Viva Los Clippers!

The Yard coalesced into an all-inclusive excursion via Cancun this past week. It was a gradual filtration into a tequila fueled Mexican ambience. Relaxed nonsense was the way and the light. Tony at the Yard was a pineapple wedge away from the next Negro Modelo most days. Our thoughts were far from the last blog that went to press. It was not from lack of keystrokes. The Laker 2014 mess was written about long before Phil got dissed. Another John Calipari coached team missing free throws on the way to losing in the finals was another stored diatribe. The relevance of thought expired before we executed the post. Then Donald Sterling was recorded with his whiny ass racist rant. The Yard’s most hated target since our first syllables of Yardiot was being flayed publicly. It was a beautiful day at the Yard. Animosity festers the breathy words of contempt. God Bless you TMZ! In this turd storm, no one is coming out well. Yard contempt for this Donald is well documented. He showed his true colors a very long time ago to anyone who followed the Yard or any other major media outlet. This is a reality show more compelling than the Kardashian’s and more disturbing than Duck Dynasty. There is an 80 year old lizard, a 20+ year old rat, the NAACP, and the estranged wife all distilled to us through the spigot of TMZ. WTF! Los Angeles has never been a Clipper town since the Lizard King moved them up on the coat tails of Jerry Buss. He followed Jerry’s every move like a creepy uncle with a Polaroid camera. Los Angeles never embraced Sterling and he really never seemed to care. McCourt was as reviled and the more he cared the more we hated him. Sterling figured it was best to yell from the sidelines not in the newspapers. He gave interviews as often as he gave depositions...never. Many of both were requested, never were they granted. Apparently, the 20 year old mistress with the $1.8 million home had the best access to his soul or whatever was there as a placeholder. It seems fortuitous that these coerced Sterling sentiments hit the internet with the news of his mistress’s pending lawsuit by Mrs. Sterling. Shelly Sterling launched a preemptive strike to retain her 50% of any community property Sterling gave to another woman outside of their estranged marriage. She never expected it to jeopardize their most valuable asset-The Clippers. She chased her $2 million from Donald’s mistress. The mistress blew the $1.2 billion palace up. As outrageous as Sterling’s recorded comments were, is that surprising? In 2005, he is the primary owner of a corporation that was fined by the US government $2.7 million for directing corporate property managers not to rent to minorities and young parents. This was not a guideline, it was in the policy manual. They were also charged $5 million in legal fees to the plaintiffs. Sterling’s company vigorously fought “these baseless allegations” and then settled without admitting guilt. Apparently $7.7 million absolves a lot of sins. The Los Angeles Chapter of the NAACP gave Sterling a Lifetime Achievement award in 2009 and another was slated for next month. It is unclear to us how the Donald would deserve any award let alone an award for his body of work in the advancement of colored people. If the NAACP wants to recognize a lifetime achiever, recognize Elgin Baylor. He toiled away for a lost decade with the Lakers beginning in Minneapolis and then being the first star in Los Angeles basketball history. Jerry West and Elgin fought the Celtics often trying to bring a title to Los Angeles. Elgin retired at the moment the Lakers went on a 33 game winning streak on the way to Jerry West’s only title in 1969. Jerry built Laker championship teams as an executive. Donald Sterling bought the Clippers for $13 million dollars. He made more money than any owner every year while making improvements like a landlord under rent control. Sterling figured he might try hiring a Laker Legend to spread some pixie dust across his moribund franchise. When Sterling rarely re-signed lottery picks, Baylor was left to loyally explain why insanity was best for the team. Baylor was one of the lowest paid executives in the NBA. Sterling let Baylor twist in the marginalized air of his private convictions. Sterling needed Baylor to enhance the public persona he advertised in the Los Angeles Times three times each week. In his 22 years of service, Elgin understood who and what Sterling was and is. He sued and alleged discriminatory practices and beliefs by Sterling. His case was dismissed. NBA Commissioner David Stern sat by and let the legal system its due process during each of Sterling’s discrimination lawsuits. He never questioned or faulted Sterling while the Federal government was finding his corporation guilty of egregious crimes against minority and low income renters. The NBA was silent when Elgin brought suit and claimed that Sterling was the man we all know so well now. David Stern rewarded Sterling by voiding the Chris Paul trade to the Lakers and handing him to the Clippers. This is not bitter Laker fan, this is NBA fan wondering what the beloved Stern was thinking. Sterling is a bad guy. He is despicable and this not a revelation. Stern enabled him to finally succeed as an owner in spite of his well-documented discriminatory corporate practices. We have heard the last of Donald Sterling, we think not. We do not expect a mea culpa with Oprah or Al Sharpton on network television. The Yard legal team surmised he will pursue legal action against the NBA if he is forced to sell the team. He is not going to go quietly into the night and disappear. Sterling has acquired many assets in his fortune. He has never sold any of them. He is not going to sell the Clippers without a fight. He will never again be on the sidelines at a Clipper game in his Jabba the Hut starter suit but these are early stages of this LA tragedy. The Yard has adopted the Clippers as our new favorite team. We hate Sterling and all he stands for but this is proud solid team with a world class coach. Doc Rivers has to be in the toughest position of his career. He is being asked to coach important games while being asked questions no coach should have to answer ever. Rivers is a distinguished coach, in a major market, doing an outstanding job for man who does not want to be associated with his kind. The Yard will root the Clippers on as far as they go. We will not attend a single game but we were not going to do that anyways. We hope they rally behind our common enemy, their owner, in a fight to the finish. It is a good team and we will cheer from our sofa. Clipper season ticket holder, you are all in already. Donald has your money, go to game and root for that team. Clipper Fan, we are with you! The Donald does not need any more of your dough but this team deserves your support. Would there be no better moment in the history of sports than to have a championship team spraying champagne, holding aloft the trophy while giving this dickhead the one gun salute?

Seasonal Greetings

Mornings at the Yard have always been best. Our best efforts and thoughts occur early with the caffeine rather than late with the cabernet. In 1992, in an effort to lose the weight gained with the birth of the Yard lineage we joined the Pasadena Athletic Club. Five AM was the only time that was allowed under the domestic conditions at that time to chase such efforts. At the PAC, those AM hours were inhabited by a unique group of friends who have remained friends long after the PAC was demolished. UCLA was in the midst of a historic run of bitch slapping USC during the 1990’s. Humility was a guideline not a strict policy. The Yard was a neophyte and less humble in that role than required based on our zip code. My brethren at the club were part of the Trojan pride that inhabited the neighborhoods and mindshare in the community. It was a time when UCLA’s success overshadowed USC and our belligerence overshadowed both. We were welcomed and tolerated with teeth clenching disdain. During the Pete Carroll era, we were forced to change our philosophical tenets with one more consistent with our team’s declining results. UCLA’s victory of USC a few weeks back was timely for many related to these musing. UCLA saved USC from having to hire Ed Ogeron. Ogeron is a great asset to the University and beloved by the players. He finished a solid 6-2 record after Kiffin got canned. Those two losses were the bookends of an ND loss, six wins and then closing with a beat down by UCLA. If USC had somehow beaten UCLA, the calls to hire Ogeron would have been hard to ignore. The Bruins saved the Trojans from themselves even it meant exposing the decay that was hidden during the winning streak. You are welcome. UCLA’s victory was also extremely timely because the annual PAC dinner is this week in Pasadena. The Yard is the only Bruin most of the attendees know. Bruin fan is not indigent to the Pasadena area and sightings are rare in this historic city. It is nice to not just have won the game but to walk tall among the Trojan loyalists who have scant rebuttal. We cannot save Troy from mining the past to save the future but we can graciously remind them over dinner, drinks and banter. If USC had beaten the Bruins or even made it a game USC would have had a more difficult decision. With the Bruins beating down the Trojans Saturday night, USC could hire Steve Sarkisian the following Monday while underscoring but not highlighting the losses to ND and UCLA. Ogeron revealed his real intent when he was not hired for his coveted job. He was all about the team and the fun until it was not his team. Then it was no longer fun and f---u! It was surprising that USC raced to hire Steve Sarkisian as their next head coach. He seems like a nice person and he mentioned winning championship about a half a dozen times in his initial press conference. USC’s urgency to hire Sark was strange given no other school was really pursuing him for their opening. We were surprised USC did not ask for permission to speak to Jim Mora as they did the Bruin baseball coach. They actually may have asked for permission during halftime of the November massacre at the Coliseum but those reports are unconfirmed. Sark did take on a Husky team recovering from a 0-12 disaster season. He did not win a championship of any sort at UW or was ever in contention. He was an offensive coordinator during the Trojan heyday but working for Pete Carroll is not the same as trying to channel Pete. USC keeps trying to recapture that lighting first with Kiffin and now Sarkisian. That magic now coaches on Sundays. Saturdays on Exposition could be troubling for a while for the Cardinal and Gold. As the dominoes cascaded, UW circled back to see if Jim Mora was serious when he gamely mentioned that was his dream job many years back. Those erstwhile comments cost him his head coaching job in the NFL and they reverberated through the UCLA athletic department last week. Mora got a new contract, more money for his assistant coaches, and a $50 million football only facility. UW then hired Chris Peterson from Boise to replace Sark. Peterson had turned down about 35 different opportunities including USC and UCLA over the years. USC fan was outraged that the Trojans did not get Peterson this time and settled on Sarkisian. It was more of a settle than a hire for USC. See you all in Pasadena again soon! It will be the best of Holidays for another year.

Lane Memories

It has been a scary week at the Yard. We had cancelled our USC acid reflux prescription when we friended Lane Kiffin on Facebook in September. USC has never fired a coach in mid-season and as miserable as USC had played, our Kiffin seemed safe for the balance of the season or at least through Thanksgiving weekend. Lame felt the same when he met Pat Haden on the tarmac at LAX that fateful fall night. His passing did not seem fair to Bruin nation without a moment of silence and reflection. Kiffin was our hero and many would have expected USC to digress into diffidence and malware. Kiffin disappeared as he had at every other job. Interim head coach Ed Ogeron was never expected to right the offense and Traveler VI. With all of the Obamacare capitulations we felt we could cut back on that med until the Republicans regained control and did who knows what. Alas, we digress...we need our USC meds this week and it does not appear that we can log onto the website in a timely manner to receive these gastrointestinal medications prior to kickoff. There was only hope for persistence when the Yard gladly embraced the Lane Kiffin era at USC. USC AD Mike Garrett raced by private jet to lure Kiffin back to USC from Tennessee when Pete Carroll bolted ahead of NCAA sanctions. Kiffin was foolish to leave USC for the Raider job and short sighted to leave TN to return to USC. Garrett promised the keys to an Emerald city that Kiffin would never govern from behind the curtain. It was always the poppy fields in black and white just prior morphing into color for Kiffin. Lane was trapped with the winged monkeys not the ruby shoes. When USC AD Pat Haden fired Lane after the debacle in the desert, USC looked done and stuffed in that order. Ogeron was a Trojan Loyalist but a caretaker in waiting to close out the misery that had already been predicted. Ogeron rose above the task and flipped the game board for this team and their rabid following. The Raging Cajun is not the coach Haden has in mind to take Troy back into the national championship discussion. He was never in the consideration for a micro second when the job was open at any time when Ogeron was the team’s best assistant coach. He finally left and took the Ole Miss Job in 2005 and tried to recruit Kiffin as his offensive coordinator. Kiffin demurred and then declined. Ogeron hired Noel Mazzone who he fired before being fired himself in 2007. Ogeron has now replaced Kiffin and Mazzone is the OC at UCLA. The Yard hopes that USC retains Ogeron. He deserves the job and his team is playing out his resume. They are fighting to ensure Haden hires their head coach, father and mentor. The team sent a message loud and clear when they played better after Kiffin than before him. USC may have to hire Ogeron with the outcry of support from current and former players. Even Kiffin has given his endorsement. Ogeron might not have wanted that one. If USC hires easy Ed as the man, they will probably be firing him before his contract expires. But he deserves the job now. We can only hope Haden stays the course that Garrett outlined. . Regardless of the outcome on Exposition on Saturday night, there is a basketball season that follows. For Trojan fan, not so much. Troy has a better basketball arena than the wretched coliseum but an inferior product that plays there. UCLA’s rival in basketball has not been USC since the early 1970’s. USC does not really have a rival in hoops because you have to win something to have a rival. Again, we tug at the low hanging fruit. UCLA hoops have been a surprise this year. Ben Howland’s termination was not a surprise but hiring Steve Alford sure was. The ink was barely dry on Alford’s ten year deal at New Mexico when it was announced he had been hired as the Bruin’s new head coach. We are no legal experts but the timing of those two events has an air of inconsistency about them. UCLA AD Dan Guerrero kept Bruin fan in the dark as he sourced a replacement for Howland. Ben of the Scowl had worn out UCLA fans with his plodding offense, average defense and never having a timeout in the last five minutes of any game ever. He did lead three teams into the Final Four and had a solid reputation for fundamental basketball training. The NBA loves Howland’s players and many are thriving from those teams at the next level. Ben just did not make it fun and compelling for the kids at his level. Guerrero may have hired Alford because he saw the steady stream on Howland recruits finish their careers at New Mexico under Alford. Kendall Williams and Drew Gordon were part of the exodus that led to Alford’s rise and Ben’s demise. Ben’s detached, constrictive style of coaching did not allow talent to blossom. Howland was a better coach at lesser programs where talent was thin but earnest was huge. At UCLA, talent was huge and needed freedom to become earnest. In Howland’s last season at UCLA, the Bruins topped 100 points once and 90 points three times during the entire season. In the first seven games of Alford’s tenure, the Bruins have topped 100 points twice and 90 points two other times. Granted it is the cupcake portion of the schedule but Howland had basically the same team and the same pastries last year. The Bruins are averaging 91 points a game so far this year. With the same leading scorer and senior point guard Larry Drew III, UCLA averaged 69 points a game last year for a similar seven game stretch. Last year’s team had arguably better talent than the current roster but was boring to watch and performed to those levels. This year’s campaign has been fun to watch and Jordan Adams and Tony Parker are going to forces to reckon with throughout the season if they stay healthy. It is 109 days until selection Sunday. The Yard is hoping for a favorable outcome on this Saturday but there will be many more exciting games for UCLA for months to come. USC’s whole sports campaign comes down to this Saturday. It is the myopia in which we have basted for most of our lives in the city of the angels. Still staring at the spinning wheel on the web site, tick tock. Extra Innings: Alex Rodriguez stormed out of his arbitration hearing regarding his doping this past week. A-Rod has been in MLB’s cross hairs since his first lack of self-awareness. It persists. The Yankees have their collective fingers crossed in the abject hope that he is suspended for more than 211 games. 211 games would save the Yankees $38 million that they would prefer to not pay A-Rod. They have few avenues to avoid paying that nut to an overpaid 3rd baseman that looks at himself too much in the mirror. The Yankees were probably the source of most of MLB’s evidence against A-clod. MLB has emails and personal medical information which Rodriguez likens to a witch hunt. The witches are in pinstripes and they hope to keep the caldron boiling in their quest to rid themselves of the Rod of their indignation. Yardbits: Last Sunday the NFC Central had a record breaking week. Although every team in the conference played, not one team won. That is and of itself is not remarkable but it is considering that two teams in the conference played each other. The Packers and the Viking played to an error filled tie while the Bears and Lions lost as well. Another scintillating week of NFL parity. Happy Thanksgiving!