Los Angeles Lakers
LeBron Speaks Up
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 MoreJerry West Assesses the Kings
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 MoreJerry West Watches the Lakers
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 MoreLeBron James Assesses the Lakers
(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 MoreLeBron’s European Vacation
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 MoreSummertime Love for Sacramento Kings
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 MoreLeBron Updates Free Agency
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 MoreKobe Decides
This story is in the collection “Basketball and Football”
Read MoreClueless Kobe Bryant
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 MoreClippers Carve Kings during Thanksgiving Feast
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 MoreBasketball in Downtown Los Angeles
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 MorePistons Pound Lakers into New Era
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…
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