The Five for Feb. 23, 2020 -- Everything Coming up Liam

1. The best basketball player in the world plays for the Milwaukee Bucks, and yes, it is still a bit surreal to write that sentence.

His name, of course, is Giannis Antetokounmpo. In addition to Giannis’ remarkable skills, charismatic personality and wit on social media, the man – and his girlfriend Mariah – have impeccable taste in names.

Soon after announcing the birth of their baby boy, my brother texted me asking to guess the name. Given that Giannis is Greek and my brother has a son named George, I went with the obvious guess. Nope. Turns out, Giannis and Mariah followed the lead of my wife and me and named their son Liam.

Soon, my phone was blowing up with calls and texts from reporters asking for comment. They wanted to know if Giannis had consulted with us about names. Was naming our son Liam a catalyst for Giannis and Mariah? I didn’t play favorites with the reporters, whether they were of the ink-stained variety or "digital content specialists.” My answer, each time, was always the same.

I told them I understood and respected the question, but it wasn’t about seeking credit. And I closed by paraphrasing the Billy Tubbs line about his resemblance to Jack Nicholson. “If Giannis can get a little pub out of it, that’s just great.”

2. I just about lost it laughing when I heard this story from Sonny Amato, my college friend and colleague at the Indiana Daily Student. During a water break in a recent basketball scrimmage, his 7-year-old son Kieran told him that Kieran’s opponent thought he was on defense when he was on offense. Kieran said: “The best defense I can do is just not telling him he’s on offense.”

Kieran wasn’t done with the one liners. He recently told his dad, “When he goes on a date it won’t be to Dave and Busters because it’s too loud. Probably Eat N Park because it’s quiet and you can talk more.”

Perhaps he’s auditioning for the role of Lucas Scott’s son on the inevitable One Tree Hill reboot a decade from now.

3. Andy Jacobson, my friend and colleague at Trustmark, writes a great blog. You should consider adding it to your blogroll -- and after reading this post -- you’ll realize why his blog is not called “Andyproof.”

What type of guy is Andy? Two years ago both our families were in Florida and my family drove from Boca Raton to Miami to meet up with the Jacobson clan. Knowing how tough parking would be, Andy scouted out a parking spot on the street and stood there in the pounding Florida sun until we arrived.

4. Speaking of blogs, my friend Johnathon Briggs (who I worked with at PCI), was selected as one of five Dad bloggers to speak at the 2020 Dad 2.0 Summit in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 28. Johnathon has lived a remarkable life and his range of skills and experiences would make him a natural for a Dos Equis commercial (and hopefully a more in-depth look in a future Bobproof post). His blog, “Fatherhood At Forty” is warm and wise and never fails to move me. This post might be a good one to start with.

5. When I checked who else was speaking at the Summit, I saw that childhood friend Dan Kois is also on the docket. I really enjoyed Dan’s recent book, How to Be a Family: The Year I Dragged My Kids Around the World to Find a New Way to Be Together. His family even got the Today Show Treatment.