Letters: Steve Nash, they hardly knew you

A few weeks ago I was asked what I thought would be a bigger number this season for the Lakers: games won or games played by Steve Nash. I said I thought it was too close to call. In light of Nash missing the entire season and playing zero games in 2014-15, I stand by my original answer: Too close to call.

Erik Schuman

Fountain Valley

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Thanks for the memories, Steve. Oh, that’s right, there weren’t any.

Marty Foster

Ventura

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Sorry, Lakers fans. If those travel bags weren’t full of cash, Nash might be wearing a Lakers uniform this season.

Richard Cortez

Carson

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Here’s a plan sure to interest the Lakers. First, trade with the Brooklyn Nets, giving up two first-round picks and two seconds for Kevin Garnett. Second, extend Kobe’s contract through 2019-20 and of course at the max. We can call it “The Buss Way to Win Championships.”

Gil Hyatt

Palm Desert

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I don’t doubt that Steve Nash is a nice guy and hard worker. But sooner or later this guaranteed-salary business model in pro sports is going to implode under its own weight. One day, some athlete will become a national hero by saying, “My conscience won’t let me take this money, the team should keep it and plow it back into fan amenities. Or if the players union insists, then I’ll give it all to charity.”

Pete Howard

San Luis Obispo

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Nash was a Rambler but he turned out to be an Edsel.

Jeff Prescott

La Jolla

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Kobe, anyone with any basketball knowledge knows you’re one of the 10 best NBA players of all time. I agree with you that those idiots from ESPN don’t know what they are talking about. After all, they’re the only ones that think their ESPN office commercials are funny!

Jerry Schreck

Roseville, Calif.

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Jeanie Buss says that anybody who doesn’t want to play with Kobe is a “loser.” Unfortunately, the truth is that as long as Kobe is allowed to control the Lakers’ fate, it is the Lakers who will continue to be losers.

Jonathan Greenspan

Westlake Village

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Laker fans should be ecstatic. The purple and gold are tied for first with the best record in the league. Unfortunately, Oct. 28 looms large.

Chris Gagliano

Rancho Palos Verdes

Giant answer

Bill Shaikin spent 961 words and 25 paragraphs trying to figure out the San Francisco Giants’ secret to success, while buried in the middle of the piece was a name mentioned only once in passing, which provides the fairly obvious answer: “Bochy.”

R.C. Price

San Clemente

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Just because the Dodgers failed to get out of the first round of the playoffs shouldn’t be cause for their fans to wish for the destruction of the city of San Francisco. The Giants are in the World Series again for a reason: They win the big games. The Dodgers are sitting at home because they don’t. Rooting for the Royals won’t change that. I understand the bitter rivalry between our two great cities and their respective teams, but fortunately there is some good news. Los Angeles fans never have to worry about their football team losing to the 49ers.

Charles Reilly

Manhattan Beach

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Because the World Series is annually a showcase of one or both wild-card teams, which means whoever happens to be hot in late September, why not expand on the concept that already renders the entire regular season a joke? Why not just take the eight teams with the best records in September and have them in the playoffs? That way every city can contend until the end, and truly the best baseball will be on display during October.

Makes as much sense as Kansas City versus San Francisco

Rick Wallace

Malibu

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It’s now time to consider Madison Bumgarner and his most excellent playoff adventures the best pitcher in the game today over Clayton Kershaw and his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad postseason nightmares in St. Louis.

Marty Foster

Ventura

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Don Maddeningly returns next year. My only hope is DirecTV keeps up the fight.

Bruce Kahn

Upland

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After reading all the letters pointing fingers and whining about the Dodgers, I realized that I should have written this sooner. I looked forward to and enjoyed watching every Dodgers game this season. Baseball: sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It’s a great game! Thanks, Dodgers!

John Jones

Canyon Country

Fighting on

USC unveiled its new metallic helmets for all the world to see. Two thumbs down. Let’s stick with our traditions, concentrate on playing better football on the field for all four quarters, and leave the fashion statements to that Oregon team up north.

Joseph D. Peters

San Dimas

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It’s a tacky thing to have coaches criticize their quarterback in your paper about lacking confidence to throw the ball downfield. Has Cody Kessler called 200 bubble screens this year or have they been called by coaches?

Chuck Myers

San Gabriel

The pro game

We don’t need another survey, we need a team! Would you please inform the NFL that it is an insult to our collective Southern California intelligence to come here (again) conducting a survey and assessment of the local market. We are completely tired and totally irritated with this kind of approach.

Norvell Fuller

Eagle Rock

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Reading Sam Farmer’s piece about the NFL Los Angeles survey is like listening to a broken record. It’s supposed to be news because it appears in a newspaper, but it’s not really “news” in the literal sense, because the situation never changes, save for a few tidbits of commentary by owners, league officials, etc.

The fact is, the NFL hopes to maintain the status quo as long as humanly possible, or at least until another franchise goes belly-up, at which time L.A. could be the likely candidate for a hand-me-down franchise. No, the survey is just another move to stall any substantive action on an L.A. franchise. The NFL doesn’t like change and definitely hopes to avoid L.A. in the near future.

Lawrence M. Kates

Los Angeles

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Great article by Sam Farmer on Peyton Manning. Imagine what Dan Marino or John Elway (with Mike Shanahan as his coach) would have done under today’s pass-friendly rules. It would have been like Jerry West having the benefit of the three-point line.

Ken Feldman

Los Angeles

Violent times

I don’t understand how a player can be suspended without being convicted or even charged. It seems like sports leagues disregard due process, but shouldn’t the Constitution supersede any laws that these leagues want to enforce? The calendar says 2014, but it sure seems like “1984” to me.

Gregg Scott

Los Angeles

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Only the NHL could suspend the Kings’ Slava Voynov for alleged off-ice violence yet willingly permit its players to engage in actual on-ice violence. Hasn’t the time finally come for hockey to stop sending mixed messages on fighting and join the other major sports that eject players for an altercation?

F. Gary Freedman

Los Angeles

How it works

NCAA Infractions Guide:

Minor Violations:

—School giving football players credit for fake classes.

—Assistant coach sexually abusing 10-year-old boys on campus.

—Booster giving millions in stolen money to dozens of athletes over 10-year period.

—Head coach buying blue chip recruits through fake scouting service

Major Violations:

—Running back’s parents living rent-free in house owned by sports agent with no connection to school

Rob Osborne

Manhattan Beach

That hurts

That young man in Bill Dwyre’s Oct. 23 column better quit playing football right away. If he suffers any more brain damage the only career he’ll be fit for is sportswriter.

Louis Filliger

Chatsworth

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