When TNT announces the reserves for next month’s All-Star Game in Chicago on Thursday, it will no doubt be a subdued ceremony. We are all still in the stupified realm of processing what cannot be processed, with the sudden loss of life of so many in California Sunday, including Kobe Bryant. It will be particularly poignant as one recalls Bryant’s seemingly ubiquitous (18) All-Star appearances, and some of his most audacious moments — waving Karl Malone off as a 19-year-old, in his first All-Star appearance, at Madison Square Garden in New York in 1998; denying Michael Jordan the MVP award, in Jordan’s final All-Star Game, in Atlanta in 2003, by drawing a foul with a second remaining in regulation and making two free throws to tie the game up — along with all of his amazing dunks, and his four All-Star MVP Awards.
We do not “move on” from such tragedies. We do, however, continue, as best we can.
In that spirit, I offer myself up,…
