Bonus Episode! Friend and Former NBA Colleague, Gerardo Lopez of @Cultura.Sports

I have known Gerardo since the 2013-2014 NBA Season. We were both on "International Row", which was a section in the lower bowl of Verizon Center that was dedicated to International media covering the Wizards. 

We had a mutual friend early on, Arnaud Gelb, who connected us and then led our group in motivation as we all ended up doing some pretty great NBA player interviews before and after games. I recall a time where Gerardo, Arnaud, and I, spoke with Dirk Nowitzski for a good 10 minutes after the game and it was a fun conversation. We also met our fourth Verizon Center pal, Roscoe Whalen, from an Australian podcast on the way. We became a close group. Happy hours on days that there weren't games. Constant conversation on a Facebook group. Trips to NBA games. NBA All Star Weekends. Phone calls. Texts. 

But then...our friend and glue guy, Arnaud Gelb died suddenly in the middle of the night at 31 years old. It was crazy. Gerardo, Roscoe, and I were grieving hard. We still talk on our thread but it is definitely more bare without the constant barrage of Gelb-isms on there. But we're all still friends.

Roscoe has since left the US to pursue a career in producing news journalism on Australian Broadcast Network. I have pretty much "retired" from being a "fake reporter" and will have 2 kids any day now. Gerardo maintains a DC day job and has now successfully started his own journalism company. Just wonder what Gelb would have been up to?