Commentary, predictions, rumors, maybe some smack on sports in Los Angeles
First year head coach Doc Rivers wants to make sure these Los Angeles Clippers aren’t your parents’ Clippers.
That’s assuming, of course, your parents were fans during that era of futility which is 90% of the Clippers history.
To read the entire article and see the video, click here.
The “baby blue” UCLA pipeline to the NBA is a well-traveled one with 15 Bruins currently on NBA rosters entering the upcoming season – the most of any college program.
In fact, UCLA has delivered the most players to the NBA with Shabazz Muhammad (UCLA 2012-’13) being the 83rd Bruin headed to the show this season with the Minnesota Timberwolves where he’ll team up with another former Bruin, Kevin Love (UCLA 2007) .
A third of all the currently active Bruin alums in the Association reside, appropriately enough, in Los Angeles.
To read the complete story, click here.
With all its National Championships in various sports – 108 of them which is by far the most of any NCAA school – a baseball championship by UCLA’s Bruins wasn’t part of that impressive national title total.
It is now.
National championship number 109 for UCLA comes via the baseball diamond thanks to the Bruins (49-17) 8-0 win over Mississippi State to sweep the best two out of three title series at the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
To continue reading story, click her for link.
“Just like Ray Charles was born to sing the Blues, I was born to rush the quarterback.”
-Deacon Jones
Deacon Jones, the anchor of the famed Los Angeles Rams defensive line known as the Fearsome Foursome, died this past Tuesday of natural causes at the age of 74.
I don’t remember seeing Deacon Jones play for the Los Angeles Rams. I’m not old enough. He was traded to the San Diego Chargers prior to the 1972 season.
To continue reading this story please click here for the link.
The UCLA football team ended its spring workouts at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena this past Saturday at the annual Spring Showcase.
The showcase really didn’t accomplish much to propel the Bruins as the odds on favorite to repeat as PAC-12 Southern Division Champions, maybe winning the conference outright and earning a trip to a BCS game.
During the early to mid-1990s, UCLA was fortunate to have offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden on its football roster.
Coming out of Washington D.C. he chose the Bruins over the University of Florida only because UCLA would allow him to be a part of the track and field team as well as the football team.
Thank goodness Gators don’t do much compromising in, or out of, the water.
Patience hasn’t been a virtue in college basketball, or any college sport for that matter, since cable television and ESPN became part of our lexicon.
UCLA’s patience with its men’s head basketball coach, Ben Howland, ended this past weekend after ten seasons.
Put on by the players’ union, the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl isn’t just about the game, it’s about what the 104 aspiring future pros could be facing at the next level on and off the field.
We would be out literally in practice, during practice, talking about playing in LA. Honestly. How nice would it be to be practicing in LA? Just go to the mall after practice in LA. It’s such a beautiful day in LA all the time.
Some bold statements and, no doubt, a bit of controversy during Friday’s NFLPA Collegiate Bowl Media Day.
Los Angeles is so attractive. All the people that are out here, all the celebrities. The celebrity that you get from playing for the LA team. All the hookups that you’re going to get — you’re going to go to restaurants and clubs, get clothes. I played in New York, so I saw the big town, the media. There are so many eyes on you it’s a great opportunity
The bold one was St. Louis Rams wide receiver Steve Smith. He said this coming season would be the last for the Rams in St. Louis and that he and his Rams teammates prefer to play in Los Angeles and would be kicking off in the City of Angels in 2014.
Smith, a native of Los Angeles who played his college ball at USC and attended Taft high school in Woodland Hills, Calif. (not coincidentally the same high school and college of current Rams head coach Jeff Fisher.), was one of five expert panelists discussing the return of the NFL to Los Angeles.
“We’re thankful for the city of St. Louis.” Smith said. He continued, “But it’d be a treat to be located back home in Los Angeles.”
Of course, the Rams called Los Angeles home from 1946 until their move to St. Louis to kickoff the 1995 season. They’re now locked in arbitration with the city of St. Louis on the cost to make the Edward Jones Dome a “first tier” NFL stadium and could break their lease after the 2014 season.
I was able to catch up and interview Smith on camera after the panel discussion and asked him to elaborate on his bold predictions regarding the Rams and Los Angeles:
Last year was Smith’s first with the Rams. He played in just nine games catching 14 passes for 131 yards and no touchdowns.
The other expert analysts were ESPN LA’s Arash Markazi, Doug Farrar of Yahoo! Shutdown Corner, Molly Knight of ESPN the Magazine and Liz Mullen from the Sports Business Journal.
Two of these four panelist agreed the Rams would return while one said the San Diego Chargers and Rams would both eventually move to L.A. Another said, “I don’t know.”
//
It’s college football all-star game season with the first of a handful of games preparing seniors for that “next level” kicking-off Saturday afternoon.
On Any Given Sports Day 