
Dirk Nowitzki played 21 years. You could spend a lifetime dissecting a tenure that vast. It's spirit-salving, especially when everybody's down, to spend at least a few days on it.

DeMar DeRozan has come into his power like the sun showing up in the eye of a hurricane, there all along but waiting, patiently, for the circle of fortune to form up around him.

Using cheap and strange nostalgia to brighten a season that started promisingly but has now taken on the same grim perfunctory stink as the last one feels appropriate, perhaps even metaphorical.

The COVID-19 decision-making process currently seems arbitrary, like the league is just trying to plug leaks and bail out water as quickly as possible to keep the ship from sinking and get to Christmas in as good of shape as possible.