Columns

Yá’át’ééh. This morning we are gathered at the Navajo Veterans Memorial Park to honor, remember and pay our respects to the Navajo men and women who gave their lives in the service of the United States and the Navajo Nation.

Good afternoon, madam speaker, madam vice president, madam chief justice, Navajo Nation Council delegates, relatives, honored guests and to the Navajo people.

Over the weekend, I made a routine trip that most folks from Kayenta make every weekend. We went to Farmington. If you call the Navajo Nation home, we all carry a similar story of making a weekend day trip to a bordertown like Flagstaff, Page, Farmington, or Gallup.

Old sports writers never die, they just move on to the next ballgame, the next high school track meet, or a dusty weekend rodeo, and of course, another story deadline.

It is basketball fever in the Nation. And I had it. It was the most enjoyable and heartbreaking experience at the same time. I was rooting for all the reservation teams. In a basketball sense, it felt like it was the Rez against the rest of the world.