By Jeff Taylor

Jeff Taylor has been covering European basketball since 1997, when he first worked on the television program SLAM. He has been a basketball writer and broadcaster since that time, traveling the continent and covering the game in depth for FIBA Europe since its launch in 2003.

Have you ever being strapped into one of those crazy, lightning-fast roller coasters that shakes every organ in your body and basically turns you inside out?

My favorite ride is on the border of North and South Carolina at a place called Carowinds.

Afterburn is what it's called.

It's an inverted steel coaster with floorless cars suspended below the track.

With your feet dangling, you fly at a very high speed.

For you theme park ride experts, let's get technical.

There are six inversions, including a space drop, a vertical loop, an immelman, a batwing, a flat spin and a spiral.

This is the kind of ride the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls have their fans on right now.

On Thursday night, a fourth overtime game was played in the NBA Eastern Conference play-off series between the two sides and the Bulls won in triple OT, 128-127.

Before this year, no series had had more than two overtime games. Now there have been four!

I am taking a deeper interest in this year's NBA play-offs than usual because of Joakim Noah, a player who could have a seismic impact on France this summer in international competition.

The son of former French Open tennis champion Yannick Noah, Joakim is a second-year pro who won two straight NCAA titles at the University of Florida.

After a largely disappointing rookie campaign both on and off the court, he's got his act together big style.

In the important games, and all of the play-off games are hugely important, the high-energy Noah has been excellent, averaging almost 13 rebounds per game.

The 6ft 11 center is also scoring at a rate of almost 11 points per game.

The play that showed me this guy has well and truly arrived as a player happened in Game 6 on Thursday night against Boston, in the last minute of the third overtime.

Noah reached in, knocked the ball away from Celtics captain Paul Pierce (the MVP of the 2008 NBA Finals), and dribbled three-quarters the length of the floor before dunking with one hand.

He did this with Pierce breathing down his neck and ultimately fouling him.

Noah converted the three-point play and Chicago stayed on top the rest of the way.

The truth of the matter is that the Bulls have their fans excited about the sport again for the first time since the Michael Jordan days.

"This series is a lot of fun for the fans, the people of Chicago, the people of Boston," said Noah, who had 15 points to go with his nine rebounds.

"It's a lot of fun for us, too, playing in environments like this on the big stage.

"It's special to be part of this, and I know that it's a series people will be talking about for a long time."

In addition to the length and strength of Noah, there's the attitude. At EuroBasket 2007 in Spain, France, in my opinion, missed a little toughness.

The New York-born Noah, who I'm told has his French passport and will be soon named in a France squad, has that in abundance.