One of the duties that falls to your intrepid reporter between bombshells and bombast is the occasional obituary. Call up friends and relatives and piece together a life. Sometimes it's harder than it sounds. Consider an interview recently with a former colleague about a departed friend.
"When are you going to retire?" he asked, a little too sharply.
"Is that a question," I replied, "or an accusation?"
The reason for bringing this up, as I'm sure you've been wondering, is that Dirk Nowitzki gets no career advice here. The All-Star ovations Sunday certainly seemed like a wonderful send-off.