Howdy, I’m your host, Austin Knoblauch, filling in for Houston Mitchell, who’s probably busy working on his Christmas wish list for next year. Let’s get right to the news.
From Dan Woike: LeBron James walked through the visiting locker room Christmas afternoon and wondered if there was music playing inside the Chase Center.
As a DJ bumped early 2000s Ludacris near the hoop the Lakers were warming up on, James broke routine to dance and smile.
As much as any player in the league before or after, James is aware of the stage. And even after doing it 18 previous times over 21 seasons, a spot on the court Christmas evening with everyone watching hit him like a triple espresso.
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Facing Stephen Curry and the Warriors in a big game? Old news for James, who competed against one of his biggest rivals in five different playoff series (and one play-in game).
But in the context of this season, with James days away from his 40th birthday, he looked like someone intent on savoring things.
He embraced Curry pregame, the two Olympic teammates from the summer still enjoying that experience. He ran onto the court after halftime, stopping at the end of the tunnel to playfully dance to “Not Like Us” with Chase Center security. And during the action, he delivered an age-defying performance for the unexpectedly shorthanded Lakers in a 115-113 win against the Warriors with timely help from Austin Reaves.
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ALSO: For Austin Reaves, making the winning shot for Lakers on Christmas holds special meaning
NBA
Albert Sanders Jr., NBA executive vice president, stands next to the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy. Sanders has worked at Google and in the White House but overseeing NBA officials might be his most challenging role yet.
(NBA)
From Dan Woike: Albert Sanders Jr., the boy with the big dreams and the bigger drive, was scared. He was angry. Worried.
He wanted to become a lawyer, to wow courtrooms just like Ben Matlock and Perry Mason did on his family’s clunky console TV. But in 1994, when he was 14, that dream suddenly seemed beyond reach, hence the anger and worry. He had excelled at a private school but circumstances had brought him to Jefferson High School, one of the worst in Los Angeles.
Before his first day as a freshman, he and his mother, Paula Sanders, sat in front of the campus in her 11-year-old Volvo as she fought to hide tears.
“How am I going to realize this dream of being a lawyer and maybe working in politics one day when I’m at a school where half the kids don’t graduate?” Albert wondered to himself.
But that was on the inside.
“He said, ‘Mom, I know what to do,’” Paula Sanders remembered. “And I believed him.”
It was trust well-placed. Sanders would work on Capitol Hill, at the White House and at Google. These days he is head of referee operations in the NBA, and is one of the most important people in professional basketball.
OLYMPICS
Joan Benoit Samuelson holds an American flag in celebration after winning gold in the women’s marathon at the 1984 L.A. Olympic Games.
(Lennox McLendon / Associated Press)
From Kevin Baxter: As Joan Benoit Samuelson negotiated the hairpin turn into the Coliseum tunnel, ran past the USC locker room and onto the stadium’s red synthetic track for the final 400 meters of the 1984 Olympic marathon, her focus wasn’t only on finishing, but on finishing strong.
Women never had been allowed to run farther than 1,500 meters in the Olympics because the Games’ all-male guardians long harbored antiquated views of femininity and what the female body could do. If Samuelson struggled to the line, or worse yet dropped to the ground after crossing it, that would validate those views and set back for years the fight for gender equality in the Olympics.
“They might have taken the Olympic marathon off the schedule,” Samuelson said by phone two days before Thanksgiving. “This is an elite athlete struggling to finish a marathon. It never happened, thank goodness. But that could have changed the course of history for women’s marathoning.”
Actually, that race did change the course of history because nothing remained the same after a joyous Samuelson, wearing a wide smile and waving her white cap to the sold-out crowd, crossed the finish line. This year marked the 40th anniversary of that victory, and when the Olympics return to Los Angeles in four years, the Games will be different in many ways because of it.
Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly smiles while coaching players at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center in Columbus, Ohio, in March.
(Jason Mowry / Getty Images)
From Anthony De Leon: Ohio State’s offense has hit the gas ever since the team lost 32-31 to Oregon on Oct. 12, going 6-1 and outscoring opponents 211-79.
A late penalty helped the Ducks run out the clock on a win, but the No. 8 Buckeyes will get a chance to avenge the loss when they face No. 1 Oregon during the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1.
“We’ve made adjustments coming off of that game. And we worked hard to make sure that we’re putting our guys in the best position to be successful,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “After the game that we played with these guys last time, you can see every week has gotten stronger and stronger.”
NFL
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes passes against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday.
(Matt Durisko / Associated Press)
From the Associated Press: Patrick Mahomes passed for 320 yards and three touchdowns and the Kansas City Chiefs locked up the top playoff seed in the AFC for the fourth time in seven seasons with a 29-10 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday.
The two-time defending Super Bowl champions raced to an early 13-point lead and were never really threatened by the Steelers (10-6), who have dropped three straight as their chances of capturing the AFC North took another hit.
Mahomes connected on first-half scoring tosses to Xavier Worthy and Justin Watson and Kansas City’s defense did most of the rest even with perennial All-Pro defensive end Chris Jones sitting out while nursing a calf injury. The Chiefs sacked Russell Wilson five times, forced two turnovers and hardly looked gassed while playing for the third time in 11 days.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1908 — Jack Johnson becomes the first black man to win the world heavyweight boxing title, with a 14th-round knockout of Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia.
1917 — Toronto’s Harry Cameron becomes the first defenseman to score four goals in a game as the Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens 7-5.
1919 — Yankees and Boston Red Sox reach agreement to move future Baseball Hall of Fame pitching slugger Babe Ruth to New York.
1943 — Sid Luckman throws five touchdown passes to lead the Chicago Bears to a 41-21 victory over the Washington Redskins for the NFL championship.
1946 — The United States wins the Davis Cup with a 5-0 sweep of Australia, the worst defeat for a defending champion.
1954 — Otto Graham scores three touchdowns and passes for three more to lead the Cleveland Browns to a 56-10 rout of the Detroit Lions for the NFL title.
1955 — The Cleveland Browns intercept six passes, one of which is returned 65 yards for a touchdown by Don Paul, in a 38-14 victory over the Los Angeles Rams for the NFL championship.
1960 — The Philadelphia Eagles come from behind twice on a 35-yard pass to Tommy McDonald from Norm Van Brocklin and a 5-yard run by Ted Dean to beat the Green Bay Packers 17-13 for the NFL title.
1964 — Wray Carlton and Jack Kemp each score touchdowns and Pete Gogolak kicks two field goals to give the Buffalo Bills a 20-7 victory over the San Diego Chargers in the AFL championship.
1965 — The Buffalo Bills win their second straight AFL championship with a 27-0 victory over the San Diego Chargers. The Chargers are able to get inside Buffalo’s 25-yard line only once.
1971 — Muhammad Ali finishes off German Jürgen Blin with a thundering right cross for a 7th-round knockout in a non-title heavyweight boxing contest in Zurich, Switzerland.
1986 — Center Doug Jarvis of the Hartford Whalers plays his 915th consecutive game, setting an NHL record.
1992 — The NHL’s San José Sharks end a 13-game losing streak with a 7-2 win over the Kings, albeit allowing 59 shots, the most in team history; Jeff Hacket makes 57 saves
1999 — Mike Vanderjagt’s 21-yard field goal with four seconds left gives the Indianapolis Colts a 29-28 win over the Cleveland Browns. Indianapolis, which went 3-13 in 1998, makes NFL history by winning 10 more games than they did the previous season.
2001 — Colorado’s Patrick Roy becomes the first NHL goalie to win 500 games as he records his seventh shutout of the season, a 2-0 win over Dallas.
2004 — Peyton Manning breaks Dan Marino’s single-season touchdown pass record when he throws his 48th and 49th of the season, rallying Indianapolis from a 31-16 fourth-quarter deficit to win 34-31 in overtime over San Diego.
2007 — Chris Summers kicks a 40-yard field goal as time expired in the Motor City Bowl, lifting Purdue to a 51-48 win over Central Michigan. The 99 points ties the second-highest total in a bowl game that ended in regulation, trailing only the 2003 Insight Bowl, where California beat Virginia Tech 52-49.
2011 — Drew Brees sets the NFL record for yards passing in a season, breaking a mark that Dan Marino had held since 1984, and the New Orleans Saints clinch the NFC South title with a 45-16 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night. Brees throws for 307 yards and four touchdown passes, the last a 9-yard strike to Darren Sproles that set the record with 2:51 to go. It was Brees’ final pass of the game and it gave him 5,087 yards passing, to break the record by three yards.
Compiled by the Associated Press
And finally
Austin Reaves played a leading role in the Lakers’ win over the Warriors on Christmas. Check out his best moments from the game, including his winning layup, here.
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.