Reading Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time. Loving it still; almost depressed that I an nearing the end. And finding new appreciation for J.R.R. Tolkien’s plotting and narrative skills. Books 3 through 6 are marvels of elastic storytelling, with the author shifting among as many as four plot lines. Three of the plot […]

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It arrived in one of those daily “your highlights” list of links sent to me by Twitter with the aid of their spyware. Tweets on topics I have shown an interest in the past. Like English football or foreign affairs. Do they send those messages to everyone? Or just to people who aren’t tweeting enough? […]

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This is a familial train wreck waiting to happen. LaVar Ball is the father of UCLA freshman guard Lonzo Ball, a likely lottery pick in the next NBA draft. LaVar Ball tends to say colorful things pertaining to his three sons and, in particular, Lonzo, the eldest. Up to this point a year ago, anything […]

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The upside to getting an English-language-based TV package, here in the south of France, is that it allows me to look at about 50 sports channels broadcast in a language I more fully comprehend. The downside is, when sports events are live in the U.S., it is some time after midnight in France. When, in […]

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It isn’t true I oppose every baseball rule change. Just nearly all of them. Baseball’s rules should be treated with great reverence. Change them not at all unless some compelling need arises. Making the intentional walk “automatic” is not a change that really needed to be made. It’s not like fans, players and owners were […]

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The financial ramifications of failure in England’s Premier League are the most dramatic in sports. The difference between income inside the league … versus income outside it for the three clubs who will be relegated in May … appears to be something north of 400 million pounds. Maybe around half a billion. Per club, per […]

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Even before his first full day as Lakers president of basketball operations ended, Magic Johnson pulled off a trade that will help the Lakers in what figures to be a long climb back to respectability. Journeyman guard Lou Williams to the Houston Rockets for journeyman forward Corey Brewer and a Rockets first-round draft pick. Some […]

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Jerry Buss died on February 18, 2013. Two months later, the team he owned, the Los Angeles Lakers, completed a 45-37 regular season and qualified for the NBA playoffs for the 31st time in the 33 seasons played since Buss bought a controlling interest in the club, ahead of the 1979-80 season. Buss left his […]

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DeMarcus Cousins was traded by the Sacramento Kings to the New Orleans Pelicans today in what seemed like a lopsided deal. The Pelicans got perhaps the league’s most prominent big man (and currently the league’s No. 4 scorer, at 27.8 ppg) in exchange for a whole lot of not much — rookie wing Buddy Hield, […]

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Remember when Jimmer Fredette was required viewing? I once watched him play in the wee hours of an Abu Dhabi morning … because I just wanted to see his act. It was March of 2011, during the NCAA playoffs. That was the season in which he led the NCAA in scoring at 28.9 points per […]

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