What I said a year ago. Nothing has changed.

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The NBA has fans outside of North America, but not tons of them. So the stunning similarity of what soccer’s Neymar has done and what the NBA’s Kyrie Irving wants to do may have gone largely unnoticed in the vast realm of global sports. In short, it is this: Each is is a star, each […]

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Lonzo Ball’s first game with the Lakers, in an NBA Summer League game in Las Vegas last night, was a disaster. The stuff of nightmares. The No. 2 pick in the 2017 draft, the “next Magic Johnson”, stunk it up. Two-for-15 shooting from the field. One-for-11 from three. Welcome to the league, Lonzo. Or the […]

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How hard must it be to be the top brass of the Los Angeles Lakers, at this moment? They have the No. 2 pick in the draft, but no first-round pick next year, and they have some hard decisions to make — with the very real possibility if they get things wrong, come Thursday, their […]

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Let me mention it again. I have been outside the U.S. for all but a few months since October of 2009. I remain a fan of all American team sports I once covered as a journalist — baseball, football, basketball … But I cannot say I have, week in and week out, seen all the […]

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For quite some time now, I have not been good at staying up all night. When I was younger, sure. Not anymore. Either I fail at it, and wake up several hours after whatever I was waiting for is finished, or I make it through the game or the flight and then sleep badly and […]

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Four years ago I suggested a parlor game of my own devising. As I recall, it came from my staring at a four-digit clock on a treadmill. Start with a year and match it with any event that happened in the 365/366 days attached to that year. For instance: 2016, Cubs win the World Series […]

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The Cleveland Cavaliers put the Boston Celtics out of their misery tonight. (And I do so like the idea of the Celtics being stomped into a greasy little green spot on their home floor. Can we do this every year?) And up next, the Cavs and LeBron James against the Golden State Warriors in the […]

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The NBA has become a bit unbalanced. Twenty-eight teams can do all the coaching, scouting, planning and plotting, building and rebuilding they want … and it will not change a basic, unalterable reality: They have no chance against the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Which ought to make for a fascinating championship series, […]

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Tonight is the night. The night when the ping-pong balls land and it is determined who drafts in the top three of the NBA lottery. In a matter of minutes the Los Angeles Lakers have a chance to go No. 1 or No. 2 or No. 3 in next month’s talent-heavy NBA draft … or […]

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