I know. I know. The Playoff Puppets advertising campaign has problems now, because the inspiration for one of the puppets — LeBron James — won’t be playing in the NBA Finals. Contrary to the putative “these guys will meet in the finals” script. Be interesting to see if Nike pulls the commercials. Probably so. Yes. […]

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I will be citing Steve Sampson on a variety of topics, here and elsewhere, over the next week or so, but here is one more tidbit from my conversation with him that I will put up here and now. We were talking about the 1998 World Cup, when Sampson was coach of the U.S. national […]

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I was talking to Steve Sampson the other day about several topics, and during the chat we got onto the subject of Landon Donovan, and what his soccer future should look like. Sampson, you probably recall, is the former U.S. national team soccer coach (1995-98), the former Costa Rican national soccer team coach (2002-04) — […]

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In case you are worried about my friend Luis Bueno, as I was, when he stopped updating his soccer blog, The Touchline … well, don’t be. He told me recently that he has other commitments — paying ones — that keep him from keeping up with The Touchline. Which I have to assume is not […]

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It was one of those sublime couple of hours where a good team lives up to its potential. The Lakers spent two months not doing that. They would have a good quarter. Maybe a good half. But rarely more than that. Yeah, they beat the Houston Rockets by 40 in Game 5 of the second […]

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Got a lot of reaction to an earlier post on this, decrying the, uh, editorializing a clueless actor named Tyrese Gibson did while singing the national anthem. And most of the reaction is from cretins who think it was just fine to substitute “Lakers were” for “flag was” in the line, “gave proof through the […]

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It wouldn’t be a real game in this series if somebody wasn’t complaining about the officiating. Well, if the losers didn’t complain, anyway. Phil Jackson went after the refs following the Lakers’ defeat in Game 4, saying his players couldn’t get used to officials that called certain fouls early but didn’t call the same fouls […]

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Earlier tonight, I had the Lakers winning. Check. By 10 or more. Oops. One point shy. And two days ago, I predicted Lamar Odom would have a 20-and-10 game. Oops. He was 19 and 14. For long stretches at Staples Center tonight, I thought I might be wrong about all of it. Lamar wouldn’t really […]

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Odd stat of the night: The Lakers and Nuggets have been tied at the end of each of the first three quarters. 25-25, 56-56 and now 76-76. That Lakers’ win by 10 or more? Not gonna happen. If they win, it will be by a point or two. They need to do a better job […]

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On top of the ad lib national anthem. Lakers are down 10-6, Kobe Bryant has the ball near the three-point arc. Holding it out behind him. Dahntay Jones reaches around and knocks the ball loose, beats Kobe to it and goes the length of the court … and blows the layup against Kobe’s defense. But […]

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