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Draft Success Excites Lakers But Celtics Are Way Ahead Of Them By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Several years ago the Lakers and Celtics were terrible. Those championship battles in their history were only memories. But Boston. driven by Danny Ainge, started doing things right. They selected well and piled up top level draft choices in trades. By contrast, the Lakers floundered with Jim Buss as the top basketball executive and Mitch Kupchak as general manager. The club stood still, changing one...
As Clipper fans wonder what the team will do following its disappointing finish in the recently completed season the team took a step forward this week. The Clippers purchest a development league team named the Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario. The team will have 24 home games next season at the Citizens Bank Arena. Coach Doc Rivers is happy that the Clippers will have a minor league team close to home, joining 25 other NBA teams in that position. A local example is the Lakers had players...
This wasn’t supposed to be a special year for the Yankees, who have had so many of them in the past. But they’ve been winning a lot in the early part of the 2017 season and last weekend they captured my attention. They were in Chicago to play the defending champion Cubs. I watched all three games on television and was so impressed that I decided to devote my weekly column to them. You probably know by now the Yankees swept the series, including the six-hour, 18 inning win on Sunday night which w...
This was the question I asked last season. The answer was both yes and no. They lacked the elite starting pitching I thought was required. They fooled me by riding into the playoffs triggered by surprisingly good hitting. But they lost the showdown with the Cubs that could have put them into the World Series when they started two rookie pitchers in games 4 and 5 against two experienced opponents and lost both games. I wondered why the Dodgers hadn’t bid for elite free agent starting pitchers i...
As this paper goes to press the Clippers have lost Game 5 and have to win Games 6 and 7 to avoid elimination from the NBA playoffs. The Utah Jazz, who didn’t make the playoffs in recent years, have steadily improved and are a worthy first round opponent The teams both won 51 games in the regular season so their close battles now should not come as a surprise. My conclusion is that they both should be congratulated for being better than all Western Conference teams except the top three, Golden S...
The Clippers lost their first playoff game on their home court but they developed a new strategy for the rest of their first round series. Attack the basket. Attack, then attack some more. And some more. The reason was that Rudy Gobert, Utah’s outstanding young center, was out with knee injury suffered in the first 11 minutes of Game One. Without his abilty to block shots the Jazz would be vulnerable to an attacking opponent. Doc Rivers, a coach who has an NBA championship on his resume, e...
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says he will work hard to assure that a woman will become head coach of an NBA team while he is in office. “The physical difference between men and women makes no difference in coaching a team,” he said. “It will happen sooner than later.”Four-time WNBA MVP Lisa Leslie agrees. “We can do anything,” she said. Either someone can coach or not. What difference does it make if it’s a man or a woman.’Leslie, a star at Morningside High and USC, played 12 years in the WN...
Dodger fans who attended the season opener last week should be proud of themselves. When new announcer Joe Davis was introduced prior to the game against the San Diego Padres he received a warm welcome. Davis, who was hired as the ever popular Scully retired after 67 years, said he thought he might be booed. “It was on my mind,” he admitted. Instead there were cheers for the Dodgers’ new TV announcer. Not just a little out of courtesy but a lot from the sellout crowd. The 29-year-old Davis...
I’ve appreciated Gonzaga basketball for a long time without finding time to write about this impressive basketball team. Today the time has come even though Gonzaga has just lost the NCAA Championship game. It was an ugly contest with far too many fouls being called but the point is that little Gonzaga stayed with longtime powerhouse North Carolina until the final minutes. And I’m hearing that Gonzaga will be highly rated next season again. I’ve been to Spokane several times on my Laker trips...
Paul George has a year remaining on his contract with the Indiana Pacers. Then he becomes a free agent. With the end in sight, Pacers President Larry Bird had trade talks with at least five teams before the recent deadline but no deal was made, Magic Johnson called Bird. The former great players for the Lakers and Boston Celtics weren’t reliving their remarkable playing careers. It is likely Johnson inquired about getting George in a trade sometime next season. A trade makes sense for the P...
Outscored 22-3 At The finish They Search For Answers After the Clippers lost an 18-point lead in the final five minutes at Staples Center Sunday Coach Doc Rivers was asked the obvious question. “What happened and why?”He didn’ t flinch from the question. He didn’ t blame his players. He tried to explain. “I always look at myself first,” he said. “I wasn’ t happy from early in the fourth quarter. We led by 15 and I’ m looking for it to become 25. But that didn’ t happen.”The questio...
The Buss family feud has came to an end with Jeanie officially taking control of the Lakers and brother Jim resigning as co-trustee. Jim Buss’ seat on the Board has gone to younger sister Janie, an ally of Jeanie in the recent family drama. Previously Janie had warned that Buss family members would become a minority if Jim and brother Johnny were allowed to sell their shares to friends who could regularly out-vote Jeanie. With the recent development a Los Angeles Superior Court hearing scheduled...
The Clippers won by 30 points Saturday but a lot of fans in the sellout crowd at Staples Center were far from happy. “Refund, refund, refund,” they chanted because the Cleveland Cavaliers had rested LeBron James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Erving. If you were a Clipper season ticket holder you’d have to go a full season without seeing the star players of the NBA champions because it was the Cavaliers’ only road game against the Clippers in the current 82-game season. Worse, the Cavaliers had all the...
Mitch Kupchak learned the General Manager business from Jerry West, then took over. He had good years but not many in his final ones with lowly Laker teams and now he’s been replaced. What about the new guy? First, remember Kupchak was a Laker player and then a general manager. It’s a huge difference that Rob Pelinka was an agent who had Kobe Bryant as a client and now he’s going to work for a team for the first time. It’s a different world. Agents make friends and enemies. When they negotia...
Four straight terrible seasons, four years out of the playoffs, four years when I' ve been writing about the decline of one of the NBA' s greatest franchises. It seemed like it couldn' t get worse for the Lakers but it has. The Buss family is in turmoil. In a story by ESPN' s Ramona Shelbourne, Jeanie Buss' younger sister Janie says Johnny and Jim Buss want to sell their shares of the Lakers. ' That would leave the rest of us as minorities,"Janie Buss said. Six of Jerry Buss' siblings are curren...
The Lakers used to play in Inglewood. Soon the Rams and Chargers will be playing in Inglewood. And then the Clippers? Stan Kroenke, who owns the Rams and has moved the team from St. Louis and is funding a multi-billion dollar stadium in Inglewood, has attended or sent representatives to several meetings with Clippers owner Steve Ballmer in recent weeks. They’ve talked about the Clippers building an arena in Inglewood and sharing parking with the Rams’facility. The Rams are scheduled to open the...
I had covered the Lakers for several years before Mitch Kupchak came along. Kupchak told the media to call him Mitchell. ”That’s because Mitch Chortkoff was here first,” he said. “Mitch is taken, I’ll be Mitchell.” Now Mitchell has been fired after 30 years with the organization. Jim Buss, Jeanie Buss’ brother, has been fired too. And John Black, the Lakers’ publicist for the last 27 years, has been fired. It’s a very sad time for key members of this once-great franchise. The Lakers are coming...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor I had covered the Lakers for several years before Mitch Kupchak came along. Kupchak told the media to call him Mitchell. "That's because Mitch Chortkoff was here first," he said. "Mitch is taken, I'll be Mitchell." Now Mitchell has been fired after 30 years with the organization. Jim Buss, Jeanie Buss' brother, has been fired too. And John Black, the Lakers' publicist for the last 27 years, has been fired. It's a very sad time for key members of this once-great...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor I’ve been around Magic Johnson through all the years since he came to the Lakers. He’s been fantastic as a basketball player and then a businessman. He fought HIV a long time ago and he’s still living and accomplishing. But if he intends to make the Lakers great again he’s got another tough battle ahead. I have so much respect for him and I’d never say he can’t do something he wants to do. But frankly I don’t see how he can defeat the reality that a new NBA rul...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor If the LA Rams and LA Chargers don’t qualify for the Super Bowl in 2021 the game in the Rams’ new stadium in Inglewood will have a lot in common with the one played in Houston last Sunday. Fans there were probably disappointed when the Houston team didn’t earn a berth. But the magnitude of the event, a contest that drew millions of television viewers, resulted in joy throughout the Texas city. It was a great day. A great game and a halftime show that will long be...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Magic Johnson is returning to the Lakers as an advisor to top executive Jeanie Buss. The announcement was made on Thursday and Johnson's duties will include meeting with coaches, evaluating the team's roster and advising on all player and business decisions. Johnson's success as a player and a businessman is likely to result in highly favorable publicity for the Lakers, who are on the verge of failing to make The NBA playoffs for a fifth straight season. But his...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor We all have to get used to this. After 20 years without an NFL team we now have two of them. And neither one has a recent history of making the playoffs. Well, if you settle down and keep reading I’d like to tell you a few things about L.A.’s own Rams and Chargers. First, I’d like to tell you that The Observer has an excellent journalist. Fred Altieri, who covers Culver City High sports and this season added Rams coverage to his duties for the paper. I’m so plea...
I love college football. Always have. The NFL is great too, but I favor the unpredictable college games with less experienced players often surprising us. A year ago Alabama gave coach Lou Saban his fourth national championship. On Monday night Alabama was one second away from winning again but Clemson scored and prevailed for its first national championship in 35 years. A 45-40 loss last year. A 35-31 victory this time. The Clemson coach, Dabo Sweeney played on Alabama’s 1992 championship t...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor First it was Blake Griffin with knee surgery. Then it was Chris Paul with a hamstring injury. Then J.J. Redic, also with a hamstring problem. “Something good is going to come out of this,” said Coach Doc Rivers. “Maybe a lineup I didn’t expect to click.” So far the Clippers have lost to Dallas the night after a healthier Clipper team beat San Antonio. Then the Clippers lost to the Lakers and Denver. This is serious because the Clippers are heading out of elite...
Golden State is the runaway leader in the Western Conference. The coveted No. 2 and 3 seeds seemed to be open when Kevin Durant left Oklahoma City this season and Tim Duncan retired from San Antonio. The Clippers' hopes of claiming one of those spots were somewhat diminished when it was announced this week that Blake Griffin will miss three to six weeks following arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. Griffin has struggled with the injury since the season began but has managed to compile...
