Los Angeles Lakers

LeBron Speaks Up

May 11, 2019

I really hesitate to step forward. I’m not the meddler many say. I simply lobby for what’s best for my team. I complimented Luke Walton for good coaching late this season. I tried to protect him. Ignore those who say I’d already ordered my lieutenants to undercut him. Magic Johnson wanted him out anyway. Luke…

Read More

Jerry West Assesses the Kings

December 5, 2018

I advise the Clippers and generally don’t share my insights publicly but suppose it’s all right to tell you I like the Kings, especially De’Aaron Fox, who speeds past more defenders than anyone in the league. He’s also been hitting his jumpers and threes. Right, I know his outside shooting’s cooled off recently. Last five…

Read More

Jerry West Watches the Lakers

October 24, 2018

At the Lakers third game this season, against the Spurs, I turned in my courtside seat, pulled out my mini-binoculars and spotted Jerry West standing in a luxury box. I hustled upstairs, twice used a counterfeit pass to trick security guards, and reached the hallowed door on which I knocked. A starlet opened up, and…

Read More

LeBron James Assesses the Lakers

October 22, 2018

(Correspondent LeBron James files the first Lakers dispatch of the 2018-2019 season.) Talk to analytical scientists all you want. I’ll instead offer meat and potatoes to clarify why I’m concerned about my Lakers after the first two games this season. We hit a higher field goal percentage and modestly more baskets than either the Portland…

Read More

LeBron’s European Vacation

July 9, 2018

Despite trying to relax in and around a coastal castle magically backed by snowy Alpine peaks, LeBron James is tense during his European vacation. Every time he surfs he falls right off and is swallowed by massive waves. Efforts to hang glide invariably snap the cord connected to the speedboat and LeBron’s again deposited in…

Read More

Summertime Love for Sacramento Kings

July 7, 2018

I like living in Lubbock year round and rooting for my alma mater Texas Tech Red Raiders in football and basketball but recently surrendered to my fifth wife, Melanie, who’s from Sacramento and during the seven months I’ve known her has been pestering me to buy a second home here so we can watch her…

Read More

LeBron Updates Free Agency

July 1, 2018

Please ignore reports I screamed like an unanesthetized dental patient upon learning that stellar forward Paul George, presumed to be bound for the glorious Los Angeles Lakers, instead signed to stay a few years on the arid plain of Oklahoma City. I confess I did shout in pain but the source was physical rather than…

Read More

Kobe Decides

November 30, 2015

This story is in the collection “Basketball and Football”

Read More

The Las Vegas Lakers

July 23, 2015

Have to admit, I don’t sit courtside when I go to Lakers games in Staples Center. I suppose I could once a year, if I find two tickets, but it would lighten me a month’s salary, so I sit up about twenty rows and that isn’t cheap either but is doable a few times a…

Read More

Clueless Kobe Bryant

December 12, 2014

Clueless Kobe Bryant yesterday cursed teammates for being inadequate and responsible for the Lakers losing most of their games. Kobe’s got it wrong. He’s the problem, and his compulsive gunning and low shooting percentage are why the Lakers are struggling. While Kobe hits an appalling 39 percent from the floor, most of his teammates are…

Read More

Courtside in Las Vegas

August 10, 2013

He’s the master of smooth jump shooting. He’s a shrewd passer and disruptive long-armed defender. He’s the player who hits shots when it matters. He’s Mr. Clutch, Jerry West, man in the NBA logo. He’s also the legend whose 1960s Los Angeles Lakers lose several times in the finals to the Boston Celtics of supernatural…

Read More

Clippers Carve Kings during Thanksgiving Feast

November 30, 2010

On Thanksgiving night I made my first visit to Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles since New Year’s Day when the defending-champion Lakers hosted an aroused and hot-shooting group of young Sacramento Kings who would’ve prevailed if Kobe Bryant, with customary flair, hadn’t swished a three-point jumper a millisecond before the final horn. The capacity…

Read More

Basketball in Downtown Los Angeles

January 29, 2010

Trust yourself. You’ve been to the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles many times, so you know you’re walking the right way, south on Figueroa Street a couple of blocks to the arena. Okay, then. Where is it? It’s got to be there. They haven’t moved a building holding almost twenty thousand people, have they?…

Read More

Pistons Pound Lakers into New Era

June 20, 2004

Don’t dare claim you knew the Detroit Pistons were going to kick the stuffing out of the Los Angeles Lakers, not unless you’ve got it in writing and notarized by at least three solemn souls.  You couldn’t have known a seven to one underdog was going to pound Hollywood’s favorite team, and pride of NBA…

Read More