The Sports Report: Kobe Bryant statue will be unveiled today

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Dan Woike: Later today, just hours after the NBA’s trade deadline passes, the Lakers will unveil a Kobe Bryant statue outside their Crytpo.com Arena home and no one — save for a select few — knows how he’ll be memorialized.

“I don’t think he has one image that pops into my head that says, ‘That’s the one that should be immortalized on the statue’ because there’s too many memories,” LeBron James said. “Too many plays. Too many moments that he had.”

Whether the statue is Bryant ripping his jersey to the side or gnawing the collar between his clenched teeth, whether it’s a fadeaway jumper or a emphatic slam or whether it’s Bryant basking in the championship confetti with his arms raised, there’s really just one certainty about the ceremony. It’s, undoubtedly, still going to be sad.

A little more than four years after a helicopter crash killed Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others on board, it’s still impossible to separate the on-court achievements that earned Bryant the honor of a statue from the circumstances that make it impossible for him to be there to celebrate them as well.

“He meant a lot to me,” Anthony Davis said. “Big brother, mentor, kinda started, I guess, my career alongside him in the Olympics, just being under his wing. Teaching me the game, teaching me about life and everything. It will be … a cool moment, obviously to see that, but re-living it again in a sense, so, I don’t know. Emotions will be high for me, for sure,”

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Complete coverage of the Kobe Bryant statue unveiling

CLIPPERS

From Steve Galluzzo: Meeting with the media two hours before tipoff Wednesday night, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said it would not be a letdown if his team lost to New Orleans. After all, this is the NBA.

“You can lose to anyone at any time,” he said.

Los Angeles was unable to overcame a lackluster defensive effort and an early 17-point deficit, falling 117-106 in its first game at Crypto.com Arena since Jan. 23.

The Clippers dropped to 34-16, half a game behind Oklahoma City, Minnesota and Denver at the top of the Western Conference.

New Orleans (30-21) has won 10 of its last 12 against the Clippers.

James Harden led the Clippers with 19 points, Kawhi Leonard scored 15 and Norman Powell had 15 off the bench.

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Clippers box score

NBA scores

NBA standings

SUPER BOWL

From Gary Klein: As he navigated the sprawling aisles of audio and video setups in the Super Bowl media center’s Radio Row, Puka Nacua moved as if he was exploring a new pass route for the Rams.

Nacua, a finalist for NFL’s rookie offensive player of the year award, spent much of Wednesday doing interviews, making promotional appearances and participating in a panel discussion about football and player tracking and Next Gen stats.

“It’s been crazy,” Nacua said, grinning. “I just met Cam Newton over there. It’s been super cool to meet these people.

“I guess with the season being over, like people are aware, I guess, of who I am. But I still want my moment to be a fan to them, like ‘Hey, I need to introduce myself to you.’”

Nacua, a fifth-round draft pick, raised his profile with a record-setting season. He caught 105 passes for 1,486 yards and six touchdowns for a Rams team that defied expectations by finishing 10-7 and earning a playoff berth.

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Super Bowl LVIII: Start time, teams, betting odds and halftime show

Sunday
at Las Vegas
Kansas City vs. San Francisco, 3:30 p.m. PT, CBS, Paramount+

CHARGERS

Even though Antonio Gates didn’t play college football, and was a basketball player at Kent State, he rounded into one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history. An eight-time Pro Bowl selection for the Chargers, Gates is a finalist for the 2024 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which will be announced Thursday night at NFL Honors.

Former Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers spoke to Times NFL writer Sam Farmer recently about the greatness of Gates and what set him apart.

In Rivers’ words:

Early in my career with the Chargers, even when I wasn’t playing, we had something in the QB room we called the “Gates rule.”

It’s like, “What’s the read?”

“Gates rule.”

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UCLA BASKETBALL

From Ben Bolch: They were two short sequences, two moments in a game featuring hundreds. They involved two UCLA reserves who combined to barely play 10 minutes.

And they said everything about how the Bruins, once widely dismissed as unworthy of the four letters, continued to unite while prompting a loud “U-C-L-A!” chant from their fans inside Maples Pavilion as part of more late-season magic.

With celebrated big man Adem Bona on the bench in foul trouble late in a taut game against Stanford on Wednesday night, backups Aday Mara and Kenneth Nwuba took their star turns during the Bruins’ 82-74 victory.

Mara, a freshman who had made just 52.9% of his free throws, stepped to the line with four minutes left and confidently made two.

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UCLA box score

Pac-12 standings

USC BASKETBALL

Jaylon Tyson had 27 points, Jalen Celestine had six of his 11 points in overtime and California defeated USC 83-77 after blowing a 16-point lead in the second half on Wednesday night.

Celestine hit a tie-breaking three-pointer that made it 75-72 with 1 1/2 minutes left in overtime and then made three free throws in the last 24 seconds. The Trojans missed their last three shots, including Fardaws Aimaq’s block on Isaiah Collier with 27 seconds left and the Bears up 80-77.

Collier, the star freshman who missed six games, had 20 points, all after halftime, for the Trojans (9-14, 3-9). Collier, who suffered a hand injury on Jan. 10, was 4 of 13 from the field but 12 of 16 from the line. He had 14 points in the last 7 1/2 minutes of regulation, taking over when the deficit was 58-47.

DJ Rodman added 17 points for USC with his third three pulling the Trojans within 78-77 with 36 seconds left in regulation.

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USC box score

Pac-12 standings

AUTO RACING

From John Cherwa: Days after a difficult and largely ignored start to its 2024 season, NASCAR is ready to plow into its regular season in its traditional fashion, holding its biggest event first instead of last. The Daytona 500 is set to start the 36-race Cup Series on Feb. 18, two weeks after the unofficial beginning on a quarter-mile track inside the Coliseum.

The Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum is now in the rearview mirror, thankfully for NASCAR. With the brightest of intentions and a full marketing strategy aimed at Latinos, NASCAR, on a few hours notice, moved the Sunday race to Saturday night after California’s unprecedented weather event made the likelihood of running the race as scheduled impossible. Admission was free, but the crowd was barely visible.

It was the last year of a three-year contract to hold the exhibition in Los Angeles and a renewal seems less likely, although NASCAR has not announced any decision. Coupled with the closure and plans to rebuild the Fontana track, next year could be the first time since 1996, with the exception of the COVID year, that Los Angeles has not held a Cup Series event in the region.

Along the way will be the usual intrigue and feuds along with mostly competitive racing with enough stops during the race to make sure no one runs away with a thing.

So, here are five story lines that are expected to dominate NASCAR at least at the start of the season.

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NHL

NHL scores

NHL standings

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1936 — Jay Berwanger, University of Chicago halfback and Heisman Trophy winner, is the first player ever selected in the NFL Draft. The Philadelphia Eagles make the pick and eventually trade his rights to the Chicago Bears.

1950 — Man o’ War is selected the greatest horse of the half century by The Associated Press. Man o’ War, as a 2- and 3-year-old, is a winner in 20 of 21 races and holds five track records.

1960 — Boston Celtic Bill Russell becomes 1st NBAer with 50 rebounds (51).

1962 — Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scores 59 points in a 136-120 victory over the New York Knicks and beats his own single-season scoring record of 3,033 by six points.

1964 — Billy Kidd and James Heuga win the first men’s Olympic Alpine skiing medals for the United States with a silver and bronze in the slalom.

1970 — Gordie Howe becomes the first NHL player to score 750 goals. Howe gets the milestone by beating Philadelphia Flyers goalie Bernie Parent 3:10 into the third period, but the Red Wings lose 5-3 at Detroit’s Olympia Stadium.

1986 — Atlanta’s Spud Webb, at 5-foot-7, wins NBA Slam Dunk competition. Webb receives a perfect 50 from the judges in the last two rounds to shock defending dunk champion Dominique Wilkins and the crowd at Dallas’ Reunion Arena.

1997 — Scotty Bowman becomes the first NHL coach to win 1,000 games as Detroit beats Pittsburgh 6-5 on Brendan Shanahan’s overtime goal. Bowman, the coach of six Stanley Cup champion teams, is 1,000-452-255 in regular-season games and 162-101 in the playoffs.

1998 — Johanna Ikonen scores twice and Tiia Reima and Sari Krooks score a goal and an assist as Finland beats Sweden 6-0 in the first Olympic women’s ice hockey game.

2014 — At the Sochi Games, Norway’s Ole Einar Bjoerndalen becomes the oldest Winter Olympic gold medalist at 40 and ties Bjoern Daehlie’s record for most medals (12) won at the Winter Games. Bjoerndalen wins the men’s 10-kilometer biathlon sprint, breaking the record held by Canadian skeleton racer Duff Gibson, who was 39 when he won gold at the 2006 Turin Olympics.

2018 — Noriaki Kasai of Japan becomes first athlete in history to participate in 8 Winter Olympics in the ski jumping qualification prior to the Pyeongchang Games.

Compiled by the Associated Press