American exceptionalism is a fairly controversial political notion, talked about for nearly 200 years, that the United States is unlike any other country in the world due to its “unique” history and form of government. People of good will can be on either side of that discussion. But the U.S. most certainly is exceptional in […]

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Twice in a year the UAE has hosted a world Under 17 sports event. Last fall it was the Fifa U17 World Cup. This month it is the Fiba Under 17 World Championship. Fiba is the international sanctioning body for basketball. And this basketball tournament has been more interesting than was the soccer tournament. Even […]

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A lot of sports editors around the world today weren’t exactly surprised that, with the end of the World Cup, not a whole lot is going on … but it still represents an unpleasant reality. A limited number of scheduled events in the near future. It is the case in the UAE, and it is […]

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Maybe someone has written this. So I won’t call it an original idea. Just something I haven’t seen yet that has occurred to me in the past hours. Something to try to explain the inexplicable: LeBron James and his return to Cleveland.

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This comes up every four years. Or every four years after the U.S. national team has, at least, made the second round of a World Cup. Like this time around. “Is soccer about to make a breakthrough in the U.S.?” Will it be mentioned in the same breath as football and baseball and basketball? Or […]

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The Los Angeles Kings tonight wrapped up their second Stanley Cup championship in three years. And though I, like most native southern Californians, am not a hockey fan, we must concede this: Los Angeles would be confronting a potential championship drought, about now, if the Kings had not had not turned into world beaters.

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When I was a young, Los Angeles versus New York sports championships happened fairly often. And they were intense. The Dodgers and the Yankees met in the World Series in 1963, 1977, 1978 and 1981. The Lakers and Knicks met in the NBA Finals in 1971 and 1972. (And, a reader reminds me, in 1970.) […]

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So, watching the boxscore from the Oklahoma City Thunder versus Memphis Grizzlies playoffs game tonight, with the Clippers to come next … and I had a flashback to the media work room at Staples Center in Los Angeles. And the anxiety produced when the game before the game dragging on too long.

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I saw Demetrius Walker play three or four times when he was a freshman and/or a sophomore at Fontana High School, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles. I remember thinking “he’s OK, but not great”. He was good around the basket, he could leap, but he was only 6-foot-3 (later reduced to 6-2, in […]

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I have not paid close attention to the Los Angeles Lakers this year. I may not have even if I were not 10,000 miles from Staples Center. It became clear early that they were not going to be very good, and when Kobe Bryant’s brief return from Achilles surgery was interrupted by a broken leg, […]

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