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’m not sure I’ve ever met a sports journalist who wasn’t something of a numbers freak. Scores, statistics, streaks … it’s as if the entire fraternity (and the much smaller sorority) comes to the profession with digits already dancing in their heads.
So it isn’t any stranger than usual for someone who has worked in the […]

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I was thinking about the Beijing Olympics, and realized that the U.S. men’s basketball team had zero Clippers on it. But then, neither did the Vancouver Olympics. Have any Clippers on the U.S. team.
Though clipper ships presumably sailed to Vancouver, but not Beijing, it being too far from the ocean. Hong Kong? Sure. But not […]

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While researching the concept of “great sports venues” in Asia, it was deeply impressed upon me how enormous was the scope of the topic. Daunting, even.
How to know about that grand old place in what is now Kazakhstan? Or the charming race track in Mongolia? Or whatever it is that Nepal, Uzbekistan, Georgia or Armenia […]

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It was a more eventful decade than my initial thoughts indicated. “Wow. I have to come up with 10 good sports events from the 0-somethings? I’m not sure I can do that.”
Turns out, a few minutes of cross-referencing years and sports, and it’s no problem finding 10. The trick is limiting it to that many.
And […]

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From the other side of the world, it looks as if the Dodgers and Angels are sort of melting away.
The Angels let free agents Chone Figgins (Seattle) and John Lackey (Boston) join key rivals.
The Dodgers have allowed Randy Wolf and Orlando Hudson to walk.
But the Dodgers did something right today. Addition by subtraction, as Branch […]

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So, let’s see … Usain Bolt has run the 100 and 200 in the Beijing Olympics last year, and the 100 and 200 in the world championship this month in Berlin …
And he has set world records in all four finals.
I wrote a few days ago that I remain an Usain Bolt unbeliever. I still […]

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Let me take you back to 1987. I was in Rome at the track and field World Championships, covering the event for Gannett News Service. A great assignment. No question. Great event, and a great venue. Rome and Italy? Can’t beat it.
Anyway, Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis were the great rivals, back then, in the […]

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It looks like it might be a good job. A print journalism job. Titled. Overseas. Maybe a real salary.
The sort of job any of the thousands of print journos thrown out of the business in the past couple of years might find attractive.
The ad is for a pair of openings at the China Daily, an […]

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We knew this even before the Olympics were over.
Beijing built far too many big and exotic venues. Stadiums and arenas anyone with the slightest knowledge of Chinese sports interest … knew would be useless as soon as the Summer Games circus struck the tents and left town.
Now, we have the Los Angeles Times with a […]

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