Letters: Give LeBron James his due

I don’t understand why so many basketball fans hate LeBron James (outside of Cleveland). Unless his team is playing your favorite, he should be appreciated and not reviled. He’s the best player in the game in this era, excels on both ends of the court, stays out of legal trouble and continues to silence all the haters.

The Decision? Bad advice from high school buddies. Who hasn’t been there?

Leaving the Cavaliers so he could win a championship (or two or three, etc.) Didn’t Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen do the same thing when they joined Paul Pierce to win it all in 2008? Where was the backlash then?

I say give “The King” his due and admire a once-in-a-generation player who is now reaching the pinnacle of his game.

Gino Cirignano

Playa del Rey

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Great series between the Heat and Spurs. Something for everyone. Close games and blowouts. I just wish Manu Ginobili had waited to retire until after the series was completed rather than before Game 6.

Robert Aragon

Duarte

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No doubt a great coach, Gregg Popovich nevertheless brought back some bad memories for Angels fans as he channeled his innermost “Gene Mauch” by over-managing and substituting in-and-out his best players at the end of Game 6.

Just as Mike Witt probably would have delivered the Angels their first pennant in 1986 if left in to finish the game, Duncan and Parker could have finished off the Heat in 6 by playing the last minute of their contest.

Allan Kandel

Los Angeles

Seeing Blue

Don Mattingly had one of the coolest nicknames as a player, but as manager of the Dodgers, he’s Donnie Basement.

Larry Yells

Hermosa Beach

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Tommy Lasorda has many enlightening comments about life. One of my favorites is: “There are three kinds of people: People that make things happen, people that watch things happen, and people that say, what happened?”

Don Mattingly seems to be somewhere between Nos. 2 and 3. There’s not much aggressive baseball — hit and running, bunting, or stealing. He seems to write out the lineup, stand aside and watch. He has to show more fire and aggressiveness to light up his team.

Al Parnis

Crestline

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In Wall Street and stock market parlance, “bulls” mean going up and “bears” mean going down. So why are Dodgers relievers called the “bullpen” when they should be called the “bearpen”? From Brandon League to Ronald Belisario to Kenley Jansen to Paco Rodriguez, they continually spoil fine pitching performances from Clayton Kershaw and other competent starters. Let’s recognize the Dodgers’ “bearpen” for what they are.

Roy Reel

Culver City

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How in the world does Rick Honeycutt keep his job? The Dodgers’ starting pitchers are routinely ineffective, the bullpen cannot hold the few leads that the Dodgers actually get, and the pitchers seem to have no game plan as to how to hold the opponents in check.

Working with Honeycutt does not seem to improve any of the pitchers that the Dodgers acquire from other teams or ones that are brought up from the minor leagues. Add to that the high incidence of injuries that their pitchers suffer and it becomes apparent that something is seriously amiss. Yet Honeycutt continues to fly under the radar, is rarely, if ever, criticized and survives every coaching change that takes place.

Bill Tapp

San Diego

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Regarding the brawl between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks, when Mark McGwire was asked if he had any regrets about his behavior, he gave a detailed answer. I’m impressed: He didn’t say, “I’m not here to talk about the past.”

Andrew M. Weiss

Playa del Rey

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Mike Scioscia and Don Mattingly probably will get fired on the same day and the sports media gang will get only one free lunch. Scioscia has lost the team and Mattingly is just plain lost! What are the owners waiting for?

Tom Fessler

Huntington Beach

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The most annoying job I know of has to be the guy who plays all the “Make Noise” tapes when the Dodgers are up to bat. The worst of all has to be “Ev-ery-body Clap Your Hands!” I thought maybe all teams do it these days, but I haven’t heard it during the away games. Just the Dodgers. It’s annoying and it’s bush league. Stop the noise and find that guy another job, selling peanuts maybe.

Bill Graham

Manhattan Beach

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Now, if Mike Scioscia can only move Josh Hamilton a little further down in the lineup, he would have less pressure and might be able to find his stroke. Maybe 10th?

Danny Sanchez

Westminster

Kasten’s dad

It is very common to see individuals who make it big in sports or other areas in life often forget where they came from. After reading Bill Plaschke’s June 16 article on Stan Kasten’s relationship with his father, it is quite obvious that the everyday numbers of batting average, homers and RBIs have not remotely had an effect on Kasten like the numbers that he saw on his father’s arm as a survivor of the concentration camps.

As a child of a survivor myself, I must say in Stan Kasten’s father’s language of Yiddish, that I truly “shepped nachas” — derived satisfaction — that Stan Kasten would share his father’s brave story with the world.

Richard Katz

Los Angeles

Going young

In his June 16 column, Kevin Baxter argues, “Landon Donovan’s inclusion on the B team roster for the Gold Cup was seen as a first step toward redemption and a World Cup invitation.” But Baxter better put his glasses on. Coach Juergen Klinsmann made a quiet shift to youth since being hired that also left veteran defender Carlos Bocanegra in the cold. With still a year to go until the World Cup, Klinsmann knows the U.S. must prepare for far tougher competition than the very weak North, Central America and Caribbean group.

Karl Heinz Heim

Yorba Linda

Suing the NCAA

Anybody who thinks that the cost of attending local Pac-12 games won’t skyrocket should the NCAA lose its impending lawsuit is a fool. But money aside, while we address the merits and/or burdens of being a student-athlete, let’s also accept the reality that some of these kids, perhaps many, simply don’t take seriously the “student” part of “student-athlete.” The acceptance rates of many California schools are among the lowest in the nation. So if we’re going to reform the system, let’s face reality and give those precious seats to students who actually want to attend class and earn a degree.

Mike Kichaven

Sherman Oaks

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Student athletes such as Ed O’Bannon are no more entitled to a share of the revenue generated by their efforts than is a band member who marches at halftime or a student actor whose performance is viewed by a paying audience.

Should a student-athlete deem his collegiate performance a steppingstone to a professional career, then that is the price of admission to his chosen field of endeavor. The sole difference between the athlete and the actor or musician is the dollars, and as a Shakespearean might say, “there’s the rub.”

Skip Nevell

Los Angeles

Open and shut

Regarding Phil Mickelson: Sorry Leo, nice guys don’t finish last, they finish second, again.

Ken Johnson

Pinon Hills

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Some people root against Phil Mickelson because he was the No. 2 golfer throughout the Tiger Woods era and not once did he stop Tiger from winning majors. Even Tiger fans want to see challengers rise to the occasion, like the chip-ins Watson and Trevino holed to deny Nicklaus three more majors. It’s not Mickelson’s fault he and fellow pros wilted when Tiger charged, but Phil catches the blame anyway. It makes convoluted sense to me.

Joel Athey

West Hollywood

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You guys are shills for Tiger Woods. Thirty-two golfers had a better score than he did at the U.S. Open, yet you devote a headline and over eight column inches to this arrogant, self-centered, serial adulterer! What about the amateur that beat Woods by three strokes? Why not write about him?

Ray Uhler

Rancho Santa Margarita

Clippers’ nostalgia

Did I miss something? Is Elgin Baylor running the Clippers again? At this rate, the Clippers will soon be trading Blake Griffin for Larry Bird.

Craig P. Fagan

San Diego

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