Letters: Don't hold your breath, Lakers fans, waiting for LeBron

Feb. 23, 2018 4:56 PM PT

Bill Plaschke’s article after the All-Star game implies that LeBron James would be a fool to pass up living in Los Angeles, the greatest city in the world.

Athletes leave teams for three reasons. First is money. James has the ability to make the most money staying in Cleveland. Number two is the team around him. Right now the Cavaliers have a much better team surrounding Le Bron than the Lakers. Number three is the city where you play. The Cleveland area is where James grew up, has ties to to the community and I truly believe that’s where he wants to stay.

If the Topeka Times offered Plaschke a million-dollar increase in salary, he’d be the first one in line to buy a tractor. I also suggest that Bill Plaschke click his heals three times and repeat, “There’s no place like home.”

Richard Katz

Los Angeles

It was difficult reading Bill Plaschke’s column fawning all over LeBron James in a Los Angeles effort to recruit him. Ditto Magic Johnson’s proclamations that L.A. will recruit two superstars (in a style like hiring mercenaries) for the next season. All with the idea of sacrificing much of the home-grown talent (Russell, Randle, Clarkson, Nance, etc.) to do so.

There are 30 teams in the NBA. Only one wins, and the other 29 are ripped apart to find the magic elixir.

The core of players put together through the draft the last few years would have grown into a heck of a unit we could have identified with and been proud of. But I guess we’ll never know, will we?

Robert Goldstone

Corona del Mar

Because Bill Plaschke sees fit to critique All-Star pregame show host Kevin Hart as “horrific” and Fergie’s national anthem version as “syrupy” in his post-All Star game column, it seems only fair to review that column. His appeal to get LeBron James to come to the Lakers was embarrassingly slobbering and fawning.

Bert Bergen

La Canada

After all these years of meaningless NBA All-Star games the players decided to play one for real. Who knew?

Sorry I missed it!

Loren Coleman

West Hollywood

Kudos to The Times for Sunday’s spectacular 16-page special coverage of the All-Star game weekend. The features on five players who grew up in the Southland coupled with the fantastic full-page photos of Saturday’s winners Booker, Mitchell (has Donovan landed yet?) and Dinwiddie made this hoops junkie’s day — and that was before I attended the exciting game.

Ken Feldman

Los Angeles

Let the Games end

I propose a new motto for U. S. Figure Skating: “We’re going for the bronze!”

Michael Thorpe

Oxnard

Thank you, Dylan Hernandez, for a different point of view that confirms we have generations of “softies” who can’t take the pressure.

Bronze is good enough for Mirai Nagasu because she is used to getting trophies when not finishing first. And she checked out.

When Nagasu, Lindsey Vonn and others didn’t compete at a level they are capable of, they say: “I tried my best, I feel good about my performance.” Sounds like something a mental health therapist would tell their patients to repeat so they fell better about themselves when they lose.

Andrew Ko

San Marino

Wow, Dylan, lighten up. Sure Mirai Nagasu had her excuses, but also her exhaustion both physical and mental and the fact that the U.S. skaters can’t compare to the current Russians. We, your readers, deserve more and these wonderful young athletes certainly do. Please don’t become yet another L.A. Times sports-opinion-writer who has nothing to offer but negativity and a clever sentence once in a while.

Peter Bernstein

Woodland Hills

Why be so hard on Mirai Nagasu? It wasn’t like she didn’t show up for Game 7 of the World Series at home.

Holly and Philip Hall

Glendale

Poor Dylan Hernandez. Just as he declares that “Curling … is not a sport”, an athlete from Russia is stripped of his medal for drug cheating, thereby proving: Curling must be a sport.

John Rotunni

Glendora

Al who? Bob who? Mike Tirico has done as good a job as the two unforgettable aforementioned gentlemen!

Larry Joe

Irvine

With all due respect to Chris Erskine (and Bob Costas), the problem with the 2018 Winter Olympic coverage is not the absence of Bob Costas. It’s the absence of Jim McKay.

Arend Flick

Pasadena

Johnny Weir over Scott Hamilton, really? Champions who are great role models should be rewarded, but NBC is obsessed with sequins and glitter, not substance. Oh, that is why you are the peacock!

Eddy Van Guyse

Long Beach

Please tell me how the oldest woman to ever medal in an Alpine event after a ton of major injuries and eight years between her last Olympics is remotely close to Kobe scoring 60. Unlike Bryant’s last season where he essentially dragged the entire team down as they worked around his huge contract only to win nothing. Vonn has been on top of her game and helped elevate the U.S. team. On Kobe’s last night they basically gave him a free pass to the basket all night. On the hill the new young stars went all out and it took one of them to have a shocking run to bump Vonn in to third.

Yeah, she was only the third-best in the world in the downhill. And that is supposed to be “over the hill”?

Jeff Heister

Chatsworth

What a nasty, mean-spirited obituary for Lindsey Vonn’s career. Yes, she said it in the disappointment of the moment. How hard would it have been to quote her arch rival that she is “the greatest skier to ever live”?

Jim Benson

Altadena

Regarding Lindsey Vonn’s assault by social media:Why does ignorance tend loud and reason silent? Why does vitriol boast and shout, whilst respect utters quiet? Who are the ones, so self-esteemed that they eagerly share their venom, as though they have been given special leave to pronounce their vicious referendums? Why are these, who wax meanly upon topics beyond their kin, compelled to add their vacuous attacks to an already insipid din?

In the vast expanse of modern chat, where has civility gone? When did elevated discourse go flat, deflated by the pricks of stupidity’s thorns? Do not be sucked in by mouthy melees. Stay away from hatred’s poisoned forums. Give thoughtful opinions sparingly and do so with a little decorum.

Roxanne Vettese

Oxnard

John Cherwa says the U.S. team probably went out for a long movie during the 10,000-meter speedskating final. I can’t understand why he thinks this is a watching paint dry event. 12 minutes and change for a little over six miles is flying. And barely time to roll the credits.

Roger Walton

North Hills

What we really want to know is: Why so many condoms for the athletes? Is every male athlete really using 2.5 condoms a day? Let’s have some investigative reporting!

Rob Hamers

Irvine

The most impressive aspect of this year’s Olympics to me was the high level of sportsmanship, camaraderie and joy that our athletes exhibited even when they did not get gold as they were expected to do. It was a pleasure to watch.

Mike Reuben

Anaheim Hills

Quiet please

No wonder interest in golf is flagging. Mark Russell, the PGA’s vice president of rules, states “in no way can you disturb the players.” Well, consider Major League Baseball. Some of the funniest lines in my life were shouted out by fans to batters and pitchers, even as their focus must remain exquisitely concentrated.

News flash to Justin Thomas, who calls disruptive behavior unacceptable because, ‘we’re out here playing for a lot of money”: The fans are the reason you’re playing for a lot of money.

Konrad Moore

San Diego

I must take exception to Mike James’ article about unruly fans.

I have been a volunteer marshall at Riviera for 10 years and the only difference between this and prior years was the size of the gallery. Thank you, Tiger Woods.

During this year’s tournament I was assigned to groups including Woods, Rory McIlroy and Bubba Watson, all of which drew large galleries. Sure, there were a few patrons who had been over-served but even those were quite respectful of our requests for “quiet”.

I have not seen any evidence to support unruliness as the new normal.

Kevin Minihan

Los Angeles

Thanks for the article. I find it aggravating watching golf on TV, hearing these jerks yelling out at the top of their lungs, just to hear themselves on their DVR when they get home.

Kevin Sutlick

Long Beach

The old ballgame

It is absolutely true that C.J. Cron never performed consistently for the Angels. It is equally true, he was never given that opportunity. To let him go only to acquire the much-less consistent Chris Carter a few days later make no sense. Consistently.

Ron Reeve

Glendora

If Clayton Kershaw becomes a free agent and the Dodgers don’t sign him, Magic Johnson better not show his face again at Dodger Stadium.

Ralph S. Brax

Lancaster

The smell of green grass,the sound of a baseball smacking into a leather glove, the return of Civil War era beards and Woodstock-length hair ... It’s time for MLB!

Steve Briseno

Mission Viejo

No more Bill

What a pleasure it is to be able to hear good basketball announcers on the radio, which incidentally, is the way I see the UCLA games when Bill Walton makes a disaster of it. For several years I have been wanting to write this letter and now I have had it with Walton. Please, ESPN, heed the opinion of many Bruins, apply the Peter Principle and kick Bill Walton upstairs, somewhere.

Ira Chroman

Sherman Oaks

Bill Walton could have chosen Chick Hearn or Vin Scully to have been his broadcasting model, but, alas, it looks as if he chose Dick Vitale.

Andrew Sacks

Riverside

Another UCLA basketball article on the sports front page Wednesday when the Bruins didn’t even play until Thursday, with nothing about USC who played that night. At least the AP was around to report on SC’s win! In fairness, I promise that I’ll call it to your attention if that emphasis is ever reversed — perhaps under the new owner.

Ted Bartscherer

Pasadena

Aaron Holiday is very good but lest we forget, he’s no LiAngelo Ball, and to that I say, thank God.

Jim B. Parsons

Carpinteria

Trade deficit

Instead of saying “Kings Trade Quality Goalie” in the headline, the subtext should have said “Kings roll dice at goaltender with once-great, often injured and inconsistent Jonathan Quick and a gang of nobodies to back him up.”

With 20 games left and three more back-to-back games, GM Rob Blake is playing with fire. Kings fans hope we don’t get burned.

Mike Gamboa

Buena Park

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