Results tagged “lakers”

With the World Series upon us, college football reaching it's half-way point and an exciting NFL season heating up, you may not have realized that NBA is tipping off tonight. One guy who's definitely aware of this is J.E. Skeets, Yahoo! Sports NBA Blogger.

Bill Simmons is simply known by many as "The Sports Guy." But anyone who's ever read his columns on ESPN.com or heard an episode of his podcast, The B.S. Report, knows his interests extend far beyond the field. A Simmons column will take you from Kobe Bryant to Karate Kid, theories about Knicks' centers to jokes about late-night Cinemax starlets, Mike Dunleavy to Las Vegas travel tips.

I’ll admit it. I’ve been pretty down since the final out of the NLCS. I simply could not shake my visions of Joe Torre sadly sipping his Bigelow green tea, Matt Kemp listening to sad early 90s R&B love ballads (in my mind it's Toni Braxton) and Andre Ethier staring dejectedly out the window of his plane back to Arizona.

It's a big night for downtown Los Angeles, more specifically L.A. Live. 6 p.m.: "This Is It," the Michael Jackson documentary, premieres (some wonder if some movie premieres will move from Hollywood to downtown. The movie 2012 will premiere here next week.). | 7 p.m.: Lakers and Clippers open basketball season at the Staples Center | 9 p.m.: L.A. Live's newest addition, Regal Cinemas opens to the public.

The office supply store, which first purchased the naming rights to the Staples Center in 1997, has scored a deal with AEG to keep their name on LA's busiest arena in perpetuity. The original agreement was $100 million for a mere 20 years. Exact terms of the new arrangement have not been disclosed. It's the first time a major-market arena has inked a lifetime deal.

     

“It’s nearly impossible to stay anonymous in this age of cell phones, video, and social websites; and that’s a good thing, if it holds people more accountable for their behavior,” said Lt. Paul Vernon, head of LAPD detectives downtown, today about the 20th arrest related to the Lakers Championship melee on June 14th (a list of all arrests are embedded below). Detectives have been using security footage from around downtown, complementing it with videos and images posted on websites like YouTube and Flickr.

LA has a diverse cast of characters. Whether it's the characters with stirring stories or interesting occupations or the people who are just simply characters, this town has them all. In an effort to get to know some of those characters a little better, we've created "Seven Questions with..." If you have a suggestion for a future Seven Questions subject send us an email.

Over 500 dancers showed up in El Segundo this weekend to try out for the 2009-2010 Laker Girls squad ... but no more than 22 of these talented young ladies will make the final cut.

Despite the rumors that circulated yesterday, Trevor Ariza did not end up backing out of his oral agreement with Houston to join LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal in Cleveland. Today the former Laker made it official signing on the dotted line of his multi-year deal, making him a Rocket.

So the City of Los Angeles is going to put their hands deep into the Piggy Bank to pull out the cash needed to foot the bill for Tuesday's public memorial service for Michael Jackson at Staples Center. That means shutting down the streets around LA Live's Downtown "campus" and lots of bucks to pay LAPD officers to serve as security to police the anticipated throngs of crowds. And don't bother showing up if you aren't on the list: "Officials said that there would be no funeral procession and that no one would be allowed inside a large area around Staples unless they had a ticket and a wristband, a media credential or could prove they live or work there," notes the LA Times.

CoCo's doing a nice job taking advantage of his new couch's proximity to our city's best and brighest. Dodgers skipper Joe Torre appeared early in the week, and last night he brought on the NBA Finals MVP for two segments. Part two appears after the jump...

              

Even before the parade got underway news agencies in Los Angeles reported that the Coliseum was at max capacity, and traffic from most parts of the city headed towards Downtown was backed up before and all through the a.m. commute. People bedecked in purple and gold lined the streets, shouting and waving as any reporter and camera crew passed by. After the players boarded the bus and greeted the adoring fans at the Staples Center, the parade made its way just over 2 miles southbound on Figueroa, where those assembled were first greeted to performances from the Lakers Girls and had lots of opportunities to shout their devotion to our winning team.

Mr. Brainwash is at it again at his usual spot on La Brea at San Vicente. This time celebrating along with the rest of Los Angeles. "It might be an understatement to say Mr Brainwash polarizes opinion," wrote the unnamed blogger at unurth, a street art blog. "While some people love his work, and he sells prints and originals at blazing speed, others criticize him for lacking originality and being overly commercial. I like a lot of his work, but to me this piece doesn’t make it any easier to defend him."

    

Around 6 a.m. this morning, driving to the Coliseum was no big deal. The trouble for people, we're hearing, was when you arrived to the immediate area that traffic just was just a parking lot.

It's 6 a.m. and beginning right now, you can park at the Coliseum for the noon rally that will last until 1 p.m. The later it gets, the more street and freeway onramp closures you'll face. Gates open at 9:30 a.m. and space is limited to 95,000 (it could definitely fill up). When the parade begins, Coliseum attendees will be able to watch it on big screen TVs.

Under pressure not to spend nearly a million dollars in city money for the Lakers parade tomorrow, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa raised $850,000 from private donors to offset costs. "If we hadn't had a parade, you've have had a whole bevy of other people criticizing," he said.

Blue Line trains will run every 6 minutes from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow to help move the hundreds of thousands of people expected at tomorrow's Lakers victory parade. Additionally, the Red and Purple Lines will carry extra train cars and Gold and Green Lines are prepared to add more trains to service if needed. "Metro Bus services will be significantly impacted in the event area, especially bus lines that either run on or cross Figueroa, Flower or Grand streets, between Olympic and Martin Luther King boulevards," the agency said in a statement. "Delays can be expected beginning about 10 a.m. and will continue until the end of the parade for all passengers riding in the Metro Bus lines: 28, 30, 31, 35, 37, 38, 40, 42, 55, 70, 71, 76, 78, 79, 81, 96, 102, 200, 204, 335, 355, 378, 439, 442, 444, 445, 446, 447, 450x, 460, 484, 485, 550, 714, 728, 730, 740, 754, 770."

Despite the unruly celebratory behavior witnessed, the crowd control Sunday night after the Lakers win was considered a success by the LAPD, reported the LA Times. A new tactic was to "remove the rabble-rousers, push larger crowds into marginal areas and chase smaller groups until they disperse" in order to limit injuries and property damage all while not reviving the horrid use of force images from the May Day Melee in 2007.

OMG! My favorite team won! I should go steal some pringles! The collective wisdom of last night just confused a lot of people. Why would this happen, especially after we won? Who would do this? Why? Why? Why? USA Today takes a stab: What has happened, observers say, is the result of an explosive mixture of youthful adrenaline

The official Lakers parade on Wednesday will cost $2 million, split evenly between the city and the Lakers. Of course, with the city scrapping every nickel and dime to save the city budget, the politicians are coming under fire. The LA Police Protective League is not happy and rightfully so considering employees citywide are being forced on furloughs and some will be laid off. "At a time of financial crisis, when the public expects -- and quite frankly should demand -- city leaders to be good stewards of every tax dollar, it is foolish for elected officials to favor spending 1 million tax dollars on a three-hour parade," the union's president said in a statement. Now Mayor Villariagosa is reportedly getting private donations and has raised a several hundred thousand dollars. While we're at it, can we change the route, too, Mr. Mayor?

                     

If you were in the Southpark area of downtown last night, it smelled of things burning. After the isolated incidents of chaos, a survey of the area found light damage just about everywhere with pockets of small businesses unfortunately hit by looters and those Fakers fans running amok for no reason than just doing that (CurbedLA has photos of a ransacked Lexus and blogdowntown has shots during and after, too).

            

Your city's team has won a major sports championship. It's a great achievement, and a reason to celebrate. You love your team, you love your city, you love a good time. But how do you celebrate? Dance, hug, shout, throw confetti, have some drinks, high five your friends, eat cake, relive the highlights of the game, throw a party at your home? Sure, right? You want to express your pride, your joy, your happiness on behalf of the team.

Talk of a victory parade for the NBA's Lakers began before the team had even cinched the victory itself, which, if you're in LA and live under a rock, happened last night in Orlando in game 5 of the championship.

       

Around 700 people gathered outside the Staples Center tonight to celebrate the Lakers' win in Orlando. Mostly peaceful, but it only took a small group of fools to ruin it for everyone. Small fires, fireworks, thrown rocks, bottles and flares, street signs torn down, attempts at turning over police cars cued the LAPD to try to end festivities sooner than anyone had hoped. As Larry Welk said on KCAL9, "they're sort of leaving a path of destruction."

Last night's win already caused people to run amok in East LA. And even though Sunday night's game is in Orlando, should the Lakers win the Championship, the LAPD and LA County Sheriff's say they are prepared, citing the win 2000 when 11 people were arrested and close to a million dollars in damage was caused on downtown streets. Yeah, police cars were torched.

This is just... darling. "I don't see how you guys stand a chance. It's going to take some magic for you to come even close to us," Los Angeles Congresswoman Maxine Waters told Congresswoman Corrine Brown of Florida yesterday. Waters was right, Lakers kicked some ass, beating the Magic 100 to 75.

ESPN Radio's "All Night" host, Jason Smith (LAist Interview) recently received a special tour of the Staples Center. His guide was by AEG's V.P. of Communications, Michael Roth (AEG owns Staples.) In a wonderfully colorful and humorous piece on ESPN Radio's site, Smith wrote of the unique way the pair emerged into the Lakers' home . "We started out by entering the Nokia Theater, where concerts and events like the ESPYS are held on a routine basis. We walked through an underground tunnel that connects Nokia to Staples, a 30-second walk," Smith said. "Roth told me Seal came to Game 2 of the Rockets-Lakers series, watched the first half from his seats, then at halftime walked through the tunnel to perform his concert at the Nokia." No word on whether Seal was joined by Luke Walton.

LA has a diverse cast of characters. Whether it's the characters with stirring stories or interesting occupations or the people who are just simply characters, this town has them all. In an effort to get to know some of those characters a little better, we've created "Seven Questions with..." If you have a suggestion for a future Seven Questions subject send us an email.

Late night radio isn't typically where you'll find an energetic sportstalker -- much less one who would easily reference Brett Favre's retirement to the ‘80s movie “Can’t Buy Me Love.” ESPN radio host Jason Smith does that five nights a week (Sunday through Thursday.) Heard locally on 710AM, from 10:00 at night to 2:00, All Night with Jason Smith is high quality radio at an hour where most station's broadcast as though their audience is half-dead.

New Orleans Hornets defeat LA Lakers 116-105. Seriously. Wake us up when the playoffs arrive.