Creative Commentary
The Doncic Addiction
In recent years I’d heard the loudening chants: there’s a basketball prodigy in Europe named Luka Doncic and in 2018 he’s going to descend on the NBA and immediately become a “transformational” player. Okay, I thought, let me check him out. I watched highlight tapes and read scouting reports, and concluded his average speed and…
Read MoreGrooming Marvin Bagley
Few people like to discuss injuries and many are too superstitious to mention the subject. I generally have both reservations but sense it’s an appropriate time to hope, and assume, that the Kings are going to carefully control the recovery of Marvin Bagley and his playing time the rest of the season. Against the Warriors…
Read MoreTwilight Zone Benching of De’Aaron Fox
The final three minutes Golden State played championship defense, igniting its offense, and that’s not unusual. What is beyond unusual and quite bizarre is that Dave Joerger benched the team’s best player, De’Aaron Fox, because he picked up his fifth foul with little over three minutes to play and the Kings leading by ten. So…
Read MoreDoncic Blitz Fuels Bagley Debate
Dallas trailed Houston by eight with three minutes left when Luka Doncic, who had been shooting errantly, nailed a three-pointer from the left corner and another out front and a floater in the lane and then the pièce de résistance, a step-back three to lift his team to victory. I assume most viewers of the…
Read MoreE=Fun2
Okay, I know the Kings after losing three straight have won that many, the last two against teams that had but nine victories between them. It doesn’t matter who they beat. Every Kings win has begun to feel like a celebration fueled by youth, speed, athleticism, and dexterity. These guys come out firing because they…
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 MoreMo Wagner Intervenes
Had I not sprained my left knee and ankle during summer league action, it’s certain that as a sweet-shooting rookie almost seven-feet tall I’d already be an emerging star. Alas, I only recently regained my vigor, and the other night began my pro career in the G-League, scoring seventeen points. I consider that a promising…
Read MoreLittle League Blast
Watching the muscular Red Sox crush four homers and the Dodgers in game five to win the World Series, I’m reminded that at age ten I was the youngest and skinniest boy on our Triple A baseball team and didn’t play much and when I did I always struck out. Late in the season I…
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 MoreHe’s Tiger Again
I don’t know Tiger Woods personally. Like millions I’ve instead for a generation enjoyed his mastery on golf courses and felt emotionally connected to his seventy-nine career victories, many dominant and all exciting. I’ve also winced as he struggled with personal problems and a series of injuries and surgeries and wondered if he’d ever walk…
Read MoreTiger Woods on the Prowl
Few in any sport have exerted the gravitational pull of red-shirted Tiger Woods on championship Sundays. For twelve years he dominated the landscape, shooting eighteen under par to demolish the field in his first professional Masters, inventing the Tiger Slam, an unprecedented four straight majors over two seasons, and seizing fourteen majors and dozens of…
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