As we speed by the unofficial start of summer and the annual pause that should be a daily thanks to our servicemen and women, the holiday weekend, the school year and Spring Fling are memories.

We hope the extra day off was a bonus, a reprieve before starting the slow, hazy march toward football season. Whether this Memorial Day was a good break or extra time to fret depends on perspective.

For Bobby Cox it was a chance to remember that good starting pitching was the key to the Atlanta Braves’ 1990s dominance. The Braves manager does not have a John Smoltz-type or a Greg Maddux-type ace, but he does have the best top-to-bottom rotation in baseball a quarter of the way into the season.

And despite the annual Chipper Jones health flare-ups and a makeshift lineup that is so duct-taped together that Omar Infante’s “indefinite” absence with a broken hand is a true cause of concern, Cox’s team is within sight of the lead in the National League East.

For Jose Canseco, the long weekend was a spare day of tension. Canseco, he of the tell-all steroids tales, is making his mixed-martial arts debut today in Japan. His opponent — a 7-foot-2, 330-pound super heavyweight named Hong Man Choi — offers a little bigger test than the celebrity boxing outings against former “Partridge Family” star Danny Bonaduce or former Philadelphia Eagle Vai Sikahema.

“I’m not going to lie to you, I’m scared. This guy is huge,” Canseco said Monday at a news conference to promote the fight.

Somewhere, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez are smiling.

For Bobby Bowden, Monday’s holiday was more time to confer with his lawyers. Bowden, the Florida State football coach, and the Seminoles expect to hear this week from the NCAA on FSU’s appeal of sanctions from a cheating scandal that could cost Bowden as many as 14 wins.

For any coach or program, such a penalty would be a headache for the athletic department officials who have to redo the records and update the media guides. But for Bowden, who will turn 80 in November, this could derail his pursuit of history.

The longtime FSU coach has 382 wins this morning — one fewer than Penn State coach Joe Paterno, who has the most at the major college level.

“It’s just us two and you’d hate to give up in a good battle like that,” Bowden recently told the Palm Beach Post. “But as far as losing sleep over it, I don’t do that.”

For LeBron James, it was an extra 24 hours to watch, rewatch and re-rewatch his miraculous game-winning 3-pointer from Friday night. It was one of those sports moments that you remember where you were if you were watching it live. Sadly, with James’ Cleveland Cavaliers facing a mountain of matchup problems with the Orlando Magic, it may be more a footnote to a good season than the miracle that saved a series and jumpstarted a run to a championship.

Either way, it was a top-five signature moment in the modern NBA — better than Michael Jordan’s playoff game-winner against Cleveland and Craig Ehlo in 1989, not quite as good as Jordan’s 1998 Finals winner against Utah and Byron Russell against Cleveland.

For what it’s worth, here are my top five NBA plays in the modern era (since 1980):

Please note, this is not great games or stat lines, this is big-time plays that soared beyond being a highlight into becoming a moment. Will LeBron’s shot rank this high if the Cavs drop the next two to the Magic? Who knows. Right now, though, it was awesome.

5. Doctor J’s tomahawk dunk on Michael Cooper in the 1983 NBA Finals.

4. Jordan over Ehlo.

3. LeBron’s shot.

2. Larry Bird stealing the inbounds pass and the Eastern Conference finals from the Detroit Pistons in 1987.

1. Jordan over Russell.

For everyone else, I hope it was a special, relaxing, enjoyable and respectful Memorial Day.