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By Bosmat Eynav Sports Columnist In these hot playoff days after 82 games this season it became time for the best eight teams in the Western Conference to compete. Four are left. So which team will win? Not a simple question which has been discussed extensively. Early this season it was clear the battle would be tough because this year there are some truly excellent teams in the conference and for we basketball lovers... this is a real treat to watch - a pure pleasure. So the first round ended...
(Editor’s Note: Three seasons ago, after the Lakers were swept out of the NBA playoffs in the first round a summary of their troubles was analyzed in part 1 of this series. I didn’t plan on a part 2 but readers asked for one. Now part 3 is required because the Lakers have just completed their worst season in franchise history, 21 wins, 61 losses) By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor I understand the reasoning. The Lakers were going to sacrifice this season in order to retain money to sign free age...
(Editor's Note: Three seasons ago, after the Lakers were swept out of the NBA playoffs in the first round a summary of their troubles was analyzed in part 1 of this series. I didn't plan on a part 2 but readers asked for one. Now part 3 is required because the Lakers have just completed their worst season in franchise history, 21 wins, 61 losses) By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor I understand the reasoning. The Lakers were going to sacrifice this season in order to retain money to sign free...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor So many times during the Lakers' feat of winning 16 NBA championships I've been in the building, feeling the excitement, eager to do my work and being thankful I'm in the sportswriting profession. On Tuesday night those years came back to me as I watched the Golden State Warriors, who have the best record in this NBA season, outlast the Clippers, 110-106 before a raucous sellout crowd in Staples Center. The playoffs haven't started yet but you wouldn't know it ju...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor The Lakers and New York Knicks are the richest franchises in the NBA, but this season they’re two of the worst teams. The Knicks arrived at Staples Center last Thursday with the least wins, only 12. The Lakers were the fourth worst with 17. The game was originally scheduled to be shown on national television but, as expected, was taken off the list. What happened was the Knicks won, 101-94 and Lakers coach Byron Scott called his team selfish. He also said the L...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Within a few days last week two well-known men from the local sports scene passed away. Last Friday death claimed Joe McDonnell, who covered sports for four decades, primarily on various radio stations. He was known as The Big Nasty and teamed with Doug Krikorian on an especially popular show. McDonnell lost considerable weight and seemed to be doing well. His death shocked many friends and ESPN radio had a two-hour tribute to him, hosted by Jeff Biggs. Haley, a...
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...
The Lakers will hold "Camp Lakers 2015," presented by Denny's, a youth basketball day camp for boys and girls ages 9-18, this summer in two sessions. Hosted at Next Level Sports Complex in Garden Grove for the third consecutive year, session one will occur from June 29 to July 2 and session two from July 6 to 9. Camp Lakers is structured and focused on providing young athletes of all skill levels an opportunity to improve their overall basketball skills in a fun and challenging environment, whil...
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 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 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...
The Los Angeles Sports Council has named Kings President and General Manager Dean Lombardi as the 2014 Sports Executive of the Year. Lombardi, the architect of the 2014 Stanley Cup Champions, will be honored during the 10th Annual LA Sports Awards, presented by Coca-Cola, on Sunday, March 15 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel. A veteran of nearly 30 NHL seasons in the front office as an executive and a scout -- including the past eight with the Kings -- Lombardi has a well-earned reputation for being...
Clippers Coach Doc Rivers, who guided the team to a franchise-record 57 regular-season wins last season and magnificently kept the team afloat during a turbulent ownership scandal, has been selected the 2014 Coach of the Year by the L.A. Sports Council. Rivers will be honored at the 10th Annual LA Sports Awards, presented by Coca-Cola, which will be held on Sunday, March 15 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel. Rivers succeeded in keeping the Clippers together during a playoff run under what may be the...
By David W. Myers Contributing Editor Two local boys sponsored by the Culver City Elks will toe the free-throw line at Staples Center on Saturday, hoping to net their way into the finals of the Elks’ annual “Hoop Shoot” competition and have their names engraved on a placard inside the NBA’s Basketball Hall of Fame. John Matthews, age 11, and Michael Yang, 12, sank more than 20 of their allotted 25 shots during the preliminary round last month in the gym at the Boys and Girls Club in Venice....
Alina Kupchak, 15-year-old daughter of Lakers’ General Manager Mitch Kupchak and his wife, Claire, has died following a lengthy illness. The Kupchaks expressed their appreciation of well wishers but asked for privacy at this difficult time. The Clippers’ issued a press release expressing their regrets....
(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 Fred Altieri Sports Reporter "... We sittin' in here, I'm supposed to be the franchise player and we in here talkin' about practice. I mean listen, we talkin' bout practice. Not a game, not a game, not a game. "We talkin' bout practice. Not a game, not a, not a, not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like its my last. Not the game. We talkin' bout practice, man. I mean how silly is that? We talkin' bout practice..." Allen Iverson's universally misunderstood but...
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 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...
The Lakers’ injury problems continued when reserve forward Ryan Kelly suffered a torn right hamstring in a loss to the Golden State Warriors last week. Kelly is expected to miss at least six weeks....
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...
