This rendition of the national anthem was SOOOO GOOOD!!!!! The singers, the crowd, Tom Cruise singing along, the players, the little boy's smile, the flags and costumes, all the red, white and blue. Everything is awesome.

NEWS: Luigi Suigo has withdrawn from the NBA Draft and committed to Villanova, Sigma Sports and Excel Sports tell DraftExpress. The 7'4, 289-pound 19-year-old will be a physical outlier in the Big East who can pass, space the floor, protect the rim, and finish effectively.

USA. A supermarket. I went to buy one bottle of the white sauce this nation pours on everything. I found a WALL. Ranch. Spicy ranch. Chipotle ranch. Avocado ranch. Bacon ranch. LIGHT ranch, for the disciplined. There was a ranch labeled "secret recipe" that printed its ingredients on the back, which is not how secrets work, and I respect the audacity. In Japan, a sauce knows its place. One dish, one purpose, centuries of refinement. Here I stood before forty bottles of the same white dynasty, each claiming the bloodline. I asked a passing employee: which is the true heir? He looked at the wall. He looked at me. "It's all just ranch, dude." It is NOT all just ranch. That is exactly what a branch family would say. I bought the original. The founding house. One honors the main line — this is not negotiable. I also bought the chipotle. We meet at lunch. Privately. The original does not know. A man may serve one lord and still admire the ambition of the younger branch. This is recorded in many histories, and I will not be judged by a nation with forty sauces in its door. At the register, the cashier saw my two bottles and said the most American sentence I have yet heard: "Smart. You got your everyday ranch and your fancy ranch." EVERYDAY RANCH AND FANCY RANCH. She understood the entire feudal structure instantly. This country runs deeper than it pretends. A man does not betray the main house in daylight. Lunch is at noon, with the curtains drawn. A man does not ask the dynasty to be one bottle. He only becomes loyal to more of them. So tell me, America, and be honest with me: how many ranches live in your door right now? Count them. Then tell me again who the samurai is.

When I was a kid from West Valley City, we had a few businesses help my basketball team get to a tournament in Boston. It was an experience I’ll never forget. Today’s #5DollarFriday is to help @For3JT do the same for kids who have very difficult circumstances. Let’s give these young men a chance to live a dream and travel to South Carolina to compete. 🙏 Venmo: @devpayne

USA. A Mexican restaurant. We had not yet ordered anything, and the food was already arriving. Chips. Salsa. Unrequested. Free. I stopped the waiter. "We have not earned these." "They just come with the table, man." They come with the TABLE. In my land, hospitality is a debt. Every gift creates an obligation, weighed carefully, returned in the proper season with interest of feeling. Here, the gift arrives before you have even proven you can pay for dinner. This is not an appetizer. This is a declaration: we trust you. Eat. I ate with the gravity the moment deserved. And then — I must report this calmly — the basket emptied, and a new one appeared. "Did we…?" "Refill," the waiter said. "It's bottomless." Bottomless. They have wells of salsa. The supply lines of this nation are beyond anything my ancestors imagined. My friend warned me. "Don't fill up on chips, dude." Too late. I had accepted three baskets. Honor demanded each one be finished — an unfinished gift is an insult. By the time my actual food arrived, I was a ruined man. I was not hungry. I was not comfortable. I had been defeated by a courtesy. Generosity that arrives before the request cannot be repaid. It can only be survived. I know the rule now. I have made my peace with the basket. One basket. Two at the most. Who am I deceiving. There is no number of baskets I would refuse. The trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it.

BEN BARTON IS THE DECATHLON NATIONAL. CHAMPION.

Starting today, it’ll be very clear where guys in Utah served their missions.

🚨 I decided to go all in on a startup! 🚨 I’m joining repstraining.com as the Chief Revenue Officer. I’d love a follow @repstrainingapp if you have a second! 🙏 CJ Wilcox, former Pleasant Grove ⭐️ & NBA player is the CEO & we’re building something special to drastically improve personal training of youth athletes.