Mitch Kupchak makes the Lakers stronger, even if he doesn’t get the recognition

Skillful maneuvering by Mitch Kupchak remade the Lakers into a stronger, deeper team this summer.…

Did his peers notice? …

Two seasons ago, when the Lakers won the first of their consecutive championships in the wake of Kobe Bryant’s venomous 2007 trade demands, Kupchak garnered all of two measly votes in balloting for NBA executive of the year.…

Last season, he got none.…

Perhaps it was Trevor Ariza’s plight since leaving the Lakers that convinced Shannon Brown to stay.…

Whatever the reason, the Lakers are better for it.…

Between his softball-question lobbing role in the LeBron James fiasco and this week’s confrontation with Corey Pavin, reporter Jim Gray has twice put himself at the center of controversy this summer.…

Brett Favre, in case anyone forgot, did not commit to the Minnesota Vikings last summer until Aug. 18.…

Three weeks earlier, he’d said he was planning to retire.…

Far too often, it seems, Andre Ethier and the Dodgers are on the wrong end of shutouts.…

Of Joe Torre’s noting this week that “Right now, it’s all about winning games,” reader Roy Reel of Culver City e-mails to ask, “Shouldn’t that have been the message from Day 1?” …

Torii Hunter, calling reports of the Angels’ imminent demise premature: “The fat lady, she hasn’t sang yet.” …

Maybe she’s busy preparing to serenade the Dodgers.…

Sports Illustrated predicts a 10-3 season and third-place finish in the Pacific 10 Conference for Matt Barkley and USC this season, a 4-8 season and eighth-place finish for UCLA.…

Will opponents losing to Kevin Prince and the Bruins this fall consider themselves pistol-whipped? …

Now living in Portland, Ore., an anonymous reader transplanted from Southern California wonders if the O on Oregon’s helmets represents the number of times the Ducks have won in the Rose Bowl game since 1917.…

No, but it could.…

When a statue of Bud Selig is unveiled this month outside Miller Park in Milwaukee, will it show baseball’s steroids-era commissioner hiding his head in the sand? …

Or looking the other way? …

Cliff Lee’s vagabond existence in the last 1 1/2 seasons reminds that in 1977, when baseball was split into four divisions, Dave Kingman hit home runs for teams in all four.…

One was the Angels.…

Former Laker Bob Boozer, an All-American at Kansas State under triangle-offense proponent Tex Winter: “He never ranted and raved like some of these guys today. One example is the guy that’s at K-State now. I mean, he’s a screamer. Tex never raised his voice. He coached.” …

The guy that’s at K-State now is Frank Martin, last season’s Big 12 Conference coach of the year.…

A 1,000-yard rusher in a 14-game NFL season had to average about 71 yards a game, while a 1,000-yard rusher in a proposed 18-game season would need to average about 55.…

That doesn’t seem so special.…

If not “overtrained athlete syndrome,” former USC linebacker Brian Cushing surely suffers from overactive imagination.…

No reason for this Tom Dooley to hang down his head and cry: Thomas Dooley, former Team USA captain, was inducted this week into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.…

Tim Tebow is part of a Nike ad campaign that plays off the popular “Bo Knows” campaign with Bo Jackson.…

Tebow knows funny haircuts.…

In a USA Today poll asking whether Ben Roethlisberger should have his suspension reduced, 66% of respondents said no.…

The Baseball Reliquary’s latest exhibition, “ ‘Ball Four’ Turns Forty,” opened this week at the Burbank Central Library and will include a Sept. 18 appearance by author Jim Bouton.…

A plurality of ESPN.com NBA experts has spoken: Blake Griffin — not John Wall, Yao Ming or Gilbert Arenas — is the newcomer or returning player it is most excited to see.…

Somewhere, Vinny Del Negro is nodding feverishly.…

Maybe the fog has lifted from Tiger Woods’ game.…

Noting that this week’s PGA Championship was being played at link-styled Whistling Straits alongside Lake Michigan, Swedish golfer Carl Pettersson suggested to reporters this week, “It’s like a British Open with good weather.” …

It is only if you consider stifling humidity good weather.

jerome.crowe@latimes.com

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