“Quit” is the ugliest word in sports, but I don’t know how else you describe the Lakers’ pathetic “effort” in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. They quit. Mailed it in when it got tough. Folded the tents and started watching the clock wind down. If they could have left at halftime, I imagine they […]

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The Celtics wrap things up. The Lakers don’t have a quick start, fall behind, never catch up … and we have to suffer through a Celtics celebration. Final score: Boston 91, Lakers 79.

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It was my privilege — for 25 years — to cover high school football teams coached by Tom Hoak. Hoak was a sports throwback. A coach the way coaches used to be. He reminded me of the men I played for in high school, of the legends from decades past. A leader. An exemplar. A […]

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Doesn’t that headline seem almost laughable? As if Kobe needs defending? But, bizarrely enough, he does. I don’t know of any NBA player so routinely criticized. So subject to having his game so mercilessly parsed. No one so regularly attacked on a personal level. That whole “selfish”, “bad man”, “bad teammate”, “egomaniac”, “uncoachable” thing. And […]

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