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The Clippers' lease with Staples Center runs until 2024. So they aren't going anywhere else until then. But there are rumors that the Clippers will leave. And runaway rumors must be addressed. Here are the facts. The Clippers are unhappy about being the third tenant in Staples Center, which results in them getting the third choice of dates and starting times behind the Lakers and Kings. The Clippers are especially annoyed by getting Sunday afternoon games while the Lakers play on Sunday nights....
Speculation about Yasiel Puig's future with the Dodgers was strong enough for me to write about it last week. It turned out to be accurate. When the Dodgers flew to Colorado Monday to begin a series against the Rockies Puig wasn't with the team. The Dodgers had told him they would trade him by the Monday deadline or send him to the minor leagues, which they did Tuesday. Sources told me the Dodgers decided they needed more production from their right field position. On Monday the Dodgers...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Speculation about Yasiel Puig's future with the Dodgers was strong enough for me to write about it last week. It turned out to be accurate. When the Dodgers flew to Colorado Monday to begin a series against the Rockies Puig wasn't with the team. The Dodgers had told him they would trade him by the Monday deadline or send him to the minor leagues, which they did Tuesday. Sources told me the Dodgers decided they needed more production from their right field...
Melvin Durslag, who ranked with Jim Murray and Bud Furillo as Los Angeles ’ premier sports columnists of his time, died last weekend. The 95-year-old Durslag died in a convalesent home in Santa Monica. Durslag began writing for the LA Examiner in 1039 which then became the Herald Examiner.and during the next 50 years he covered the Olympic Games 10 times and 25 Super Bowls among many other events. He took time off only to serve in World War 2. When the Herald Examiner folded in 1989 Durslag w...
I was in the Dodger Stadium press box on a recent Sunday afternoon when Yasiel Puig was on second base. The next batter hit a routine infield pop up, something we’ve ll seen at least a thousand times. Nolan Arenado, the Colorado Rockies’ third baseman, pretended to lose the ball in the sunlight. Puig advanced halfway to third waiting to see what would happen. Arenando then caught the ball and flipped it to second for an easy double play. I saw journalists throughout the press box asking eac...
The Clippers have retained four prominent reserves who had become free agents but will be without two who signed elsewhere. Jamal Crawford, Austin Rivers, Wesley Johnson and Luke Mbah a Moute are coming back. However, Jeff Green signed with Orlando and Cole Aldrich signed with Minnesota. The Clippers concentrated on Crawford, giving the 36-year-old guard a three-year contract for $42 million and Rivers, who will receive $35 million for three years. These two are outstanding substitutes for...
Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan are future NBA Hall Of Fame players. Both have retired and both are properly being lauded for their accomplishments. But they are different kinds of people. Bryant embraced his last of 20 Laker seasons by agreeing to an elaborate tour where he willingly met with the media in his final game in every city. Duncan retired Monday after 19 seasons with the San Antonio Spurs. He treated his final season like the other 18. He played unselfishly, said goodbye and didn’t e...
If you're relatively new to Southern California you probably won't get much out of this column. But if you're an old timer you might want to be reminded of the accomplishments of Bud Furillo, who covered sports in his unique way here for about 60 years before he died in 2006. For a long time Jim Murray was the gifted sports columnist of the Los Angeles Times and Furillo was the dynamic sports editor of the now defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. Besides presiding over the Herald's sports...
In discussing NBA free agent possibilities with colleagues who cover teams in other cities I find a consensus. My colleagues agree with me that the Lakers are kidding themselves by believing they might land the elite free agents. In recent years they’ve talked about LeBron James, they’ve interviewed LaMarcus Aldridge, they tried to make an appointment with Kevin Durant but didn’t even get an interview. Since every NBA team has a new $20 million to spend the Lakers, like most of them, were assur...
Kevin Durant played for the Seattle Sonics for a year and eight for the Oklahoma City Thunder for the last eight without winning a championship. He liked Oklahoma, he gave a million dollars to the city following a devastating tornado, he contributed other money, the fans loved him. So why is he leaving? How were the Golden State Warriors able to lure him away? The answer is simple. He wants to get a championship on his resume. NBA players are very well paid. That’s well known. What a lot of p...
Last week the Lakers selected Duke freshman Brandon Ingram with the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft. They're happy because the 6-foot-9 forward is a highly regarded prospect who is likely to have an outstanding professional basketball career. But there are hurdles to overcome. Most important, the Lakers are adding another very young player to their plans to rebuild following four terrible seasons. They've been promoting the idea that their most recent draftees, Julius Randle, DeAngelo Russell and...
The Clippers draft didn't high enough to obtain the highest ranked players in last week's NBA draft but Coach Doc Rivers said he's happy with the outcome. "Drafttng 25th. Brice Johnson was the player we wanted," said Rivers. "In the second round we moved down seven places from 33 to 39 and 40 trying to land two other players we wanted. We got them both." The Clippers moved down by making a trade with New Orleans. Johnson, a 6-10 power forward who was a senior at North Carolina, is a good...
Until someone gets 12 championships on his resume I will continue to rank Bill Russell as the most valuable player in NBA history. He led the Boston Celtics to 11 championships While playing against the very formidable Wilt Chambelain. High on anyone ’ s list should be Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (six championships) Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant (five) and let ’ s not overlook Robert Horry (seven). When the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Golden State Warriors in Game Seven Sun...
Several months ago I interviewed Jerry West and featured my story about his contributions to the Golden State Warriors in his consultant role. Proud of the Warriors ’ success, he concluded the interview by saying the team had the money to go after the No. 1 free agent this summer regardless of who that would be. Today there ’ s no doubt that the Warriors ’ target is Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City ’ s star who is a free agent. Had the Warriors won their second straight championship they might h...
When the baseball season began I observed that the Dodgers would have trouble in 2016. They had been outbid for the elite pitchers who had become free agents. They spent a lot of money on foreign players who would likely require several years of minor league experience. New ownership had apparently decided to concentrate on building for the future rather than going all out for a World Series berth this season. I'm not saying this is bad strategy. But I find it strange that ownership of a team...
When the Golden State Warriors won the NBA championship last season comparisons to the great teams of the past were heard. We hadn’t seen a shooter better than Steph Curry. The Warriors’ style of play was exciting. They had conquered the great Lebron James in the Finals. But soon NBA experts brought reality to the topic. Bill Russell had won 11 championships. Michael Jordan had won six, Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant five. Were the Warriors a fluke? Probably not. But NBA experts and fans wan...
The first Super Bowl was played in Los Angeles in 1967. The 55th one will be hosted by Los Angeles in 2021 in the LA Rams’ new stadium in Inglewood. This is not trivial news. It is, in fact, fantastic news. If you’re a fan of National Football League games or not, be happy for all the fans of the sport and all the local businesses that will profit from the event. Thousands of visitors will arrive for a week-long party preceding the game. They’ll spend millions of dollars. LA was also biddi...
Six years ago Luke Walton was a player for the Lakers and six-year-old Emily Olshan was a fan who was attending her first NBA game. Who knew what the years would bring? Walton completed his playing career helping the Lakers win two championships, became an assistant coach with the NBA champion Golden State Warriors and most recently earned a five-year contract to be head coach of the Lakers. As for Emily, she's an outstanding student and plays in a softball league. On June 18 she'll be Bat...
When a closing ceremony was held last Thursday for the official ending of the Los Angeles Sports Arena after 57years my mind wandered into the past. “I used to work there,” I told my friends. Then I went into deeper thoughts about the 22-year-old Mitch and my entrance into the sports world. I had just graduated from Cal State Los Angeles College and was attempting to find my way in the world. The Lakers had played a few games at the college and I got to know some of their employees.. One day I r...
The Clippers blew a 3-1 series lead and lost a year ago in the NBA playoffs. They had a 2-0 lead this time and lost after their two biggest stars, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, were injured and ruled out of further play. If you’re a Clipper fan you prefer to focus on the 53 regular season wins rather than the playoff losses. But wherever you stand you’re probably curious about what the Clippers are going to do this summer “We have a lot of free agents,” said Coach Doc Rivers. “That’s where we ha...
Before I write anything else about this I want to assure you readers that Fred Altieri will continue to provide his exceptional coverage of Culver City High sports for The Observer. Having said that I'm announcing that Fred has been chosen over several other candidates to become our Rams beat writer. Because local coverage is essential to a community newspaper we didn't want to take Fred off the Culver City High beat. And he didn't want to give it up. "I enjoy high school sports," said Altieri....
Luke Walton called Steve Kerr last Friday afternoon. “I have good news and bad news,” the Golden State Warriors’ assistant coach told the head coach. “Start with the good news,” Kerr said. “The Lakers have offered me their head coaching job,” Walton said. “That’s great,’ replied Kerr. ‘I’m so happy for you. What’ the bad news?” “The bad news is I took it.” That conversation sums up the fact that Walton, who played for the Lakers in nine mostly successful seasons and had a 39-4 record this seas...
When the Clippers lost to the Portland Trail Blazers Wednesday night in Staples Center they became one defeat away from having their once-promising season come to an end. Trailing three games to two in the best-of-seven first round NBA playoff series the Clippers needed to win both remaining games. The deadline has arrived for this week’s Observer. Whether or not the Clippers were eliminated will be reported in next week’s paper. After Chris Paul and Blake Griffin were injured in Game 4 Mon...
Gregg Popovich has coached the San Antonio Spurs for 18 years and the Spurs have made the playoffs every year. RC Buford is the general manager. Buford and Popovich work extremely well together. They annually bring in another good player to support their longtime stars. This is a model franchise. The Lakers used to be a model franchise. They won the NBA championship 16 times. Players left other teams to join them. This was a prized destination. But today we see that three coaches have been...
When I wrote Anatomy Of A Disaster four years ago I had no intention of repeating it the next season. But readers were so fed up with the Lakers’ demise they requested it. Then we had last season, 21 wins and 61 losses, the worst record in the franchise’s history. And now this. Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse it did. The Lakers lost for the 62nd time last week, climaxing their worst season in the franchise’s 68-year existence. It was also their 11th straight loss to the Clipper...
