Cruel Yule for Lakers fans

The Lakers weren’t the biggest losers on Christmas Day. The biggest losers were the people who spent exorbitant amounts of money to witness another Christmas Day Lakers blowout loss.

Sol Bialeck

Van Nuys

::

The real reason for the Lakers’ poor performance in holiday home games is not apathy, injury or the play of their opponents -- it must be the white jerseys.

Jeff Nuzzi

Pasadena

::

Another apathetic performance by the Lakers is no surprise, aren’t they coached by the ZEN (Zero Effort Nightly) Master?

Ira Ehrlich

Culver City

::

Kobe, you are aging and it’s time to change your game. You are no longer consistent night after night.

You come out against the Spurs firing up shot after shot and not executing the triangle and involving your teammates. The Lakers had the height advantage with two 7-footers under the boards and eight shots for Gasol and Bynum while you take 27 shots with one assist? Sit down and have a talk with Tim Duncan. Maybe you can learn something, like team ball?

Bill Cooley

Los Angeles

::

Kobe Bryant’s postgame rant after the Christmas Day Massacre administered by the Heat calls to mind the maxim: “Adversity does not build character, it reveals it.” Bryant is the same guy who threw Shaquille O’Neal under the bus after the loss to Detroit in the Finals; chastised Pau Gasol for being soft after the Boston Finals loss; and cursed out Andrew Bynum while threatening to jump ship after exiting the playoffs sans Shaq. Adversity in Bryant’s career has consistently revealed a finger-pointing narcissist who is quick to assign blame, but loathe to accept it!

Mark S. Roth

Los Angeles

::

My question is a simple one. When a player misses 13 straight shots and ends up going eight for 27, is it the player’s fault or the coach’s fault? For the second straight game, Kobe Bryant was awful

When Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol take nearly half as many shots combined, that’s a problem. What did Phil do? Nothing. Nada. Zippo. I for one can’t wait until next year when Jackson is off on his pompous way. I put the blame of three double-digit loses squarely at his feet for failing to coach the team and make the moves necessary to win.

Geno Apicella

Placentia

--

No holiday

Isn’t it ironic that some of the most underpaid members of our society (police, firefighters, soldiers, etc.) and some of the most overpaid (NBA players) have to work on Christmas, but it seems like only the latter group complains about it.

Ben Browdy

Los Angeles

--

Shaq smack

News item: Shaquille O’Neal was fined $35,000 by the NBA for calling the referees “control freaks” and saying things like, “I just wonder why I’ve never gotten that call in 20 years.”

Reaction: You have got to be kidding me! Never in my 41 years of watching NBA basketball have I ever seen a single player get away with more than Shaq. Every move he has ever made to the basket is a charge.

Eric Monson

Temecula

--

UConn blue streak

Stanford’s women have just beaten UConn, ending their 90-game win streak, and what does ESPN do? ESPN interviews the losing male coach of UConn instead of the winning female coach of Stanford. How incredibly, insensitively sexist of ESPN in reporting a women’s sport!

Some things never change.

Henry Hespenheide

Hermosa Beach

::

No one mentioned this in two hours of the telecast, but here is a similarity of 90-game win streak vs. UCLA’s 88-game win streak: The last team to beat UCLA before the start of the streak was Notre Dame and of course Notre Dame ended the streak.

Same with UConn. Their streak began by beating Stanford, and of course Stanford ended the streak.

Pat Mooney

Torrance

::

I regret not sending Stanford a Christmas card last week.

Mark J. Featherstone

Windsor Hills

--

Bowled over

TCU quarterback Andy Dalton has had a fantastic college career, zero doubt about that. He deserves much praise. However, some of the comparisons to Slingin’ Sammy Baugh are a bit much.

Mason Malugeon

Huntington Beach

::

Cam Newton’s Padre Papa admits to “selling” his son but didn’t tell him (hmmm, such a close relationship). Case decided in two days.

Terrelle Pryor sells his football stuff and is ruled eligible for the bowl game in less than a week.

Ol’ Corn Fed Marty got a fat contract with his kid going to the ‘Huskers, not a problem.

Takes two weeks for Dillon Baxter’s golf cart ride.

The NCAA is a joke.

David Paul

Huntington Beach

--

Favre’s fine mess

What a joke. Yes, I’m talking about the $50,000 fine on Brett Favre for “failure to cooperate” in the Jenn Sterger case. Favre makes about $680,000 per NFL game; in his case a $50,000 fine equates to someone making about $40,000 a year being fined about $150. Big deal, the penalty is a pittance.

Ron Cooper

La Crescenta

::

The NFL fines Brett Favre $50,000 for not cooperating with its investigation. A mere pittance for the multimillionaire quarterback. The greater affront is that the U.S. median household income is less than that.

Wayne Muramatsu

Cerritos

--

Vick bashing

[Michael] Vick getting the most votes for the Pro Bowl is ridiculously stupid.

There are 17 quarterbacks with more passing yards, 15 with more touchdowns, three with a better quarterback rating, six with more wins. He sat on the bench watching [Kevin] Kolb beat Atlanta for the Eagles’ biggest win of the year. He was outplayed twice by Eli Manning in wins over the Giants, outplayed by Jay Cutler in a loss to the Bears, and outplayed by a rookie making his first NFL start for the lowly Vikings.

Richard Elliot

Los Angeles

::

President Obama has needlessly earned himself the eternal enmity of dog lovers and individuals of sensitivity by wading into the Michael Vick controversy on the wrong side, outrageously endorsing the Philadelphia Eagles’ return of Vick to the status of star quarterback, multimillionaire and role model for impressionable children.

If Vick is deemed to have paid his debt to society by virtue of serving a brief jail term for engaging in the ritual torture and slaughter of precious and defenseless animals, he does indeed have the right to make a living. There is no such right to return to his former position, an exalted place in society.

The bully pulpit of the president is to be used for such matters as speaking out against human rights abuses, something which this president has done tepidly and infrequently. It should not be used to inflame and antagonize civilized people by cozying up to those who have taken sadistic glee in the torment and murder of the least among us.

Oren M. Spiegler

Upper Saint Clair, Pa.

--

Chargers stay home

There’s a lot of talk about the underachieving San Diego Chargers coming to Los Angeles if and when a stadium is built. After reading President Dean Spanos’ explanation for retaining Coach Norv Turner (“We’re a pretty good team”), I can only hope: “If you build it, he will [not] come.”

Mario Valvo

Rancho Mirage

--

Devil of a time

How’s that Ilya Kovalchuk deal doing for the New Jersey Devils? Worst team in the NHL, stuck with his fat contract, he has the same number of goals as Jarret Stoll or Wayne Simmonds, and a minus-26 rating. That’s the best deal Dean Lombardi never made, although he tried hard. It was Kovalchuk who saved the Kings, however. He was just using them to put pressure on the Devils.

Charles Sergis

Redondo Beach