The names of the dead were emblazoned on ice and a second ticked away for each one on the video screen high above.
For a heartbreaking 58 of them in the silent darkness of T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday night, we were again reminded about a sanctuary that has been known to offer refuge from the brutality of terror.
It’s just sports and, by God, it isn’t.
If sorrow and gloom is part of the healing process for Las Vegas to eventually emerge from under the menacing cloud that has immersed the city since those horrifying 10 minutes Sunday evening, so, too, is the opportunity for a community to gather and celebrate what can be a needed distraction.