A few days ago, I watched Tottenham Hotspur’s final match at their ancient stadium at White Hart Lane, where the London club had played its home matches since 1899. Fans were a bit melancholy but the celebrations before and after the match, won 2-1 by Spurs over Manchester United, seemed to mollify them. Actually, they […]

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Tonight is the night. The night when the ping-pong balls land and it is determined who drafts in the top three of the NBA lottery. In a matter of minutes the Los Angeles Lakers have a chance to go No. 1 or No. 2 or No. 3 in next month’s talent-heavy NBA draft … or […]

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The NBA is a fairly big attraction, in France, a nation which also has produced the greatest number of foreign players in the league, about a dozen. The New York Times today has drawn a link between a Franco-American wannabe baller — who did heavily accented commentary for French television for much of two decades […]

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While slogging through the hills of northern Spain, it was easy to lose track of stories he or she thought were important, before. And after. Top of the list on the sports side, for me … is the Lakers’ ridiculous five-game winning streak that cost them a chance to have the second-best position in the […]

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This was a day when the strains inside the Buss family came out in the open and were shown to be a clear and present danger to the stability of the Los Angeles Lakers franchise. Jim Buss, who ran the basketball operations side of things for the Lakers, last week was fired by his sister, […]

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This is a familial train wreck waiting to happen. LaVar Ball is the father of UCLA freshman guard Lonzo Ball, a likely lottery pick in the next NBA draft. LaVar Ball tends to say colorful things pertaining to his three sons and, in particular, Lonzo, the eldest. Up to this point a year ago, anything […]

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Even before his first full day as Lakers president of basketball operations ended, Magic Johnson pulled off a trade that will help the Lakers in what figures to be a long climb back to respectability. Journeyman guard Lou Williams to the Houston Rockets for journeyman forward Corey Brewer and a Rockets first-round draft pick. Some […]

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Jerry Buss died on February 18, 2013. Two months later, the team he owned, the Los Angeles Lakers, completed a 45-37 regular season and qualified for the NBA playoffs for the 31st time in the 33 seasons played since Buss bought a controlling interest in the club, ahead of the 1979-80 season. Buss left his […]

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DeMarcus Cousins was traded by the Sacramento Kings to the New Orleans Pelicans today in what seemed like a lopsided deal. The Pelicans got perhaps the league’s most prominent big man (and currently the league’s No. 4 scorer, at 27.8 ppg) in exchange for a whole lot of not much — rookie wing Buddy Hield, […]

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When we last lived full-time in the U.S., the Lakers were good and the Clippers were awful. Same-ol’ same-ol’, that is. Now, the Lakers are awful and the Clippers are … pretty good. Not as good as some thought they would be, certainly not champion contenders, but the best team in Los Angeles and a […]

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