For the seventh consecutive year, I'm gearing up to hand out verbs this week. At the dawn of 2024, I gave out 307 verbs to friends and others who asked for an action word to focus on in the new year.

The concept of the sixth man is rooted in Celtics history. When Red Auerbach was cutting his teeth with the Washington Capitols in the 1940s, he kept Brooklyn-born forward Irv Torgoff stashed on ...