Follow the Luka brick road

Kobe Bryant’s first agent when he came out of high school was Arn Tellem.  Tellem had become close with Joe Jellybean Bryant when he played at La Salle in Philadelphia. He took a keen interest in Bryant’s son Kobe who was playing on the Merion High School varsity as a 14 years old freshman.  Jordan did not make the varsity until his junior year.  Tellem was also close friends with Jerry West.  He alerted West to this phenomenon and set up a tryout with the Lakers. Young Bryant went toe to toe with elite defender Michael Cooper for 20 minutes.  West shut the tryout down and instructed Tellem to get Bryant for the Lakers.  High schoolers going straight to the NBA was uncommon and all had been big men. Skinny teenager Bryant was considered risky.  Tellem did not allow any other teams to try out Bryant prior to the draft.  Charlotte drafted him 13^th and immediately traded him to the Lakers for Vlade Divac.  Kobe for Vlade, try and wrap your head around that one.

 

Kobe’s point person within Tellem’s STX sports agency was Rob Pelinka.  Pelinka became Bryant’s friend and confidant. When Bryant was indicted for sexual assault in Colorado, Pelinka was at his side for every court hearing. Mamba convinced Pelinka to leave Tellem and partner with him as his sole agent and business partner. Adidas had aggressively signed the 17-year-old Bryant to a 6 year $48 million as High School Senior.  It would be one of many things that the Black Mamba would do that no one had ever done.  With that contract expiring, Bryant teased all the shoe companies in 2002-23 by wearing different shoes for different games.  Pelinka and Bryant knew they wanted a deal with Nike. Nike famously created the Air Jordan. At 23 years old with three NBA championships, Kobe's ascension to that throne was affirmed. Nike became part of the Kobe Bryant inner circle with Pelinka.  The point person at Nike was Nico Harrison. They all became lifelong friends taking family trips together over the years. Pelinka and Harrison grieved over Kobe’s untimely death.

 

On January 7, 2025, these two decades long friends met for a cup of coffee in Dallas. Harrison queried Pelinka if the Lakers would be interested in acquiring Luka Doncic. Rob thought his buddy was clowning him. The conversation endured and Pelinka realized Harrison was serious. He had his full attention now.  They both agreed that concealment of all discussions would be kept between the two friends.  The Lakers had seen the Chris Paul trade blow up in 2011 when word got out the deal.  Grumblings around the league that they all wanted a shot at CP3.  Late commish David Stern vetoed the deal as being “unfair”.  Harrison and Pelinka knew secrecy were key to making the deal happen. If word got out, it would get ugly and neither of them get what they want.

 

The Dallas narrative was that Luka was aggressively out of shape with persistent injuries. It was observed that Doncic put on weight during the tough NBA season.  One can only imagine what a multi-millionaire Slovenian 25-year-old might be doing but it wasn’t the gym. The Mavericks hired conditioning coaches and nutrition magicians to assist the lad. Luka loved the people, but the results were wanting. Doncic did not care because he was going to get a 5-year $345 million max deal at the end of the season. Harrison was terrified of paying that freight for the over-served adolescent.  They put the deal together that was announced last weekend.

 

The backlash in Dallas and around the league was shock and outrage.  Doncic was barely in his prime and fresh off a trip to the NBA finals.  Boston figured out in those finals that the offensive sansei was a defensive albatross.  They ran right through Luka on their way to the title. A rim protector like Anthony Davis is what Harrison felt they needed to get over the hump not Luka. Davis is under contract through 2027-28 with an opt out potential in 2026-27.  Lebron and AD had a nice Batman Robin thing going but Davis did not like playing center. He wants to play on the wing, and he will in Dallas. The Lakers were thin there in the paint, Dallas is not. He will be a tree in their forest of big men, not the big man. Doncic's max contract with the trade is now reset to a 4-year $229 million deal. Nice cake but big cut.

 

The Lakers are a special franchise with a rich history of making deals like this that transform. Kareem was traded for Junior Bridgeman, Elmore Smith, Dave Meyers and Brian Winters. In 1971, Jabbar won his first title with the Bucks, but he requested the trade. He would win five more titles with the Lakers.  The Bucks won their second in 2021 fifty years after the trade.  In 1976-77, the New Orleans Jazz signed Laker great Gail Goodrich. The NBA awarded the Lakers compensatory draft picks as part of the transaction.  When the draft picks came due, they were the Utah Jazz and the worst team in the NBA. LA won the coin flip and drafted Magic Johnson with that first pick.  In 1979, new Cleveland Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien wanted immediate results for that moribund franchise.  He traded his 1980 first round pick to the Lakers along with Butch Lee for Laker Don Ford and the Lakers 1980 first round pick. Stepien’s grand plan made the Cavaliers the worst team in the NBA.  The number one pick became James Worthy. First time in NBA history that the defending champion had the first pick. Just goes to show, the leprechauns don’t have all the gold at the end of the rainbow.  Game on again!

Viva Las Vegas!

The Yard moved our world headquarters to the Las Vegas Valley in December 2009.  It was the first time the Yard had lived outside of the Los Angeles area, and it was one of our better decisions.  Several other organizations have left California for the same reason; affordable housing and no state income tax. When we started our missives from the desert, LV was a sports town without any professional sports.  Since the Yard relocated, T-Mobile Arena was built and in 2017 became home to the Vegas Golden Knights hockey team.  The Henderson Silver Knights AHL team came in 2020. $2 billion Allegiant Stadium rose from a blighted industrial zone. The Raiders left Oakland and played their first game in LV with the 2020 season.  The Tropicana has been imploded to make way for the Oakland Athletics playing Vegas baseball in 2028.  In 2018, the Las Vegas Aces relocated from San Antonio to play their WNBA games.  The Las Vegas Aviators were purchased by the Howard Hughes corporation and crowned with their splendid new minor league park in Summerlin.   They are the A’s affiliate, and they outdraw them in attendance nightly. The Desert Dogs became one of the founding franchises for semi-pro lacrosse in 2021.  Is it just a coincidence that these franchises saw the way and the light after The Yard led the way.  We think not! 

 

The tremendous growth that the Yard has experienced since moving out east is dwarfed by the success of these teams.  Ok, maybe not so much the Raiders, oh boy.  The Vegas Golden Knights made it to Lord Stanley’s final in their inaugural season.  VGK came back in 2023 and won the Stanley Cup.  It was the first professional title for the state of Nevada and a proud moment for Las Vegas.  The Vegas Aces won consecutive WNBA titles in 2022-23.  Caitlin Clark has helped the WNBA, but the Aces were selling out their home games before she showed up.  The city of Las Vegas is now home to three professional championships. San Diego may find out one day what a professional championship feels like with the parade and all the trimmings, but probably not any time soon. The Padres are the last major professional sports franchise in San Diego.  They are also MLB’s oldest team that has never won the WS.  They have won 1 WS game in nine tries so there is that.  Charger Bobby Beathard built the only San Diego Super Bowl team in 1994.  Bobby Ross guided them to a Super Bowl slaughter by the 49er dynasty. Owner Dean Spanos guided them back to the grit of LA in 2017 after 56 years with the winsome winless fans.

 

The expansion of professional sports in Sin City has stoked the fires at UNLV.  The 1992 Running Rebels were world famous and played in back-to-back NCAA finals.  It would have been legend if they beat Duke both times, but it was not in the Baileys. Rebel football has had few highlights in their history.  Randall Cunningham was a shining star.  Johnny Robinson coaching UNLV after USC in 1999 was another.  There just have not been enough over the years. UNLV stepped up, paid the freight and moved into Allegiant Stadium when it opened. They are more entertaining than the Raiders and the tickets are priced for families. The Stations group Fertitta’s kickstarted a major fundraising effort.  With this backing, UNLV built the best training facilities in the Mountain West. Barry Odom arrived as head football coach in 2022.  He inherited a 5-7 unfocused wandering tribe of a football program. The former Missouri linebacker kicked in the doors and raised the bar.  He put Boise State on his dartboard. The Rebels went 9-5 in 2023 and 10-3 this year.  This week, they won their first bowl game since John Robinson was at the controls.  Odom did not stick around for the game and tripled his pay taking over the 1-11 Purdue Boilermakers.  He might need to slam a few of those in the stout Big Ten. Rebel fan is upset he left but he put the whole program on his back and took it up a few rungs.  He did not beat BSU, but he got their attention.  He raised the profile of the job. UNLV would never have been able to get Dan Mullen if Barry hadn’t built the road to that door.  Las Vegas high school basketball and football are exceptional.  Bishop Gorman is third among all HS for players currently in the NFL. If the Rebels can keep some of the talent, they will catch Boise and pass them.

 

Extra Frames: The NBA is determined to have an NBA team in Las Vegas.  The NBA summer league has consolidated its two-week summer league in Las Vegas.  It is one of the only places with enough hotel rooms and hard courts to accommodate the players. The nascent NBA Cup finals have matriculated to Las Vegas.  Lebron says he wants to part of the investor group that brings a team here.  The plans are being drawn for a major casino, hotel, basketball arena between the Sahara Hotel and Fremont Street.  Commissioner Silver has been coy while trying to keep Seattle in the conversation. The Seattle Supersonics becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder was not an NBA shining moment.  No San Diego, you lost the Clippers and didn’t know Sterling had moved them to LA. It is unheard for a city to lose to professional franchises to the same city! Except Oakland but that makes sense.

 

Final Thoughts: The Yard was looking for the Laker bandwagon.  It must be in for repair because no one rides that anymore.  Dodgers took back the town this year and from the looks of things, they are not giving it up any time soon.

 

The Yankees have one bad fifth inning in the WS and now are frenzied in the free agent market. They lost Soto to the Mets but signed gave Max Fried the largest contract ever for a left handed pitcher.  They took on Cody Bellinger contract and reupped Gerrit Cole. Cody is married to Chase Carter, a smoking 27-year-old Bahamian model in 2023. They started dating in 2020 after Chase broke up with New York Yankee Giancarlo Stanton.  She and Belli have two children.  There could be a few awkward moments.  We can only hope.

Whimsy and other nonsense.

Russia and North Korea have engaged in several strategic alliances for soldiers and weapons in recent months.  This week they jointly announced entering a strategic economic alliance.  These two fiscal powerhouses have the world economies shuddering with the market power they might wield.  Russia is the 11^th largest economy in the world at times. Fluctuations in the Ruble and frozen oligarch wealth plays like three card Monte with world valuations.  North Korea is somewhere around $23 billion give or take a few NPK’s.  Kim’s economic powerhouse is just ahead of Mozambique and trailing Haiti.  Haiti is in the news a lot but not for their thriving economy.  Vlade and Rocket man are having a bromance.  Sort of like DJT and his rocket man Elon.

 

Formula One returns to Las Vegas on Saturday night.  It is a frenzied time on the strip. During the day, tourists and traffic at night open wheeled racing at high speeds.  The hotel town cars, Ubers and family vans are replaced by McLarens and Ferraris barreling down the boulevard through the night.  The main event is Saturday night at 10:00 PM.  Jo and I are so excited.  We have our DVR queued up to record it. Mama in her kerchief and I in my cap and the winter’s nap scenario will override the necessity to watch it live. 10:00 PM on Saturday nights are a photo finish at the Yard.  Don’t worry about hiding the results from us on Sunday.  We love the spectacle more than the outcome.

 

Notre Dame and Army square off on Saturday night at Yankee Stadium. In the 111 years that the Fighting Irish and the Black Knights have been facing off, 24 of those games were played at Yankee Stadium.  Army has won five of those games but trails the history 39-8-4.  They have lost the last fifteen in a row.  Army is ranked 18^th and undefeated.  Notre Dame is 9-1 and ranked sixth. There have been some strange goings on in centerfield at Yankee Stadium.  Too many dropped balls to bet this one but go Army!

 

Ohtani winning the MVP was predicted in the sushi rolls.  In a flash he tied Frank Robinson as the only player to win the award in both leagues.  He simultaneously equaled Barry Bonds record winning back-to-back MVPs with two different teams.  Shohei won his third MLB MVP to go with his 2016 honor in Japan.  It has been common that players who sign large contracts can struggle to prove their worth.  Ohtani ignored the distractions and blistered the competition.  He struggled in the playoffs but contributed to the title.  He will be contributing for the next decade.  The Dodgers have become a global product with Ohtani and Yamamoto.  Game 5 versus the Padres was watched by more people in Japan than the US with Yamamoto vs. Darvish.  The Dodgers are opening the 2025 season in Japan versus the Cubs.  Yard in terns are trying to confirm but we think they sold a few jerseys also.

 

USC vs UCLA this weekend as well.  College football has been tough to follow through dodgy NIL deals and athletes escaping through the transfer portal with their outgoing coach.  USC head coach Lincoln Riley shoved Caleb Williams through the portal to depart Norman.  Williams won the Heisman and the top pick in the NFL draft.   Riley can be an offensive genius we are told, defense not so much.  Both schools got major money to move to the Big Ten with middling results on the field in year one. Go Bruins!

Hail Flutie: On this day in 1984, Doug Flutie dialed up the OG Hail Mary to Gerald Phelan.  #10 ranked Boston College was trailing #12 defending national champion Miami Hurricanes 45-41 with six seconds left. Jimmy Johnson was the Canes HC and Bernie Kosar was the starting QB. Before the bankruptcies, he was a great player.  The Hurricane defensive backs did not think the 5’10” Flutie could throw the ball that far, so they covered the up receivers.  Phelan snuck behind them and cradled the pigskin for the victory.  Jimmy would leave for the Cowboy job.  Flutie would win the Heisman. Bernie would go to Cleveland and suffer another ignominious defeat during John Elway’s The Drive in the 1986 AFC Championship game.

 

Creepmeter:  Lamar Odom has always lamented that he blew up his marriage to Khloe Kardashian. His NBA career was winding down while his drug use was ratcheting up. Keeping up with the Kardash clan was not the therapy Odom needed.  Khloe did race with local news teams to Las Vegas.  She was at his bedside after he ended up in a coma from a weekend of hookers and blow.  She has always been supportive of his mental health struggles.  Odom announced this week he has purchased a life size replica doll of Khloe that helps with that struggle.  He lives blissfully with his Khloe doll. That is flattering, right?