Top-5 Mac Musings – August 18, 2025

AT LEAST ALASKA IS STILL OURS… RIGHT?
I have nothing but fond memories of Alaska, but almost all of them surround basketball, which sounds completely wrong since a hotbed of hoops it is not.

Allow me to explain. On my first trip to Alaska I was traveling with the Gonzaga men’s basketball team for a Thanksgiving tournament in Fairbanks. The year was 1997 and the Zags had not yet become the ZAGS. They had zero NCAA Tournament appearances. But yet they stormed to the title, upsetting No. 5 Clemson, Mississippi State (fresh off a Final Four) and Tulsa. I wrote more about this magical trip here.

Between my senior year at Gonzaga and my first year of graduate school I worked a month of basketball camps in Wasila, Alaska for NBC Camps. It was a remarkable experience. Hundreds of campers playing from 8 a.m. to deep into the night. This was during one of the warmest Junes on record for the Anchorage area and it was daylight almost 24 hours a day.

I played a round of “ready golf” with a 2 a.m. tee time, because why wouldn’t I. Fortunately no video footage of this round exists. I was either 2-under or maybe 3-under…

Later, while working for the University of San Francisco the Dons competed in the 2011Great Alaska Shootout over Thanksgiving. We did not exactly set the world on fire losing to eventual champions Murray State and then New Mexico State in the third-place game after opening with a win against Drake. 

Despite no marquee teams in the event, I was truly impressed with the way Anchorage supported the tournament and the teams competing. Each team had a host family and ours was terrific, hosting a catered Turkey Day feast for us. They mentioned it was their 15th year hosting teams.

With the world focused on Alaska last week, I have some thoughts. Fair warning: these thoughts are going to be nearly as brief as the summit was.

Let’s go… Straight into the breach dear friends… Mac Musings for Monday, August 18.

1. Neville Chamberlain at least got a signed agreement.
2. I can only imagine what Ronald Reagan would have thought about that debacle.
3. The image of American servicemen kneeling in front of the steps of that Russian airplane to place the red carpet for one of the most reprehensible butchers of this century will linger forever.
4. Russia was indiscriminately bombing civilian targets in Ukraine DURING the summit dubbed “Pursuing Peace”.
5. I am old enough to remember cheering when the Berlin Wall came down signalling the end of the Soviet Union. I never thought I would see an American president allow a former KGB official to have carte blanche to do “whatever the hell he wants”.

Bonus: My Top-5 Movie Presidents

1. American President – President Shepherd (Michael Douglas)
2. Air Force One – President Marshall (Harrison Ford)
3. Independence Day – President Whitmore (Bill Pullman)
4. Dave – President Bill Mitchell/Dave (Kevin Kline)
5. Deep Impact – President Beck (Morgan Freeman)

Note: Every single one of these actors would have had a better summit result.