammates on the former U.S. Postal Service team publicly accused him of using banned performance-enhancing substances during his career.

A federal criminal investigation into alleged doping on his former U.S. Postal Service team and in pro cycling is continuing. The lead investigator in the U.S. criminal probe, special agent Jeff Novitzky of the Food and Drug Administration, didn't return messages. Armstrong has repeatedly denied doping allegations and has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

In announcing his retirement from professional cycling earlier this year, the 39-year-old Texan said he intended to spend more time with his children and would dedicate more energy to the Lance Armstrong Foundation he founded in 1997 after battling testicular cancer. Since late May, he has been spending more time in Aspen, Colo., with his girlfriend Anna Hansen and their two young children.

Armstrong is still working for a stable of sponsors including Nike, Nissan, Demand Media, FRS and Anheuser-Busch. This past spring, he made appearances at retailers and trade shows on behalf of Nike, one of the partners of his foundation. Nike, which makes a Livestrong collection of shoes, clothing and other merchandise, expanded the collection to Australia and New Zealand last month. "Our relationship with Lance remains as strong as ever," a Nike spokesman said.

Armstrong continues to appear in a commercial he taped late last year for Michelob Ultra. The ad, "The Right Trail," was shown during the recent U.S. Open golf broadcast, and is one of several Michelob Ultra ads that will run during this year's Tour de France. "Lance has performed as an extraordinary athlete in a demanding sport, making him admired by millions who lead active lifestyles," a spokesman for Anheuser-Busch said. "That was our opinion when we signed him and that is our opinion today." Mr. Armstrong signed a three-year deal with Michelob Ultra in 2009 that expires next year.

Compared to last year, when Armstrong competed in the Tour (he finished 23rd overall), his profile as a product endorser isn't what it was. Last year, advertisers including RadioShack, Anheuser-Busch, Trek and Nissan pitched their products in marketing efforts tied to Armstrong. RadioShack, which sponsored Armstrong's team, aired four television commercials featuring the cyclist. Nissan featured him riding his bike behind a Nissan Leaf.

Bill Stapleton, the agent who represents Armstrong in all aspects of his business, said in terms of marketing and advertising, Armstrong is " definitely in a lower profile position than he would be when he was competing, especially with the Tour de France beginning." Stapleton said it's only natural there'd be "some level of drop in demand," and that one "barometer" of that is fewer requests for speeches and public appearances by Armstrong. But Armstrong's still doing a lot of work, he said. Last year's Tour de France was "almost overkill," Stapleton said. "People probably knew that probably was his last one. You're definitely not going to have that sort of media wave this summer. And that's typical of a retired athlete."

The baby, State of Georgia, arrives Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. on ABC Family. It's a broad sitcom with a modicum of fun, written by big-time chick-lit author, and Philadelphian, Jennifer Weiner. She has sold 11 million books in 36 countries, but she has never made a TV show.

State of Georgia stars been-on-TV-since-she-was-a-baby Raven-Symone as Georgia and the well-traveled but still somewhat obscure Majandra Delfino, whom TV heads may best remember as the snarky Maria DeLuca, human girlfriend of an alien, on Roswell more than 10 years ago.

Delfino has never done a traditional sitcom before, and she's surprisingly good. "Sometimes you just look at her, and it's like visiting a museum," says Weiner, providing a clue as to how she got so rich and famous as an author, after leaving The Inquirer in 2001, following a six-year stint as a feature writer.

Weiner, pronounced WI-ner ("Anthony Weiner has ruined a perfectly good name for a lot of people," she says), is much greener than Delfino. Yet here she is, executive producer of her own show, surrounded by scads of cast, crew, and cowriters, with a TV veteran partner, Kirk Rudell, co-executive producer on Will & Grace, to keep things running smoothly.

It's very different from sitting all alone in a garret in Queen Village, where she has lived for years, making a book, and she's glad.

"I love being around people, having other people to talk to," she said in a phone interview from her L.A. office. "It's very lonely writing novels."

Weiner is a gregarious scribe. Many authors dread book-tour publicity. She says she likes it, and a new tour is in the offing. Then Came You, about a wealthy woman, her stepdaughter, an egg donor, and a surrogate mother, is 70th on the Amazon fiction list, and it won't be published for three weeks. She'll talk about the book in an appearance at the Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine St., on July 13.

OMAHA, Neb. — Depending on your perspective, South Carolina’s baseball team is either sitting on a perch or standing on a ledge.

A win tonight over Virginia and the Gamecocks fly off into the championship series, which begins Monday.

But two slips and they hit the ground.

Think it can’t happen? Scan the memory banks for Carolina, South, vs. Clemson, 2010. Or Carolina, South vs. Clemson, 2002.

Both years, the Gamecocks were in the same spot the Cavaliers are in this year: Win two or go home. Both times they won two to reach the championship round, taking their first national title a year ago.

“We’ve been on the other side,” South Carolina coach Ray Tanner said after the team’s practice Thursday at Creighton University. “If you don’t win tomorrow, the momentum kind of shifts.”

South Carolina defeated Texas A&M, 5-4, in the opener on Sunday and battered Virginia, 7-1, on Tuesday night to take control of the bracket. The Gamecocks say they aren’t about to squander the position.

“We’ve just got to go out and play our game,” said junior outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr., who batted cleanup and had a double and single in the first meeting with Virginia. “We’ve put ourselves in a really good situation and we’ve got to try to take advantage of it. If we don’t finish it off Friday, fortunately we do have the fall-back game.”

First baseman Christian Walker, who had two hits and drove in two runs Tuesday, said the team knows firsthand how quickly thinks can change. The Gamecocks won’t be looking past the Cavaliers, he said.

“We’re 100 percent focused, our heads are where they need to be,” Walker said. “We’re not taking anything for granted.”

The title of a book, along with maybe the cover, is most often what’s going to lead a potential reader to pick up your baby book. Which isn’t to say coming up with a good one is easy. To the contrary, it’s the sort of thing, like naming a band, that can cause everyone involved a lot of agony, particularly when an author has settled on something very early in the process and someone else (usually involved in selling it) however many months or years later decides that the book might be better served with something different.

So, how do we know if we have a good title? According to author Bennett Madison, there’s only one way: “Before you decide on your title for real, practice telling it to people at parties. If you can do it without cringing/wincing it’s the perfect title!”

Okay, now that you have your title in place (at least in from your vantage point) and your book is in production, what happens next? With a thought to find out, we asked a few authors—including Laurie Frankel, Suzanne Morrison, Richard Rushfield and Urban Waite—the following set of questions:

    Did the title of your book(s) change between selling your manuscript, submission, and publication?

    If so, who instigated the title change? Did your agent get involved at any point? Did your contract have any title provisions that came into play?

    Did you create the new title of the book or select one that was offered to you? Can you share some of the suggestions that were proposed?

    Did you “push back” in any way w/r/t the new title, and did the process cause any emotional or other trauma? (If so, did you recover?)

Let's dive in!