This column should be read while listening to “How Near, How Far” by And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (running time: 4 minutes even).

• I thought I’d start the column by talking about a 6-foot-3 point guard nobody every heard of before a fantastic run of games generated a lot of excitement — I refer, of course, to Ronald “Flip” Murray, who averaged 24.2 points over 10 games at the start of the Seattle Supersonics’ 2003-04 season. (Who’s this Jeremy Lin character?)