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Kobe has retired! The LA Lakers, Jim and Jeannie Buss are still the owners and operators of the Showtime Dynasty! The greatest news however is that they are starting from scratch. 36 year old Luke Walton, (Mr. Dependable) during the last Lakers Championships is coming to help create a new dynasty. Walton is still with the 2015 NBA Championship Golden State Warriors, and will finish up there as long as they continue to win. They face the Portland Trailblazers starting Sunday, without their star Steph Curry. out with an ankle and knee injury….but our belief is that he will come back before “the fat lady sings”! But back to our great LA Lakers! Maybe Phil Jackson will come back to be the General Manager! That would truly be sweet. In the meantime, the Lakers get a number two pick in the NBA draft, so if Walton has anything to say about it – we may get another great superstar of the future. We are so pleased that Luke Walton is coming to the LA Lakers. Walton can be the renewed image that the LA Lakers at a time when everything that could go wrong, went wrong. Luke should bring some great assistants that will make the LA Lakers – an NBA Championship for 2020. In the meantime, he has to have a winning record in 2016 and he has to make the play-offs – no easy job! Luke is a real guy and we wish him and the Lakers every good wish for the future.
Meanwhile, with the injuries to superstars Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, the LA Clippers made it to the NBA Playoffs but lost in the first round to the Portland Trailblazers. The Clippers seem a hard luck team…..we wish everyone on the team a strong comeback next year. Coach Doc Rivers should be able to make it happen.
In Hockey, the Anaheim Ducks and the LA Kings both made it to the playoffs, the Kings losing in the first round to the nasty San Jose Sharks and Anaheim losing in the first round to the Nashville Predators. Our other sentimental favorites: Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers and Boston Bruins are out too! Chicago losing a very tough series to the St. Louis Blues. However, the state of hockey in LA is pretty darn strong.
How about Baseball? The Anaheim/LA Angels are doing just fine and the LA Dodgers are having their moments. This should be a very exciting year for LA Baseball in general – lots of name stars and lots of drama! Kershaw or Puig, Trout or Trout eh? Our Yankees are cellar dwellers right now – but you gotta love those Pin Stripes! How about those Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubbies? In any event, the sales of LA baseball gear will be up in 2016!
Talk about a great year for the resurgence of college football in LA. The dreaded UCLA Bruins still have their nasty coach Jim Mora, Jr. and Josh Rosen the skinny superstar quarterback. Looks like another competitive year for the baby blue Bruins. Across town, we finally are phasing out Athletic Director Pat Haden. He promises to leave NEXT YEAR, after he drums up enough cash for the retrofits to the LA Coliseum. The Trojan Family is busy looking for about $250 million for fixing up our old 1932/1984 Olympic icon. The spectacular news is the the Great Lynn Swann has been named as the new Athletic Director at USC. We could not be happier with that move. Lynn is a team builder and he has the tendency to actually “listen to others”. The real question is: “Will he listen to Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader!”? Lynn is a NFL Hall of Famer…..he has the chops, but he needs to lose the facial hair. Leadership starts at the top and this whole concept of beards on quarterbacks and USC Football players – has to go! Lose the facial hair guys – grow it in the off season if you want, so you can hide out. Unless you 12 and 0 in 2016 – NO facial hair and forget the tattoos…save those for the SEC folks! Clean cut is in!
Clay Helton the Trojan Coach however – has to go! He needs to take his three brothers and move on to the SEC or Mountain Conferences. Following in the footsteps of Lane Kiffin – with this standard trash of the spring: “We don’t know who is going to be the quarterback! They are all competing for the job.” Forget about it Clay – get a pair! If you make a choice and have to change later – who really cares? You? Oh my goodness – a mistake! Not exactly Pete Carroll like dude! Try being decisive Clay boy! The Trojans are going to have another disappointing year and wind up in the “Toilet Bowl” in Fresno – Again! Whatever happens with the Bruins in 2016 – hopefully, they can stay healthy enough to make it to a quality bowl game at the end of the season. Their track record however is not so good.
Finally, the hot news for 2016 in LA – The St. Louis Rams are back to their old home the LA Coliseum back in 1946/47. We haven’t gotten all the hype – we got back then with Bob Waterfield being married to Jane Russell, all the movie stars coming to all the games, a movie about Crazylegs Hirsch, Deacon Dan Towler, Vitamin T. Smith and the greatest back-up quarterback in NFL History – Norm Van Brocklin. But we did get the number one pick the NFL Draft Jared Goff. We have like this kid since his earliest days at Cal. We have every reason to believe that we have found a real winner in Jared along with Todd Gurly and a terrific Defense – The Jeff Fisher LA Rams are going to win lots of games this year, go to the play-offs and make the whole city of Los Angeles very proud. We especially like the character of Jared Goff. JG knows that NFL Football is a business. JG has few illusions. JG knows he has to have teammates that care about themselves and others on the team. We have a feeling that JG will wind up being a player-coach. JG knows that only those that lead by example are truly worthy of participating in team sports.
In this crazy year of the Monkey – 2016: Politics, Sports and Business are going to lead our nation. Forget about those silly savages that are terrorists throughout the world, they are nothing compared to a very exciting year for Los Angeles Sports. We look forward to seeing Kobe on the Sports Center soon. We look forward to seeing Kobe creating jobs and a very successful business relating to sports development. We expect a lot from Kobe! Kobe needs to stay engaged with the Lakers and help Luke through the process in anyway he can! Exciting year ahead!
LA 2016 – A great year for Sports!
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