LeBron James will have to look at more than teams

Buoying the hopes of the Clippers and other teams angling to land LeBron James this summer, Forbes.com this month derided Cleveland as America’s most miserable city. . . .

Next step for the Clippers: hope that nobody shows James the Sports Illustrated cover from 10 years ago dubbing Donald T. Sterling’s team “the worst franchise in sports history.” . . .

Couldn’t we just skip straight through to the NBA playoffs? . . .

By making tickets to their June series against the New York Yankees available only to fans who shell out for at least 13 other games, Frank McCourt and the Dodgers would seem to be playing right into the hands of ticket brokers, who presumably could more easily absorb the greater up-front cost. . . .

Fans get squeezed either way. . . .

Reader Ralph Brax of Lancaster, noting that Dodgers supporters should not rush to throw Manny Ramirez under the bus: “I’d rather toss McCourt there first.” . . .

Can anyone explain why Bill Walton has not been voted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame? . . .

Maya Moore and the top-ranked Connecticut women’s basketball team, winners of 67 consecutive games, might be the most dominant, least-appreciated team in sports. . . .

No list of great calls in sports broadcasting is complete, several readers suggest, without Howard Cosell’s excited utterance from the 1973 George Foreman-Joe Frazier title bout: “Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!” . . .

Kate Harper of Encinitas is partial to Trevor Denman’s call of Zenyatta’s charge from last place to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic last November: “This is un-be-liev-a-ble! Zenyatta! What a performance, one we’ll never forget.” . . .

Reader Charles Reilly of Manhattan Beach, offering a Boston perspective: “Johnny Most’s ‘Havlicek stole the ball!’ ” . . .

According to odds posted at Bodog.com (and undoubtedly dismissed by Nick Saban and Jim Tressel), only defending champion Alabama and Rose Bowl winner Ohio State are better than 12-1 picks to win the BCS title next fall. . . .

USC is listed at 15-1, UCLA at 75-1. . . .

A mock NFL draft compiled by the Sporting News has Jimmy Clausen going to the Arizona Cardinals, which would set up an interesting competition between the former Notre Dame star and former USC quarterback Matt Leinart. . . .

Defenseman Brooks Orpik of the U.S. Olympic hockey team is named for the late Herb Brooks, who coached the U.S. team to the “Miracle on Ice” gold medal at Lake Placid in 1980. . . .

Tiger Woods “said he found himself locked in a foolish, repetitive, horribly selfish activity,” comedian Bill Maher notes, “but he intends to keep golfing anyway.” . . .

Woods’ scripted appearance last week wasn’t a news conference, reader Wayne Beissert of Rancho Mirage e-mails to note, but rather “an oral presentation of a press release.” . . .

Bingo! . . .

Britain, hosting the 2012 London Games, is the only nation that has participated in every winter and summer Olympics. . . .

On this date 75 years ago, Babe Ruth was released by the New York Yankees, leaving the Bambino to play the final 28 games of his career with the Boston Braves. . . .

Three months later, in a game at Pittsburgh, the 40-year-old Ruth hit the last three of his 714 home runs. . . .

Jeff Bridges, up for an Oscar for “Crazy Heart,” co-starred with Stacy Keach in 1972’s John Huston-directed “Fat City,” considered by some to be the best boxing movie ever made. . . .

Yankees fans hope Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, as rumored, take the starring roles in a planned film about wife-swapping former Yankees pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich -- if for no other reason than to see the avowed Boston Red Sox fans dressed in Yankees caps and pinstripes. . . .

Asked about Charles Barkley’s recent comment that Dwyane Wade’s Miami Heat teammates were “a bunch of Tito Jacksons,” Wade said, “Tito and the Jacksons made a lot of money.” . . .

But Michael was the star. . . .

Noting that pasty ex-USC star Brian Scalabrine of the Boston Celtics was given a full-body spray tan on a morning radio show, reader Bill Littlejohn of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., e-mails to suggest, “He was a last-minute replacement for Sammy Sosa.”

jerome.crowe@latimes.com