They operate as a unit, with an almost tangible team spirit in which the sum of the parts is more often greater than their individual talent.
In a tangible way, the team's statistics reflect a more balanced team.
"The confirmation of the weight categories brings clarity to the athletes and allows them to focus on a tangible goal," said Team GB chef de mission Andy Hunt.
But for at least a few games this week, the Knicks have been something they have never been in a tangible way: Carmelo's team.
All seemed surprised and happy to have a tangible reason to salute the team.
It is both a team-building exercise and a stress relief, but also a way of distilling the collective work of a team into a tangible, visible slogan.
It is in the perception but maybe with the viewing of the Sydney Harbour Bridge fireworks that signified the arrival of 2014 the team saw a tangible sign of a line being drawn beneath an unedifying passage.
For financial companies with a less tangible product, teams will highlight the opportunity to target a more affluent niche audience, including team owners and their business contacts, season ticket holders and others in the VIP area or luxury suites.
With Ebbets Field long committed to memory, Vero Beach was the last vestige of the Brooklyn Dodgers and a tangible link to those legendary teams of the 1950s.
And, for once, it was not the old men looking back to a lost past, or comforting remarks about England as the "womb of the game," that we were listening to — it was the roaring, present excitement over a young and tangible England team winning a world championship.
For a team that has not finished above the break-even point since 1996-97, is is easy to wonder whether there is a tangible difference between this season's team and those of the past three, which all failed to reach the playoffs.
