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It’s been decided that El Segundo and Lawndale will join the Ocean League for the 2014-15 season while Inglewood and Morningside will move to the stronger Bay League. These will be the first changes in the league alignments since 2004. However, some schools aren’t happy with the plan and appeals are expected. The South Bay Sports Association voted for the change, 11-7. El Segundo, in particular, has expressed a negative opinion because it has a small enrollment and cites, as an example, the dis...
In October, after the Lakers had signed Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, they began training camp labeled as the hottest story in the NBA. The franchise with 16 NBA championships was seemingly in position to win another. A colleague of mine, Howard Beck, who writes in New York, said the Lakers were a bigger story there than the Knicks or the defending champion Miami Heat. But on Sunday night at Staples Center, the Lakers’ disastrous season ended with a first round playoff sweep at the hands of t...
Cody Decker is the all-time home run leader in Santa Monica High baseball, which is no surprise since he previously had become the all-time home run leader in the Santa Monica Little League. He went on to UCLA, where he led the Pac-10 Conference in home runs. Presently he’s in the San Diego Padres’ farm system and he hit 32 home runs one year in the Double-A Texas League. But it’s been seven years since Decker graduated from Samohi and nobody faintly resembling his ability to hit homers has e...
It was all there for the Clippers – the opportunity of a lifetime. After playing in the shadow of the Lakers ever since they moved to Los Angeles in 1984 the Clippers had at long, long last overcome their misery. They won 56 regular season games, beat the Lakers in all four meetings, won their first Pacific Division championship and drew sellout crowds for every home game. Meanwhile the Lakers floundered, barely made the playoffs and then lasted only one round, losing four straight games to t...
For two years Chris Paul has been a model of what every NBA franchise would like to have. Actually he’s been that guy much longer. But I’m only talking about his time in Los Angeles as the dynamic point guard of the Clippers, who badly needed his leadership following countless mistake-plagued years as an underdog franchise. Paul played brilliantly, ignoring the Clippers’ past problems and never talked about leaving when he became a free agent. But he’s a free agent now. Why would he leave?...
Clippers’ Coach Deserves A New Contract It’s customary for pro sports owners to evaluate their coaches at the end of each season. The day after the National Football League season ends a half dozen or so head coaches are usually fired. Some baseball managers get fired too and basketball coaches are in danger of becoming unemployed, particularly if their teams don’t make the playoffs. The NBA regular season ended only a few days ago but already we know Doug Collins at Philadelphia and Mike Dunla...
It’s An Uncertain Future For Kobe, Lakers There are two questions on the minds of local sports fans today. Where does Kobe Bryant go from here? And where do the Lakers go from here? Each day since Bryant suffered a completely ruptured Achilles tendon against Golden State last Friday there’s been speculation about his future with the team. Bryant will be paid $30 million next season whether or not he’s able to play but the Lakers could save $80 million if they send him away via the NBA’s amnesty...
The Lakers earned the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference and will begin a seven-game series at San Antonio Sunday at 12:30 pm, LA time. The Clippers are the No. 4 seed and will host Memphis Saturday at 7:30 pm to begin their playoff bid. Game Two will be played here Monday night, also at 7:30. The Clippers defeated the Grizzlies in last season’s first round, winning the seventh game in Memphis. This time a seventh game, if necessary, would be played at Staples Center....
Recently UCLA and USC hired new head basketball coaches, neither with strong local ties. UCLA’s Steve Alford was a star player at Indiana and most recently was head coach at New Mexico. USC’s Andy Enfield coached Florida Gulf Coast into the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament and quickly moved on to the Trojans. The new guys had something in common. Both needed to hire an assistant coach who is well known locally, primarily for recruiting purposes. The first victory goes to USC. This week Enf...
Lakers Honor A Very Good Guy -- Shaq When people find out I traveled with Laker teams for 23 years they often ask about the players’ personalities. They wonder how it is to be in the company of famous athletes on a regular basis. It would be like being close to any group of people. Some are good company, some would prefer that journalists didn’t exist. It would serve no purpose to reveal the ones who didn’t co-operate with the media. I prefer to focus on the good guys. Number One on my list...
In today’s sports section we are running a column by respected local writer Steve Finley, who points out many of Ben Howland’s faults. I believe in presenting all sides of an issue even though I think Howland deserved a contract extension instead of being fired at UCLA. Today we know Steve Alford is the new Bruin basketball coach and only time will tell if he’s an improvement. Alford is an Indiana legend because of his sterling playing career with the Hoosiers. But he is not a giant in his profe...
UCLA Fires Coach: It’s a Sad Day The UCLA men’s’ basketball team won the Pac-12 Conference regular season championship this season and reached the title game of the conference tournament. The Bruins lost that title game only after Jordan Adams, one of their star players, broke a leg and couldn’t play. UCLA went on to lose its NCAA Tournament opening game, finishing with a 25-10 record as three prized freshmen – Adams, Shabazz Muhammad and Ryan Anderson -- played major roles. At a lot of school...
‘I’m Not Going Anywhere’ – Kobe There’s been a lot of speculation about Kobe Bryant’s basketball future when his contract with the Lakers expires after one more season. Will he retire from playing in the NBA? Will he play in Italy, a possibility he has raised in several interviews? He grew up there because his father was a professional player and Kobe speaks Italian. Would he consider coaching? Or how about signing another contract to continue playing for the Lakers? Bryant made one pronounceme...
Pau Gasol is close to returning to the Lakers. And, according to Coach Mike D’Antoni, Gasol will regain his starting position in place of Earl Clark. Gasol has missed 20 games with a foot injury and had a most interesting weekend. I had a private interview scheduled with him last Saturday, but Gasol was troubled by the fact he had experienced pain in the right foot after playing in a two-on-two game that morning. For the previous week he had said there were no setbacks in his training. But by S...
Something special is happening for the Dodgers in spring training. Yasiel Puig, the 22-year-old Cuban defector who has had only 82 at-bats in the minor leagues, is doing so well he’s being considered for a roster berth even though the plan was to bring him along gradually in the minors. The baseball people I’ve talked to who’ve watched the Dodgers’ practice games in Arizona have inspired me to write this piece. One scout told me Puig has outstanding power, is built like Bo Jackson and is fast...
There may be more worthwhile topics in sports today – college basketball’s March Madness, the upcoming NBA playoffs, NFL free agency, the resurgence of Tiger Woods – but the one that intrigues me is the plight of the New York Yankees. Injuries are a part of athletics and teams must adjust. What’s different about this is it’s happening to the Yankees, baseball’s long-time biggest spenders until they pulled back the dollars this spring and were bypassed by the Dodgers. And it’s fascinating t...
Charles Barkley thinks San Antonio and Memphis are the Western Conference teams that might beat Miami in the NBA Finals. Both are strong on the inside. But he doubts that either could beat Oklahoma City to reach the Finals because the Thunder has a faster team. Shaquille O’Neal thinks the Lakers would be eliminated right away if they finish seventh or eighth in the West. But he sees hope for them if they can rise to sixth. That could happen if Golden State keeps slumping. I’m not sure he...
Culver City High’s bid for a CIF championship in girl’s basketball ended Saturday in a 47-39 loss to Murrieta Valley at the Anaheim Arena. Culver did receive an invitation to the state playoffs. But because of the CIF title game defeat the Centaurs were given a road game in the first round at Granada Hills of the LA City section. The game was scheduled for Wednesday night but the result was unavailable at press time. By defeating Culver in the CIF title game Murrieta Valley earned a home fir...
Last Second Winning Shot Ends Playoff Thriller Taylor Tanita has made many important shots for the Culver City High girl’s basketball team during her career, but none bigger than Tuesday night. Tanita’s 16-foot shot at the final buzzer gave the Ocean League champions a 42-40 victory over Orange Lutheran in the CIF Division 2A playoffs. Culver City will play for the championship Friday at 3 pm, opposing Murrieta Valley in the Anaheim Convention Center. This will be the Culver girls’ first appea...
The Major League baseball channel annually begins spring training with a variety of programs dealing with the sport. A few days ago the network’s experts ranked the top 10 managers. Don Mattingly didn’t make the list. Mattingly has earned a lot of respect after succeeding Joe Torre, a baseball legend, as the Dodgers’ manager. But, clearly, he’s entering a new phase of his job – guiding a team in 2013 with the highest payroll in baseball history while working on the last year of his contract....
Lakers’ Owner Dies At 80 By Mitch Chortkoff Sport Editor Jerry Buss hadn’t owned the Lakers yet when I drove to his Santa Monica office in the ‘70s to discuss World Team Tennis. That was Buss’ first venture into sports and as sports editor of the now-defunct Santa Monica Outlook I wanted to ask if we could arrange a tradeout – he’d pay travel expenses for one of our writers to cover the LA Strings in exchange for advertising in the newspaper. I was nervous but he put me at ease. I stammered a...
What’s Next For The Lakers? Uncertainty The family of Jerry Buss issued a statement Monday saying they would honor their father’s wish to keep the team in the family rather than selling it following his death. I admire Jerry Buss for his many accomplishments and the fact he was a strong family man. But keeping the team in the family brings concern to Laker fans because nobody in the family has emerged as an obvious choice to maintain the Lakers at a championship level. Jim Buss, in his fir...
After conquering the regular season, the Ocean League champion Culver City High girls basketball team will now go after a CIF championship. Coach Julian Anderson’s team went undefeated in 10 league games, completing the schedule with a 66-30 victory over Beverly Hills. The Centaurs are 21-6 overall The Centaurs were also 10-0 a year ago and came back with another stirring performance despite the graduation of 10 seniors. Kelsey Ueda scored 17 points in a 54-34 win over Santa Monica and the C...
Lakers Haven’t Been Fair to Gasol In addition to other blunders that have plunged the Lakers into a sub-.500 team there’s the matter of how they’ve mistreated Pau Gasol the last two years. We’re talking about one of the premier big men in NAa history, a thoroughly accomplished inside player who’s been shuffled into a position he never had to play before. First, this was to accommodate Andrew Bynun last season. And now Dwight Howard this season. Let me submit the theory that Gasol is a better ba...
On national signing day, three Culver City High football players Wednesday made their college choices official. Receiver and extraordinary kick returner Julius Wilson, who was recruited by the biggest football powers nationwide, selected San Diego State. In turning down such powerhouses as LSU and Michigan he made a decision to stay close to home and thought about UCLA. But he decided San Diego State and it’s tradition of frequently throwing the ball was the best fit for him. Centaur d...
