Sorted by date Results 201 - 225 of 522
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Ralph Lawler began broadcasting San Diego Clipper basketball games in 1978. Six years later the team moved to Los Angeles and it seemed likely Lawler wouldn't leave San Diego – a city he loved. But he did leave because he loved broadcasting NBA games even more. In LA he worked in the shadow of legendary broadcaster Chick Hearn, who had championship after championship to describe as the Lakers ruled the city. But gradually, Lawler began receiving the a...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Kobe Bryant was outraged. Byron Scott was outraged. Mitch Chortkoff was outraged. How can a mere sportswriter include himself on a list of competitors outraged by the antics of three Lakers – Nick Young, Jordan Hill and Carlos Boozer who thought they were being clever in clowning while a teammate was being interviewed on television after the Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics in overtime last week? Well, you see, this sportswriter traveled with Laker teams for 2...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor I often attend Doc Rivers’ pre-game sessions with the media at Staples Center. The session was of particular interest last Thursday night because DeAndre Jordan had missed 16 free throws in the Clippers’ previous game and the coach had decided against benching his center. The NBA rules permit intentional fouling on a player who doesn’t have the ball until two minutes remain in any period, none after that. When Shaquille O’Neal played for the Lakers and hack-a-Sha...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor In this space last week I speculated that the San Diego Padres could be as good as the Dodgers this season. A respected colleague, Lyle Spencer of mlb.com went a step further. He included the Angels in a similar scenario which would give Southern California three special teams. In evaluating the Angels I start with two names – American league MVP Mike Trout and 26-year-old pitcher Garret Richards. After being runnerup in his first and second years with the A...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Before Kobe Bryant can play his 20th season with the Lakers he’ll have to rehabilitate from his current torn rotator cuff. Doctors regard it as a nine-month process, with an excellent chance he’ll be healed. Even though an injury has cut short Kobe’s season for a third straight year he has a reason to be optimistic about being able to play in the 2015-’16 NBA season. It’s a painful injury that requires a long rehabilitation but the recovery rate is high. The...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor A year ago Pete Carroll was a pro football hero. A coach who had been fired by NFL teams twice early in his career had come all the way back, following nine years of college football glory at USC with a Super Bowl victory. His Seattle Seahawks had the best defense in the NFL and had won the sport's biggest game. But last Sunday Carroll made a colossal blunder. His team was 26 seconds away from winning a second straight Super Bowl. They were on the New England...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Last week Clippers coach Doc Rivers was considering making a trade that would bring his son, Austin Rivers to the team. He asked his wife what she thought of the idea. "Chris has been with me a long time and she said the same thing I was thinking," the coach told me. "If you think it will help the Clippers do it." The Clippers did it and it was a historic move. Never before in the NBA had a team had a head coach and his son on the same squad. One year the Denver...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor All right, you win, we surrender. Those words often come from battlefields. Today, they appear to be coming from the Lakers. When Kobe Bryant underwent surgery Wednesday to repair a torn rotator cuff the Lakers adopted a plan for the upcoming months and most likely the rest of the season. Instead of fielding a lineup they’d likely put on the court in a bid for a playoff berth they’re featuring a group of inexperienced players they’re hoping to develop for the f...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor I was a young sportswriter, in my 20s when I joined the staff at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. There was a UCLA background in my family. My brother had graduated from UCLA, and even though I tried to be an objective journalist Bob Boyd, the USC basketball coach, labeled me a Bruin. "We have to make you into a Trojan," he would say. "We can get a psychiatrist to help." It was all in good fun and it continued for many years. Regardless of how many objective...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Russell Wilson or Tom Brady? The quarterback who plays best in Super Bowl 49 on Feb. 1 will likely lead his team to the NFL championship. Wilson, a third round draft choice who has proven to be a sensation, will try to lead his team to a second straight Super Bowl triumph. And, if necessary, he might guide the Seattle Seahawks to another miracle-like comeback as he did in the NFC championship game Jan. 18 over the stunned Green Bay Packers. Or perhaps it will be...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor After Ohio State defeated Oregon Monday night to win the first ever college football playoff Coach Urban Meyer called the Buckeyes’rags to riches story one of the best in college football history. It would be hard to argue with him. Ohio State’s starting quarterback, a Heisman Trophy candidate, went out with an injury. His replacement had an outstanding season but was unable to play in the final three games due to his own injury. A sophomore who hadn’t playe...
For many years the Pac-10 champion and Big Ten champion capped a football season by playing in the Rose Bowl game. This time the conference’s best teams, Oregon and Ohio State, will also cap a season. But it won’t be in merely one of many bowl games, it will be in the first college football national championship game. Oregon has already conquered its Rose Bowl opponent, Florida State, 59-20 in the playoff semi-final. It now moves on to the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium in Arlington, Texas Monday, Jan....
(mith on NBA) Kobe Doesn’t Play As Lakers Lose By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor On Christmas day folks annually gather for a festive occasion. But the National Basketball Association has another idea for this holiday. Marketing. The league puts on an extravaganza, Five nationally televised games on several networks, attractive matchups of the most popular teams, and a gimmick to sell merchsndise. The players always have their last name on their jerseys. But on this day the first names were on i...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor As I look at the Lakers’ dreadful record I wonder how much better they’d be this season if Pau Gasol remained on the team. Gasol, a far better big man than anyone on the Lakers this season, was driven away (let’s be frank about this) by his dispute with Coach Mike D’Antoni. As I’ve written before, D’Antoni’s offense featured three-point shooting rather than plays revolving around a center. Dwight Howard didn’t like that and departed after one Laker season wh...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor When the National Basketball Association revealed its list of the 50 greatest players of all time I was on the selection committee. When the list was made public, unfortunately so was the balloting of every committee member. For years afterward several players who weren't chosen confronted me to ask me why I didn't vote for them. Really, it was an impossible task. There were 70 or 80 deserving players. No amount of research allowed me to feel comfortable about...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor In 1998 the Dodgers traded away Mike Piazza in what immediately became the most unpopular move in their Los Angeles history. Last week the Dodgers traded away Matt Kemp, and judging by initial reactions this is going to rival Piazza’s departure as the worst decision the club has made. Conditions are different. In 1998 new Dodger owners were trying to make a point that they were not going to cave in to players’ salary demands. Piazza’s contract had expired and n...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor The committee that settled on the four teams who’ll play in the first College Football Playoff got it right at the finish. But this distinguished group created needless controversy in the manner it operated, first advancing TCU to No. 3, then five days later after the team had crushed its final regular season opponent, 51-3, dropped TCU to No. 6. The committee on Sunday ultimately set up the two semi-finals properly. Oregon (No. 2) will play Florida State (No. 3...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Giancarlo Stanton recently signed a 13-year, $325 million contract with the Miami Marlins. Although the right fielder hit 37 home runs last season and came close to outpolling Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw for the National League MVP award critics have wondered about the wisdom of the Marlins’ decision. You see, the contract will be the largest for any player in the history of North American sports. I wondered too until I heard what Stanton had to say about t...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Reserve guard Xavier Henry is the latest in a long line of Laker players who have been injured in the last two seasons. Henry suffered a ruptured left Achilles tendon in practice last week. The Lakers announced he will be out for the rest of the season. Henry was far more successful last season than this one. Coach Byron Scott gave Henry limited playing time and said he was trying to see if Henry could regain his form of last season. The Lakers didn’t i...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor The joke in the Staples Center press room a few weeks ago was that new Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had called a meeting of the players. And he told them “if you don’t start playing better I’m going to sell the team back to Donald Sterling.” Well, no need for that anymore. The Clippers, who got off to a slow start this season, went on the road in the last week of November and did better than any Clippers team in history had ever done – six wins in seven gam...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor I'm old enough to remember Red Sanders' impact when he coached football at UCLA. And the dynasties of John McKay and Pete Carroll at USC, among others. In this city with a remarkable cross-town rivalry the school with the more prominent coach often prevails. That coach currently is Jim Mora at UCLA. Mora has coached UCLA for three years and the Bruins, who couldn't beat the Trojans for a decade, have won the last three meetings. The latest was the Bruins'...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Out of all the major league baseball players on teams throughout the land the MVPs have been chosen and they both play in Southern California. If you're a baseball fan here you can join me in congratulating Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers and Mike Trout of the Angels. Neither one was able to lead their team to much playoff success in the 2014 season, but their individual accomplishments could not be questioned in the regular season, and these awards are based on r...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor The NBA season began only two weeks ago but already there have been numerous surprises. The biggest one is the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 1-3 start and apparent friction between LeBron James and the Cavaliers’ talented point guard Kyrie Erving. When James left the Miami Heat and signed with his hometown Cleveland team and the Cavaliers then acquired Kevin Love, Shawn Marion and others the team became the favorite to reach the NBA Finals. Instead the Cavaliers lost the...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor The father of Laker guard Wayne Ellington was shot to death in a car in Philadelphia last week. Ellington has been granted a leave from the team. “He needs time to grieve and he’ll be welcomed back whenever he decides to return,” said Coach Byron Scott. On Sunday night, November 9, shortly after the Lakers earned their first win of the season, Ellington learned of his father’s death as he was about to depart from Staples Center. “He had the support of teammates...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Out of all the major league baseball players on teams throughout the land the MVPs have been chosen and they both play in Southern California. If you're a baseball fan here you can join me in congratulating Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers and Mike Trout of the Angels. Neither one was able to lead their team to much playoff success in the 2014 season, but their individual accomplishments could not be questioned in the regular season, and these awards are based on r...
