I cannot remember the last time I was paying such close attention to the NBA. And not just the Lakers. The whole league. (And yes, I am the same guy who three months ago wrote on this blog that the locked-out NBA could take the season off, for all I cared.) I am more interested, […]

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The things you learn on Twitter. Well, from links posted on Twitter. With 140 characters, you can’t divulge much information on the site. In this case, it was a link to a site ranking sports teams globally by the number of their Facebook followers. And guess who was No. 4. (Did the headline tip that, […]

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More basketball! I wasn’t planning to go this way. Though I did think, the day before the Lakers played in Miami, that the Heat would win, no problem, and considered writing that just to show my powers of analysis … but then it got too late, and the Heat led by 21 after three before […]

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This is hardly noticed in the particularly British (or Indian) parts of the world, but basketball probably is the second-most popular game on the planet. I know that several sports have made that claim (from volleyball to team handball to ping-pong, etc), but hoops probably is the real No. 2. Plus, a survey conducted last […]

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I have seen pieces of NBA games, this season, over here in the UAE, and the whole of the Lakers-Bulls game on Christmas Day. I have seen all of the scores, however. Some former colleagues and I are in about the third decade of an NBA fantasy league (I have both LeBron and Kobe; feeling […]

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Kobe Bryant ranks third in the NBA in scoring, so far, at 26.4 points per game. But the Lakers are 4-4, and are beginning to have the feel of a .500 team. Are these concepts related? Well, yes. In that the Lakers have managed to win four games … but have contrived to lose four. […]

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I can’t believe I’m writing a blog post with the “Kardashian” name in the headline. But this is about sports. Really. A news item last week revealed that Kris Humphries is the most-disliked player in the NBA, according to recent surveys of the American public. Fifty percent of all respondents identified Kris Humphries as an […]

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I didn’t really plan to watch the Lakers in their season-opener on Christmas Day. The game didn’t start until 2:30 p.m. in Los Angeles (which was early December 26 here in the UAE), and I prefer my sports-from-the-other-side-of-the-world to end about that time. Not start. But the night kinda dragged on, and when I got […]

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Eight months of the year, the idea that regular guys and kids might go outside for a kick-about, as the Brits call it, would seem exotic. It’s too hot, and by the time it’s not quite so hot it’s midnight, and even in a country that tends to be nocturnal in the summer, that’s too […]

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Generous of me, yes, to allow the Clippers to have Chris Paul — since the trade is already made and I’m not the erratic and capricious commissioner of the NBA who can step in and quash a deal. Lakers fans will be agitated about this trade, for two reasons: That Chris Paul will not be […]

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