I saw this just the past day or two, on some website. “Describe an act of random kindness that you encountered.”

I think the point of this is … the act ought to be dramatic, unexpected and from someone you do not know. That is what the “random” is getting at.

I probably am forgetting all sorts of random acts … but I remember one clearly even though it happened a long time ago. Thirty-five years ago, actually.

We were preparing to return from London to Los Angeles, after our first trip across the Atlantic, and we were going to head to Heathrow after our “full English breakfast” at the B&B we had taken somewhere near (if I recall aright) Paddington Station.

When we got back to the room … well, disaster. My wife’s camera and wallet and, most important of all, her passport … were gone. And we were supposed to be in the air in a few hours.

First complication?

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Luc Richard Mbah a Moute‘s final season at UCLA, 2007-08, was also my last as a journalist in Southern California.

I remember Mbah a Moute fairly well. He was a junior, a starter at power forward for a UCLA program that was riding high, and a regular contributor the previous two seasons. But he also was the fifth-best guy in the lineup that included Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, Darren Collison and Josh Shipp.

Nothing about Mbah a Moute said “NBA star”.

The notion that he would have a significant pro career … and he has, with 10 seasons and more than $25 million in salary … well, I never saw that coming.

Not only has Mbah a Moute, a native of Cameroon, moved into his 10th season in the league … the other day he had an NBA-record plus-minus statistic of plus-57 for his latest team, the Houston Rockets.

Which is astonishing, for several reasons.

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The first paragraphs went like this:

“He stands five feet tall.

“He weighs 132 pounds.

“He can lift 418 pounds over his head.

“His name is Naim Suleymanoglu, from Turkey, and pound for pound he is the strongest man in the history of the world.”

That was the opening of my story on the featherweight lifting competition at the Seoul Olympics, one of the more memorable events I covered as a journalist at 14 Olympics.

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Pretty much everyone who has worked in print journalism nurses a grudge toward people who crumple a newspaper while paging through it.

Today’s paper, especially.

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The 32 teams are set.

Last nation into the tournament was Peru, with a 2-0 aggregate victory over New Zealand in the inter-confederation playoffs.

Here are the nations that will participate in Russia 2018 — 31 of them, with the host Russia making it 32.

Let’s break these down into contenders, long shots, also-rans and no-hopers.

These evaluations might change a bit, after the draw is made, on December 1, for next summer’s tournament. But this is what we have at the moment.

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Whoa, there, Rams fans. Your team is not going to sprint to the Super Bowl any time soon.

That 7-2 start? Nice. But when the Rams stopped playing cupcakes and ran into another quality team, the Minnesota Vikings … well, it did not go well.

To the tune of 24-7, with the “highest-scoring-team-in-the-league” Rams on the “7” end of that.

What bits were scary for the Rams?

Several.

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A shoving match broke out during the Los Angeles Lakers’ game in Phoenix last night.

It was an entirely forgettable, silly display, as most NBA fracases are. A little post-whistle bump here (by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope), a modest shove there (by Tyler Ulis of the Suns) … and teammates rushing in to separate the “combatants”.

Noticeable by his absence was rookie Lonzo Ball. He was near the childish scuffle, when it broke out, but kept walking toward the Lakers bench. About halfway there he looked back — but kept walking.

Which led to a social media storm of (mostly) condemnation of Ball for not “coming to the aid” of a teammate … and a snarky putdown here and there.

Some suggested he is, essentially, a coward. The snarky putdown crew, riffed on the notion in some quarters that Ball is “passive” — to the point of not getting in sandbox style snits.

Actually Lonzo Ball ought to be congratulated for his actions — which seem to suggest he believes a serious person does not get involved with the antics of momentarily annoyed basketball players.

He summed up his position in a few words:

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This is an important journalism skill outsiders rarely think about.

Posing post-game questions.

This is not the same as asking a question in an interview situation. At best, a one-on-one with flexible time limits. More likely something in a controlled environment, like a press conference.

Asking post-game questions in a clubhouse littered with laundry and tape and cluttered by too many reporters … is a special talent, and not all of us have it.

I thought of this, anew, after seeing a fairly disastrous and seriously short Q&A between Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder and reporters tonight. The video is all of 32 seconds and most of that is reporters clumsily framing questions — ahead of the predictably unhelpful Westbrook.

Let’s craft a list of tips for the clubhouse interview distilled from 35 years in the business.

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This is a thing, in Dubai. The police there love to add exotic and fast cars to its fleet of cruisers. The faster and more exotic, the better.

The latest?

Five new “patrol” cars that get from Point A to Point B in a big hurry.

To wit:

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It is fun when we discover a new sports star/superstar.

Just when we get conditioned to the usual roster of the elite, boom, there he is: Another potentially great player.

Which is where Joel Embiid comes in.

Embiid is a 7-footer with quickness, dexterity and a fine shooting touch who plays center for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Like many NBA big men, he has endured a series of injuries, the most serious of which have been to his feet.

A native of Cameroon discovered by countryman Luc Mbah a Moute, the former UCLA Bruin, Embiid was drafted by the 76ers in June of 2014, after playing in 28 games in his single season at the University of Kansas.

Embiid did not actually appear in an NBA game for the following two seasons.

He lost 2014-15 to surgery on the navicular bone in his right foot; he lost 2015-16 to a second surgery on the navicular bone in his right foot.

He got through 31 games, his first since college, in 2016-17 before knee surgery stopped him cold at the all-star-game break.

But now he is back … and showing what he can do.

When healthy.

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