el segundo

The Lakers kicked off their summer break by signing their star player to a contract extension in a flashy news conference featuring Balkan walk-up music and a photo gallery display of Luka Doncic’s best Lakers moments. The team returned Thursday by announcing their continued commitment to their coach.

Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka announced head coach JJ Redick had signed a contract extension at a news conference with the coach as the Lakers begin training camp next Tuesday.

Redick signed a four-year, $32-million contract last year as a first-time head coach and led the Lakers to a 50-32 regular-season record and the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference before losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of playoffs. The terms of the new deal were not announced.

“We think he’s a special coach with a special voice that’s really helping us define the culture of Lakers excellence,” Pelinka said. “We just wanted to make a clear statement that this is what we believe in, what we’re going to lean into and what our players are going to mold into as we continue to develop the identity. I think having long-term planning is helpful as we build this team and go forward.”

Redick’s extension was one of the finishing touches on what Pelinka called “an intentional and productive offseason.” The Lakers touted major additions of center Deandre Ayton and perimeter players Marcus Smart and Jake LaRavia who were each hand-selected for their fits around Doncic and LeBron James.

James opted into the final year of his contract, and Doncic signed a three-year extension on the first day the Lakers could offer in August.

After a blockbuster midseason trade brought the former Dallas Maverick to L.A. in February, Doncic and James will enter their first full season together with questions about how the Lakers can best balance the 40-year-old James and his 26-year-old fellow star.

Redick, who said he had two productive in-person meetings with James this offseason, will oversee the league’s most-watched transfer of power.

Redick recognized that joining the Lakers brings consistent pressure. Then he was also transitioning from broadcasting to coaching while moving cities, settling his children into new schools and adjusting to a seismic midseason trade. Redick’s first year came with little time to reflect or process.

After the Lakers were eliminated from the first round of the playoffs, Redick paused to consider his new career. He ruminated for weeks on how to define his philosophy as a coach and his methodology. He searched for answers in meetings with Rams coach Sean McVay, former NFL quarterback Tom Brady and Brady’s former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

Through their conversations, he came away with a simple strategy to achieve success.

“We’re going to ask guys to be in championship shape, have championship communication and championship habits,” Redick said. “That’s a daily commitment to that.”

James, who will start an unprecedented 23rd NBA season next week, has always been committed to those pillars, Redick said. Doncic has followed suit.

The Slovenian superstar’s rebuilt and slimmed down body was the talk of the NBA summer after major magazine profiles in Men’s Health and the Wall Street Journal. The offseason work paid off in EuroBasket, where Doncic averaged 34.7 points, 8.6 rebounds and 7.1 assists in Slovenia’s run to the quarterfinals. He was named to the tournament’s five-man All-Star team.

But after traveling to Poland to not only watch Doncic play but to observe Slovenian team practices, Pelinka came away just as impressed by Doncic’s off-court habits as his on-court game.

“How he not only led by example, but he was very demonstrative in the practice in terms of his expectations of the team, how they played, their togetherness,” Pelinka said. “Just seeing that continued evolution and growth with him as not only a leader by example but a leader with his voice really stood out to me.”

Redick noted Doncic’s improved movement and defense during the European competition, and the coach expects to see the same version of the star guard stateside.

“I expect the best version of Luka,” Redick said, “and it’s my job as a coach to bring that out on a daily basis.”

The Sparks announced they are joining the WNBA’s facilities upgrade boom, building a $150-million, 55,000-square-foot training and practice facility in El Segundo that is set to open ahead of the 2027 season.

The venue will include two WNBA regulation basketball courts along with a locker room, weight room and athletic training space. The team states the facility will also feature an outdoor spa, indoor hydrotherapy suites, dedicated nap rooms, wellness spaces for yoga or mediation, and extensive use of natural light and retractable doors.

“We’re building a place where Sparks players can be at their best on and off the court,” said Eric Holoman, Sparks managing partner and governor. “From cutting-edge training and recovery spaces to family and community areas, every corner of this facility was designed with them at the center.”

The team did not disclose the venue’s address in El Segundo, which also is the location of Lakers, Kings and Chargers practice facilities.

The Sparks, who posted a 21-23 record and fell two wins short of clinching a playoff spot this season, are addressing one of the biggest complaints about the franchise’s commitment to player development. The team most recently trained at El Camino College, where they had no permanent locker room or weight room. The franchise has rented various training locations throughout its history, making the new building a dramatic upgrade for the team.

The team provided the following renderings of the facility.

A rendering shows the exterior of the Sparks’ future training and practice facility in El Segundo.

(Gensler)

A rendering shows the basketball courts in the Sparks’ future training and practice facility in El Segundo.

(Gensler)

A rendering shows an indoor hydrotherapy pool in the Sparks’ future training and practice facility in El Segundo.

(Gensler)

A rendering shows what the Sparks call a glamour area in their future training and practice facility in El Segundo.

(Gensler)

A rendering shows a locker room in the Sparks’ future training and practice facility in El Segundo.

(Gensler)

A rendering shows a weight and fitness room in the Sparks’ future training and practice facility in El Segundo.

(Gensler)

She was attending her first protest, driven to be seen with thousands of others at a “No Kings” demonstration Saturday morning in El Segundo, eager to make a statement.

But she was there for her father, as well.

The sign she held aloft as car horns honked in support said: “I’m speaking for those who can’t.”

Her father would have loved to join her, Jennifer told me. But with ICE raids in Los Angeles and arrests by the hundreds in recent days, her 55-year-old undocumented dad couldn’t afford to take the risk.

Steve Lopez

Steve Lopez is a California native who has been a Los Angeles Times columnist since 2001. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards and is a four-time Pulitzer finalist.

Jennifer is 29. I hadn’t seen her in nearly 20 years, when I wrote about her father and visited her home in Inglewood to deliver $2,000 donated by readers who read his story.

Here’s the back story:

In December of 2005 I got a tip about a shooting in the front yard of an Inglewood home. Two men approached a landscaper and demanded money. He resisted, and in the tussle that ensued, a shot was fired.

Paramedics rushed the man to the emergency room at UCLA, where doctors determined that a bullet had just missed his heart and was lodged in his chest. Although doctors recommended he stay at least overnight for observation, he insisted he felt fine and needed to get back to work.

The landscaper, whom I referred to as Ray, insisted on leaving immediately. As he later explained to me, the Inglewood job was for a client who hired him to re-landscape the yard as a Christmas gift to his wife.

Ray was shot on Dec. 23.

Demonstrators at a “No Kings” event at Main Street and Imperial Highway in El Segundo on Saturday.

(Steve Lopez / Los Angeles Times)

He finished the job by Christmas.

I’ve been thinking about Ray since ICE agents began the crackdown ordered by President Trump, whose administration said its goal was to deport 3,000 people a day. Hundreds have been arrested in the Fashion District, at car washes and at building supply stores across Los Angeles.

That’s led to clashes between law enforcement and demonstrators, and to peaceful protests like the one along Imperial Highway and Main Street on Saturday in El Segundo.

I thought of Ray because Trump generally speaks of undocumented immigrants as monsters, and no doubt there are criminals among them.

But over the years, nearly all my encounters have been with the likes of Ray, who are an essential part of the workforce.

Yes, there are costs associated with undocumented immigrants, but benefits as well — they’ve been an essential part of the California economy for years. And among those eager to hire them — in the fields, in the hospitality industry, in slaughterhouses, in healthcare — are avid Trump supporters.

On Friday, I called Ray to see how he was doing.

“I’m worried about it,” he said, even though he has some protection.

Demonstrators at the “No Kings” event in El Segundo raise their signs, including one that read, “Real men don’t need parades.”

(Steve Lopez / Los Angeles Times)

Several years ago, an immigration attorney helped him get a permit to work, but the Trump administration has vowed to end temporary protected legal status for certain groups of immigrants.

“I see and hear about a lot of cases where they’re not respecting documents. People look Latino, and they get arrested,” said Ray, who is in the midst of a years-long process to upgrade his status.

Ray is still loading tools onto his truck and driving to landscaping, tree-trimming and irrigation jobs across L.A., as he’s done for more than 30 years. But he said he’s being extra careful.

A protester at a “No Kings” event in El Segundo prepares a sign on Saturday.

(Steve Lopez / Los Angeles Times)

“You know, like keeping an eye out everywhere and checking my telephone to see where checkpoints are,” he said.

Ray’s ex-wife has legal status, and all three of their children were born here and are U.S. citizens. The marriage ended and Ray has remarried, but he remains close to the three kids I met in the spring of 2006, when they were 9, 10 and 11.

The younger son, who is disabled, lives with Ray. His older son, a graphic designer, lives nearby. Jennifer, a job recruiter, lives next door and has been on edge in recent days.

“Even though he has permission to be here … it’s scary, and I wasn’t even letting him go to work,” Jennifer said. “On Monday I was getting into the shower and heard him loading up the truck.”

She ran outside to stop him, but he was already gone, so she called him and said, “Oh my God, you shouldn’t be going to work right now. It’s not safe.”

“No Kings” was the theme of the day during a demonstration in El Segundo on Saturday.

(Steve Lopez / Los Angeles Times)

Jennifer works from home but couldn’t concentrate that day. She used an app to track her father’s location and checked the latest information on ICE raids. So far, Ray has made it home safely each day, although Jennifer is hoping he slows down for a while.

Twenty years ago, when I wrote about Ray getting shot and his insistence on going back to work immediately, one of the readers who donated money — $1,000 — to him was one of his landscaping clients, Rohelle Erde. When I checked in with her this week to update her on Ray’s situation, she said her entire family came to the U.S. as immigrants to work hard and build a better life, and Ray did the same.

“He has been working and making money and helping people beautify their homes, creating beauty and order, and this must be so distressing,” Erde said. “The ugliness and disorder are exactly the opposite of what he represents.”

The evening before Saturday’s rally in El Segundo, Jennifer told me why she wanted to demonstrate:

“To show my face for those who can’t speak and to say we’re not all criminals, we’re all sticking together, we have each other’s backs,” she said. “The girl who takes care of my kids is undocumented and she’s scared to leave the house. I have a lot of friends and family in the same boat.”

Jennifer attended with her son, who’s 9 and told me he’s afraid his grandfather will be arrested and sent back to Mexico.

“He’s the age I was when you met me,” Jennifer said of her son.

She took in the crowd and said it was uplifting to see such a huge and diverse throng of people stand up, in peaceful protest, against authoritarianism and the militarization of the country.

Mother and son stood together, flashing their signs for passing motorists.

His said, “Families belong together.”

Jennifer told me that her father still has the bullet in his chest.

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SOUTHERN SECTION LACROSSE PLAYOFFS

SATURDAY’S RESULTS

At Fred Kelly Stadium

BOYS FINALS

DIVISION 1

Loyola 11, Mater Dei 3

DIVISION 2

San Clemente 8, Dos Pueblos 7

DIVISION 3

Riverside King 14, Agoura 8

FRIDAY’S RESULTS

At Fred Kelly Stadium

GIRLS FINALS

DIVISION 1

Foothill 12, Mira Costa 7

DIVISION 2

St. Margaret’s 11, El Segundo 8

DIVISION 3

Oaks Christian 15, Trabuco Hills 9