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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...
Last week San Diego City Council offered the Chargers a rental fee of $1 if the team would continue playing in Qualcom Stadium. They asked the Chargers to consider that they have 60 years of tradition in their fine city. Most likely the Chargers will deny the offer and move to Los Angeles, joining the Rams in the new stadium being built in Inglewood, ‘We have tried through seven mayors. It is very sad that we’ve reached this point,” the Chargers announced to the media. How will it work to have...
The unveiling of a bronze statue of legendary Laker and NBA Hall of Fame player Shaquille O'Neal is coming to Star Plaza at Staples Center on March 24 at 5 pm. As a tribute to the larger-than-life Laker great, whose career with the organization produced three NBA Championships, the Lakers, Staples Center, and AEG organizations commissioned the creation of a 1,200 pound, nine-foot bronze statue of him. O'Neal's statue will be connected to Staples Center, suspended 10 feet above the ground....
When free agent center Dwight Howard left the Lakers after the 2012-’13 season fans were very angry. Ever since then Howard has been treated harshly at Staples Center from the opening introductions to the final buzzer every time he’s played here. Every time he’s handled the ball in fact. It happened again Sunday night when the Lakers erased an early deficit to defeat the Atlanta Hawks. I don’t expect Laker fans to ease up on Howard because of anything I write. But I’d like to tell you what I th...
I went to Staples Center Saturday and Sunday nights. That’s no surprise since my job requires keeping up with the Lakers and Clippers. But the weekend had a special significance. The Chicago Bulls were in town. They’re not a great team but a good one. They’ve added free agent Dwayne Wade and I expected them to provide a test for the LA teams. Could they meet the challenge? The Clippers passed the Chicago test but the Lakers didn’t. The Bulls were tearing the Clippers apart early in the game bu...
It’s good to be a fan of an LA team so far in the 2016-’17 National Basketball Association season. The Clippers are 10-1 at this writing, the best record in the NBA. And they’ve been routing opponents, building several 30-point halftime leads. The Lakers can’t match that but as of Monday they had a 6-5 record and that’s encouraging considering their slow starts in recent years. They even had a three-game winning streak before losing at Minnesota Sunday. I credit new coach Luke Walton for doing...
Gail Goodrich is the greatest lefthanded guard the Lakers have ever had. He played on two NCAA championship teams at UCLA, then teamed in the backcourt with Jerry West on two Laker NBA championship teams including the 1972 squad that set the still-standing record of 33 consecutive wins. In 14 NBA seasons Goodrich averaged 18.6 points per game. Although he was the shooting guard and West handled the ball more often Goodrich managed to average 4.7 assists per game throughout his career. I bring...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor If you've read this column over the years you probably know I traveled with the Lakers for a long time and got to know Chick Hearn very well. We frequently sat together on plane rides and I had the pleasure of knowing his wife, Marge, too. I haven't known Vin Scully as well because I didn't travel with the Dodgers but we became friends through a lot of conversations in the Dodger Stadium press box. The Lakers began flying charter many years ago but they used to...
The Lakers held the annual media day on Monday and opened training camp in Santa Barbara Tuesday eager to please their new coach. Luke Walton has already pleased them. In the off season since Walton replaced Byron Scott the young players who experienced a 17-65 season a year ago were pleased with his positive approach. Without question, Walton and the players bonded. The test, of course will be in how the team does when the wins and losses follow. Nice guy Walton, who encourages them, is great f...
If you’ve read this column over the years you probably know I traveled with the Lakers for a long time and got to know Chick Hearn very well. We frequently sat together on plane rides and I had the pleasure of knowing his wife, Marge, too. I haven’t known Vin Scully as well because I didn’t travel with the Dodgers but we became friends through a lot of conversations in the Dodger Stadium press box. The Lakers began flying charter many years ago but they used to fly commercial and one time Hearn...
The 2016-’17 National Basketball Association season begins Monday, when the Lakers, Clippers and all other teams will have their annual media day. On Tuesday all teams will begin practice. The Lakers will be at UC Santa Barbara and the Clippers at UC Irvine. A few weeks later exhibition games will be played, leading to the start of the regular season at the end of the month. The Clippers will be home on Wednesday, November 2 against Oklahoma City and the Lakers’ home opener will be on November 4 against Golden State, both LA teams again pla...
The Los Angeles D-Fenders have named Coby Karl as head coach, it was announced by team President/CEO Joey Buss and General Manager Nick Mazzella. Karl will replace Casey Owens, who takes over as an assistant coach and advance scout on the Los Angeles Lakers staff. Karl returns to the D-Fenders organization after appearing in 17 games for the team during the 2007-08 season while on assignment from the Lakers. On February 19, 2008, Karl became the second player in NBA Development League history to play in an NBADL and NBA game in the same day,...
The Lakers will have a new training facility in 2017 and Coach Luke Walton is excited about it. "It will be three times the size of the one we have now," he said. "It will have two basketball courts and a capacity of 750 for games of our D-League team, the LA Defenders. The facility, called the UCLA Health Training Center, will be in El Segundo, just two blocks from the current one. Currently the Lakers are tenants in a facility they share with the Kings and there's an ice rink open to the...
Two seasons ago the Clippers had a 3-1 series lead over the Houston Rockets but faltered and lost their chance to advance to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in their history. Last season the Clippers were eliminated in the first playoff round by the Portland Trail Blazers even though they finished higher in the regular season. So, a lot has been heard since about a Clippers curse. You know, word has gotten around that somehow, some way the Clippers will fall short. Here we go...
The Lakers took awhile but they signed top draft choice Brandon Ingram this week. They also signed former top 10 draft choice Yi Jianlian, who played well for China in the just-concluded Olympics although the team lost all five of its games. Ingram is a candidate to succeed Kobe Bryant at small forward. Jianlian will try to earn a roster spot in training camp. The 6-11 Jilianlian hasn't done well while playing for four NBA teams since he was drafted by Milwaukee in 2007. He has averaged less...
OCTOBER FEBRUARY Thursday 27 at Portland 7:30 PM TNT Wednesday 1 at Phoenix 6:00 PM Sunday 30 Utah 1:30 PM Thursday 2 Golden State 7:30 PM TNT Monday 31 Phoenix 7:30 PM Sunday 5 at Boston 11:00 AM ABC/ESPN Radio NOVEMBER Monday 6 at Toronto 4:30 PM Wednesday 2 Oklahoma City 7:30 PM ESPN Wednesday 8 at New York 5:00 PM ESPN Friday 4 at Memphis 5:00 PM Saturday 11 at Charlotte 2:00 PM Saturday 5 at San Antonio 5:30 PM NBA TV Monday 13 at Utah 6:00 PM Monday 7 Detroit 7:30 PM Wednesday 15 Atlanta...
If you’re a basketball fan in Southern California it’s time to consider your plans for Christmas. The Lakers and Clippers will be playing each other that day in Staples Center. It will be a Lakers home game. The teams will play each other four times in the 2016-17 season. The Clippers won all four meetings last season. The NBA annually has five games on national television on Christmas Day. The Laker-Clipper game will be one of them. The featured one will be a rematch of last season’s NBA Final...
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....
In less than five years the City of Inglewood has gone from the brink of bankruptcy to becoming the site of the 2021 Super Bowl. In November 2014 Mayor James Butts was re-elected with 83% of the vote, the largest percentage of victory ever in the city's history. With significant citizen support, Butts and the current city council members: George Dotson – District 1; Alex Padilla – District 2; Eloy Morales, Jr. – District 3 and Ralph L. Franklin – District 4, worked on the city's financial issues...
Every July there is summer excitement brewing at the Toyota Sports Center, the Lakers headquarters and practice facility in El Segundo. No, it wasn't the news that Brandon Ingram, the second overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft, was practicing at the Lakers’ facility. On Saturday, the excitement involved about 216 capable young women from all over the country trying-out to become a dancer for next season's Laker Girls dance squad. It was an open audition, a cattle call. The only requirements - be at least 18 years of age, have eight years of d...
If you follow the history of basketball a few things are perfectly clear. If your team expects to win a championship you need at least two superstars to complete the journey to the top. The Lakers had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson and Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. The Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA have Nneka Ogwumike and Candace Parker. Like any championship team every player on that roster plays an important role in that team's success. All 12 women on the Sparks roster are...
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...
Every July there is summer excitement brewing at the Toyota Sports Center, the Lakers headquarters and practice facility in El Segundo. No, it wasn't the news that Brandon Ingram, the second overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft, was practicing at the Lakers’ facility. On Saturday, the excitement involved about 216 capable young women from all over the country trying-out to become a dancer for next season's Laker Girls dance squad. It was an open audition, a cattle call. The only requirements - be at least 18 years of age, have eight years of d...
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...
