Letters: Can Steve Nash do it all?

The Lakers acquire a very talented but 38-year-old point guard and Lakers fans barrage The Times with letters declaring an off-season championship.

I give full credit to Jim Buss: He’s lowered expectations so much that he’s taken the Lakers from best franchise in the NBA to the pro hoops equivalent of UCLA football.

Mark Backstrom

Inglewood

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We all knew Mitch Kupchak gave up a ton to acquire Steve Nash from the Phoenix Suns, we just didn’t know he threw in all the Lakers’ water as well. Wishing Dr. Jerry Buss a speedy recovery from dehydration.

Larry Yells

Hermosa Beach

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It’s always interesting to listen to whiny Lakers fans commenting on a departed Laker [Letters, July 7]. Derek Fisher, a pillar of the team for years, is derided as a 37-year-old, slow loser. He ended up with the Thunder and almost got another ring. He is being replaced by a 38-year-old guard who has how many rings? Uh huh, that’s what I thought.

The return of Lamar Odom was scoffed at because Odom, a recent winner of the sixth man award, is inconsistent and mentally unstable? I’d say the Lakers have the man who is the most inconsistent and mentally unstable in the NBA. Name is Artest — ring a bell?

Richard J. Terrill

Torrance

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So Steve Nash got a haircut. Does anyone remember what happened to Samson?

Joel Rapp

Los Angeles

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Bill Plaschke wrote a generally complimentary column about the Clippers [July 11]. It obviously was too much for him and he lost it about 15 paragraphs in. He actually questions whether Blake Griffin can develop enough to become a full-time power forward. Bill, he averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds and was an All-Star and was selected to the Olympic team before being injured. If that is not full time, what is?

Bert Bergen

La Canada

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Bill Plaschke is a comedian. He states, “Very soon … the Clippers could easily be the best team in town.” Really, Bill? Easily? Because they’re into DeAndre Jordan for over $10 million a year for the next three years? Because they signed NBA castoffs Lamar Odom and Jamal Crawford instead of class act and sure Hall of Famer Ray Allen? Because they’re counting on Chauncey Billups, at 36 coming off a ruptured Achilles’, to start? Because they’ve hired Vinny Del Negro for another year? Because Chris Paul could easily leave after this year for a true championship contender?

Bill, are you sipping The Donald’s Kool-Aid?

Frank Shapiro

Chatsworth

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This is why NBA players need to think about the decisions they rush to make. Ramon Sessions had the chance to take the $4.5 million on the final year of his contract and play with the most prestigious organization in the NBA. Take a year to prove to the Lakers that he is the real deal and set the foundation for a multiyear contract. But no, he opts out, thinking he has the power over the Lakers, and ends up in the NBA’s version of hell, a.k.a. the Charlotte Bobcats.

Brian Haueter

Ventura

Penn State

When the sports pundits finally get tired of the Penn State scandal they will get back to pontificating about how to select a national collegiate football champion. They don’t see, or don’t want to see, that it is all part of the same culture. The aggrandizement of what should be ancillary to a college education into a professional fundraising machine, putting it ahead of students, education, young children or anything else that gets in the way.

Morton Winkel

Carlsbad

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Even in death, Mr. Paterno’s efforts to defend the institution he destroyed seem incredulous. His postmortem letter continues to put the football program above the moral conscience of decency. This man had a choice and opted for the path that allowed him to retain his prestigious position, while children were being groomed by a pedophile under his watch. Freeh’s report should be a death knell to Penn State.

And please take down Paterno’s statue at Beaver Stadium. It’s an embarrassment.

Marcelo Barreiro

Manhattan Beach

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Joe Paterno is not around to defend himself against Louis Freeh’s scathing Penn State report regarding the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal. But that doesn’t make him any less culpable. It’s now obvious to everyone that Sandusky’s despicable actions were swept under the rug in order for the football program and the university to remain unblemished. Football ruled over everything at Penn State while common sense and decency were thrown out the window.

Charles Reilly

Manhattan Beach

Los Angeles

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If the NCAA does not give Penn State the death penalty for 14 years of allowing a monster to molest innocent children, then there is no reason for the NCAA to exist.

Fred Wallin

Westlake Village

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So, USC is severely sanctioned because one player’s parents (not the player) received financial benefits from an agent (not from the university), and the school is found to “lack institutional control”. But where the Penn State assistant football coach himself rapes defenseless kids, and the head coach and administration covers it up, the NCAA sits silently, and so far has done nothing. Now maybe if Sandusky had bought a recruit an ice cream cone, that might have actually got the NCAA’s attention. Anything less than the death penalty for Penn State football, and the NCAA will (once again) prove itself to be an absolutely hypocritical and contemptuous institution.

Drew Pomerance

Woodland Hills

Top of class

Congratulations to Roger Federer; congratulations to us all while there is such an estimable champion. Roger represents that rare confluence of noble human traits: character, integrity, humility and consideration in combination with skill, consistency and talent — a coalition of qualities worth emulating.

Oh, how I wish the growing generation would emulate him, instead of clinging to the likes of Hilton, Lohan, Charlie Sheen, or the repossessing cast of Lizard Lick. May aliens from outer space, should they decide to visit Earth, come upon Roger rather than the average representative of our kind. The world, no doubt, would have a better chance. Stay healthy, Roger; play on a good while longer to give the world a further glimpse of that fading human property called class.

Michael E. White

Burbank

On the ball

Dodgers’ second-half wish list:

1. Fire the hitting coach. Whoever he is. Terrible job.

2. Release Juan Uribe. He and his bat won’t come around.

3. Release Adam Kennedy. Nice uppercut swing, but no power.

4. Put Chad Billingsley in the bullpen. He has no confidence in his stuff, which results in bad innings and lost leads.

5. Don Mattingly: Crack that whip!

Sammy Vasquez

Yorba Linda

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I heard and read that Matt Kemp was going to Kansas City to enjoy himself, I just hope that he was not depending on the Home Run Derby to provide the entertainment. After matching last year’s total of one, there is a positive note to it all: It’s one more than Robinson Cano hit.

Bob Talarowski

Mission Viejo

Feet-first, please

A self-destructive wave is sweeping through Major League Baseball, and nobody is saying much about it — the now-routine head-first slide. It used to be rare, because it’s obviously better to risk your feet than face. Yet many players have badly hurt themselves (and their teams) doing it anyway.

In the last few days we’ve lost the Dodgers’ Dee Gordon, the Braves’ Andrelton Simmons and the A’s Yoenis Cespedes to injuries. Bring in the air samplers, canine sniffers and food tasters, for every team is infected.

Until we find the cause for this mental disease, we would be grateful for an outbreak of common sense among team managers. A, say, $1,000 fine for each dumb stunt might not cure the infection, but it sure would stop the behavior and shorten the disabled lists.

Tom Crispen

San Diego

Dream on

When Kobe Bryant said he believes the current men’s Olympic basketball team would beat the 1992 Dream Team he is 100% correct. With all of the 1992 team now in their 40s or 50s they would have no shot at beating this year’s squad.

Erik Schuman

Fountain Valley

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I can’t help but wonder what David Stern and Mark Cuban are thinking (or smoking) with regard to the NBA and the Olympics.

The international publicity for the NBA in this period when its biggest stars have played in the Olympics has been phenomenal. The NBA may well be on the verge of becoming the only well-established U.S. pro sports league to go truly global.

Perhaps they’re worried it will expand alternative options for the players. Well, it already has, but with global expansion the league would share in the opportunities.

David Stern and Mark Cuban are showing themselves to be narrow-minded and shortsighted. Putting our best against the best in the world not only honors our athletes and the sport, it also provides a showcase that could well lead to a media event rivaling soccer on the global stage.

Michael Solomon

Canoga Park

Not all good

I applaud Bill Dwyre for covering the story of Kylie Doniak [“Soccer Star’s Dreams Denied,” July 10]. In this world, you most readily see articles about good fortune and success, but you must also remember the ones who have had their talent taken away by a split second of misfortune.

Jeff Martinez

Placentia

Cubs win!

If anyone can show me a better essay on baseball than Chris Erskine’s on July 10 I’ll eat my Cubs cap.

Mike Fleming

Irvine

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