What’s it all about, Lakers?
I see where Mitch Kupchak said this season is about saying farewell to Kobe Bryant. Seems to me it’s more like this season is about saying farewell to this season.
Paul Feinsinger
Agoura Hills
I was at the Lakers’ shoot-around Sunday morning, and when Mitch Kupchak said to all of us fans that the team’s focus this season was to bid farewell to Kobe Bryant and not develop the young players, the entire audience gasped. Did he actually tell us that Kobe’s farewell tour was more important than the future of this franchise? Yes, indeed he did.
He also revealed to all of us the basic pitch the free agents heard last summer. It sounded something like this: Come play with Russell, Randle, Clarkson and Nance and live in L.A. And we wonder why no player in their right mind signed with his team. Forget the fact we have a guarantee from Jim Buss that he’ll step away, it’s time Kupchak hands in his resignation.
Geno Apicella
Placentia
So this year is about “honoring” Kobe for all his past success. And to show his appreciation, Kobe doesn’t show up to support his team when he doesn’t play.
I guess for $25 million a year you can’t expect too much. Sounds like he got tips from Steve Nash, who also was paid not to show up last year.
Steve Owen
San Diego
I happened to watch the exhibition played by the Lakers and Kings on Thursday night, which showcased a couple of All-Stars and an old guy voted in by the fans. Toward the end, I realized they were keeping score.
Greg Black
Redondo Beach
::
With one simple move, the Lakers can both (1) begin to play much better as a team and (2) give Kobe the recognition he craves on his farewell tour, while also allowing him to shoot as much as he wants.
All the Lakers need to do is trade Kobe to the Harlem Globetrotters.
Edward A. Ruttenberg
Rancho Palos Verdes
College football: It’s almost over
How could Iowa be ranked No. 5 and Michigan State No. 3 by the selection committee? Their bowl performances were abysmal at best. The committee should be embarrassed at how far they missed the mark on their selections. Ohio State and Stanford should have been at No. 3 and No. 4, respectively.
It would appear ranking college football teams is neither an art nor a science but rather a political exercise behind closed doors and subject to massive human error and emotion, as evidenced by this year’s selections. We are a long way from having the right method to select a national champion.
Robert J. Gagliano
Palos Verdes
We should have known a team nicknamed the Hawkeyes wouldn’t be very focused the day after Trapper John died.
Mark Lattman
Los Angeles
He’s no Keith Jackson, but what a pleasure it was to have Brent Musburger announcing the Rose Bowl game. Despite a one-sided contest, I’m sure viewers once again enjoyed his low-key coverage. He doesn’t rant and go ballistic like some of the newer/ younger broadcasters. That in itself is a welcome relief, and asks the question why he was taken off regularseason coverage by ESPN in the first place.
Richard Whorton
Studio City
The Heisman Trophy was awarded to Alabama’s Derrick Henry on Nov. 7, when Henry had a huge game against Louisiana State and SEC/CBS mouthpieces Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson switched their Heisman hype/vote from LSU’s Leonard Fournette to Henry. The die was cast; the rest of the season didn’t matter. Shockingly, 10% of Heisman votes were cast before Christian McCaffrey destroyed USC on Dec. 5. It’s shameful one of the greatest individual seasons in college football history was not acknowledged by the highest individual honor. His Rose Bowl performance confirmed this even more.
I might add had McCaffrey played at USC he would have won the Heisman. The Trojans don’t win many games these days, but they have a great PR department.
Joe Keating
Sierra Madre
Speaking as a dedicated UCLA football fan, I truly agree that the 2015 season ended with a thud with losses to USC and Nebraska. Nonetheless I feel compelled to disagree with the letter written by Mark Roth in which he proclaims that “Mora’s legacy is no more impressive than that of his predecessor.”
Mora is 37-16 with a 3-1 record against USC. Rick Neuheisel went 21-28 and was 0-4 against the Trojans. UCLA football is in deep need of repair, but let’s not throw common sense out the window when the progress of the program is evaluated.
William Riley
Santa Monica
The hirings of John McKay and Pete Carroll were highly criticized, as were their initial performances. Each soon followed with a national championship.
There is no magic bullet for hiring an exceptional college football coach. Give Coach Clay Helton and his staff a chance to show what they can do.
Eddie Dawes
Hacienda Heights
Hot stove
I am nominating Bill Shaikin to take over baseball operations for our ruined Dodgers franchise. Bill clearly points out in his Jan. 6 article how the recent past and current Dodgers ownership and management continues to compound the problem-plagued Dodgers with poor current and future planning. What lies ahead in the upcoming season with the status quo of inept management will again be a team playing sub-par baseball against a loaded division of talent, without the proper local TV coverage and huge frustration in the stands at Chavez Ravine.
Lou Soto
Trabuco Canyon
Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi stated that the Dodgers have no interest in bringing back second baseman Howie Kendrick. As a longtime Dodgers fan, I would like to know, Mr. Zaidi, why did you give away Dee Gordon and make the trade for Kendrick knowing full well that Kendrick would become a free agent the following year?
Myron Kamisher
Los Angeles
If the Dodgers had as many quality relievers as general managers they’d be set.
David Gold
Ventura
Rest assured, all you Dodgers fans, things will get better. When Friedman
becomes Firedman.
Dave Snyder
Grand Terrace
Hall stars
There were 1,389 players selected ahead of him in the Major League Draft of 1988, but Mike Piazza has been elected to Baseball’s Hall of Fame. L.A. fans should not begrudge Piazza for entering the Hall as a New York Met. The Dodgers unceremoniously let him slip away and he spent the majority of his career in New York after that. Piazza may have started out as a Dodger, but that’s about it. The Dodgers organization has only itself to blame for Piazza’s early exodus.
Charles Reilly
Manhattan Beach
I used to be a Mike Piazza fan. But when he jumped ship in 1998 and then criticized the Dodgers organization that took a chance on him in 1988, he lost me (a Dodgers fan since 1958). If your only goals are money and egomania, you are no friend of mine.
Jerry Moore
Cerritos
Wouldn’t you love to have been the person to tell Roger Clemens that he didn’t get into the Hall of Fame and Mike Piazza did? Of course it would have been advisable to do it over the phone.
Bert Bergen
La Cañada
I’m not sure what was the most troublesome part of the Hall of Fame vote: the three voters who left Ken Griffey Jr. off their ballot or the two voters who put David Eckstein on theirs.
Erik Schuman
Fountain Valley
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