Dime: Everyone always wants to know the deal with your nickname, “The Custodian.” Where did you pick it up and do you like it?
BC: Oh yeah. (laughs) The “Custodian” came when I was in my first year in Detroit. Jerome Williams — he was known as the “Junkyard Dog” – and one day after practice I had dove on the floor or taken a couple charges or something like that, and he came up to me and said, “You know, you need a nickname.” I said, “Jeez, a nickname?!” I said, “Hell, I just want people to know who I am or know my first name! He said, “Nah, you really need a nickname.” He thought about it and said, “Brian…The Custodan…Cardinal. Sounds great.” So he kind of came up with it just because I was doing the dirty work. I was taking the charges, I was diving on the ground for the ball. That’s where it started and it’s kind of taken on a life of its own.

Dime: Who’s the best player you’ve ever played with?
BC: Gotta be Dirk. Pau is pretty talented, Pau is pretty good, but I think when it boils down to it, the best player I’ve ever played with has to be Dirk.

Dime: Why?
BC: You know I played with Jordan towards the end of his career. He was 40 and he was still pretty good, but I think Dirk’s just the best, because he’s a seven-footer. He’s got all these crafty shots. I wouldn’t even call them trick shots because he practices them. And he just knows how to play. He’s a smart player, and if the game’s on the line, I know who I’m giving it to — it’s him.

Dime: If you could take one NBA player’s talents and make them your own, who would it be and why?
BC: Can I say J.J. Barea’s height? I always wanted to be small and quick. How about that?

Dime: Talk a little bit more about Barea. Were you surprised he got the start in Game 4? Did the move catch the team off guard?
BC: I don’t know, I think everybody felt that we could beat them with the lineup that we had and with the rotation that we had, but I think Coach thought he needed to spice things up. J.J. was great against Bibby, and you know, struggled a little bit against Chalmers, so to take him off the bench and put him in the starting lineup was critical to our success. I think sitting Peja and playing me was huge, and Coach Carlisle just did a tremendous job of having faith in all of us guys. You know, you win 70-something games with DeShawn Stevenson in the lineup and you don’t necessarily demote him, but you put him on the bench. A lot of guys would get frustrated, get upset, mad, but I think J.J. embraced the starting role, and I think Deshawn embraced his role coming off the bench and played awesome. I think those two moves by Coach really put us over the top. I think we needed another scorer out there. J.J. was so great in the Lakers series and nobody could stop the guy – it was awesome to see. After that, Coach really just wanted to get him a few more minutes and one of the only ways to do that is by starting him. Starting him and having him go against Bibby right away was huge and energized us right away, and I think that’s really one of the main reasons why we won.

Dime: You have a pretty popular Twitter account these days. Who is your favorite player to follow on Twitter?
BC: Wow, man, I don’t even know if I follow any players on Twitter. (laughs) I follow farmers, mechanics… those are my favorite followers, or guys who I follow.