This site was up and down all day. Well, mostly down, as some of you may have noticed. What was the message I got when I tried to log on? Something like … “error connecting to data base.” I thought it was a “word press” thing, that being the blog site. But apparently it really […]

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Adam Harper was the angriest young man I ever hired. Or ever worked with. And probably the weirdest, too, though he has a lot more competition for that title. Rage simmered below the surface of his personality at all times and percolated to the surface frequently … usually directed at the great amorphous (yet eternally […]

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I won’t use his name, because I didn’t clear it with him first, but a lifelong Celtics fan has responded to criticism here (and elsewhere, particularly throughout the L.A. media) of Paul Pierce’s antics in the third quarter of Thursday’s NBA Finals game with the Lakers. You may recall the story line: The “I’m mortally […]

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If you saw the game, you figured Paul Pierce was done. Certainly for the game. Probably for the season. Maybe for his career. He went down in a writhing heap. As if he had been pole-axed. He clawed at his knee and was grimacing horribly. It had to be awful. Had to be. After a […]

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The Lakers are the best thing to happen to the Dodgers this spring. The playoffs dash by Kobe & Co. has deflected attention from what is increasingly looking like a Big Blue Face Plant. So, that $118.5-million roster Ned Colletti assembled? Essentially the fifth-most expensive roster in the bigs? It has bought the Dodgers 28 […]

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No, really. Maybe nutty people shouting “The end is near!” on street corners downtown will be happy if/when they turn out to be right. But I take no joy in predicting the Lakers’ struggles in the NBA Finals. Which you may review (and note the time stamps) lower down on this blog. There is a […]

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This is an interesting subplot to the Lakers-Celtics series. At least from the journalism perspective. Throughout the history of professional sports … the primary source of information and intelligent analysis has been newspapers and their employees. Their beat writers, their columnists, their feature writers. In the past quarter-century, TV’s talking heads have stepped up — […]

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Sure, it takes four victories to win a seven-game series, but NBA history demonstrates the winner of Game 1 is highly likely to win the series. The victor in Game 1 won 45 of the 61 NBA Finals contested before this one. So this is a key moment for the Lakers, in Boston tonight. Especially […]

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Lakers fans remember the 2004 NBA Finals. Or maybe they don’t. The run-up to the 2008 Finals reminds me a lot of 2004. And that’s not a good thing. As in 2004 … There is a widespread assumption the Lakers will win. Without particular difficulty. Kobe Bryant’s (awesome/unquenchable/unrivaled, take your pick) will to win is […]

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Willie Mays Aikens was a rookie first baseman with the Angels in 1977, the one season I was the beat guy for the team. He was a big guy, somebody who could become a serious power-hitter, but I always worried about him. Not in a parental sort of way. More in a semi-concerned bystander sort […]

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