Remember a couple of weeks back when the local team mortgaged its future in order to obtain a 30-something center? Yeah, what were Jim Nill and the Dallas Stars even thinking? Wait, what? Let me admit first I have been a tad slow to respond to the Stars’ acquiring Michael Granlund and Cody Ceci for first- and conditional third-round picks this year.

Yahoo Sports’ great basketball columnist, Vincent Goodwill, summed up the vibe at the just completed — and mostly listless — NBA All-Star weekend as such: “You can’t manufacture soul.” This came two weeks after the NFL staged a flag-football game with their Pro Bowlers that was about as exciting as tax preparation.