Casper Ware, the star point guard at Long Beach State, the kid who scored a career-high 28 points in the 86-76 spanking of 10th-ranked Pitt on the Panthers’ home floor … … is getting a shout-out from a significant website.

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I believe the 2011-12 NBA season should not happen. At all. It’s not as if the NBA is missed, which is probably pretty damning. Do you know anyone — anyone — who is talking about how the lack of NBA games is tearing them up? Or even vaguely disturbing them? That, then, is a league […]

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It has been a rough, oh, coupla-three decades for Long Beach State alumni who care about the major sports. The football program was killed, and the basketball program, which was one of the nation’s best for a half-dozen seasons straddling 1970, generally wasn’t very good. So, as a 49ers alumnus, I was quite pleased to […]

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I was aware of this, a bit. I clearly remember, X number of years ago (during that short period when the proudly clueless Dutchman Ruud Gullit was coaching the Galaxy), having this pointed out to me. Gullit was talking to a few of us after a practice session, and he just launched into a Jeremiad […]

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When you are the visiting team in Beirut, you know your night did not go well when some of the local citizens let off a few rounds of celebratory gunfire after the score goes final. It probably also was not a good night when your coach is fired about 90 minutes after the game. Which […]

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Yes. Real basketball, involving Duke University, a serious American college basketball team. In Dubai, in the UAE. Almost an out-of-body experience. Coach K sitting at courtside. Austin Rivers, Doc’s highly regarded son, starting for the Blue Devils. A plethora of Plumlees. ESPN cameras. A near-capacity crowd to see Duke win 86-66. Never thought I would […]

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Rather a strange turn of events, even by UAE standards. Duke University’s men’s basketball team running and dunking at a small, stuffy gym at the Al Wasl Sports Club in Dubai as Mike Krzyzewski conducted an impromptu coaching clinic with about 30 guys sitting in the stands. “Sorry, I’m a little hoarse from yelling at […]

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I was walking down the street to the tiny apartment hard by Airport Road, Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, and a thought popped into my head about high school. Happens, sometimes. People tell me I have a good memory. Or maybe I just remember remembering, and I tell them stories about themselves that I […]

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For the first time since 2007, we have an NBA Finals without the Lakers in it. Seems a bit strange. Almost not-quite-real. But we may have to get used to it — Kobe isn’t a kid anymore, and Mike Brown doesn’t seem like an inspired hire as coach. So, Miami Heat vs. Dallas Mavericks?

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I may have done this before … just turned over a blog entry to the analysis of a former colleague. In this case, it pertains to the Lakers, who are down 2-0 to the Dallas Mavericks and look unlikely to survive this round. How can they be losing to a one-man Dallas team? That is […]

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