I’m going to do the math. I’ve been out of the United States for … hold on … for 128 days now. My longest consecutive stretch, eclipsing the 120 (or thereabouts) I spent in and around Hong Kong in 2008-09.
No, not a significant stretch for veteran expats, or career diplomats or military people based overseas. […]

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My friend and former colleague Steve Dilbeck now blogs about the Dodgers for the Los Angeles Times.
I would like to read Steve’s blog. I would also like to read a blog about the Dodgers.
The trouble?
None of the latimes.com blogs will load. Zero. Sports, politics, news. None can be called up.
The people who run the website […]

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As I write this, many of the people I know back in the States are watching the Lakers play the Celtics. In Boston. If I were on that side of the Atlantic, I would be watching too. I grew up watching that rivalry, and suffering through it. Jerry West, Chick Hearn and I … well, […]

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I want to know. Really.
A lot of you have been watching Derek Fisher. Do the Lakers look like they’re playing 4-on-5 when D-Fish is in the game? Does he look like a bench coach who somebody let suit up, for the heck of it? Is there a point guard in the league he can still […]

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If you’re a Lakers fan and you’re not worried about Kobe Bryant … you ought to be.
Not because of the way he is performing. Of course not. He’s as good as ever.
Three buzzer-beating shots for victories already this season. Which is more than any other team has. A scoring average of 30.6 points per game, […]

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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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Mostly, I just wanted to see how many “categories” I could have at the top of this item. Now let’s see if I actually mention something about all of them.
Some interesting topics playing out in U.S. sports right now and, really, I’m aware of them. Not everyone back home seems to remember we do, in […]

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This is one I have not heard. Not even by blue-skying Lakers fantasists.
LeBron James … to the Lakers?
Yes. The Lakers. LeBron. LeBron to the Lakers, to play with Kobe. Beginning next season.
Who says so? Sam Smith says so. And Sam Smith is one of the most highly regarded NBA writers in the country, a guy […]

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The Ron Artest Experiment is off to a rocky start. Think in terms of Professor Phil Jackson holding vials of unstable substances … and it they have blown up in his face, and his hair is all Einstein-like … as if he were drawn by the guys at Warner Brothers cartoons.
After two games, neither of […]

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This is one of those rules that Shouldn’t Have to Be Made. But when you’ve got self-important athletes unwilling to recognize common-sense boundaries … it’s amazing what you have to get down in black and white.
The NBA has banned the use of Twitter and other “social media” during a period that extends from 45 minutes […]

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