LA28 released the first look at the 2028 Olympic competition schedule on Monday, exactly three years before the Games open on July 14, 2028. The slate is highlighted by a break in tradition to accommodate the organizing committee’s unique, dual-venue opening ceremony plan.
Instead of beginning the schedule with swimming, as has been customary in recent Games, track and field will instead take place during the first week of competition from July 15 to 24 at the Coliseum. Swimming will follow from July 22 to 30 at SoFi Stadium, where an indoor pool will be built after the opening ceremony.
The opening ceremony, now officially scheduled for 5 p.m. PDT on July 14, 2028, will be shared between the Coliseum and SoFi Stadium. Swimming will deliver the final competition of the 2028 Olympics as the last medal events are set to begin at 3 p.m. on July 30, 2028. Three hours later, the Olympic Games will conclude with the closing ceremony at 6 p.m. at the Coliseum.
Several sports will begin qualifying competitions before the opening ceremony, including cricket. The sport, which is returning to the Games for the first time since 1900, will be played at the Fairgrounds in Pomona and begin competition on July 12, along with soccer, handball, water polo, basketball, rugby and field hockey.
Making its Olympic debut, flag football will take place during the first week of competition from July 15 to 22 at BMO Stadium. The early competition could help reduce potential overlap with NFL training camps. Active NFL players are allowed to try out for Olympic national teams, but training camps typically begin in late July.
The sport will get a premier showcase opportunity in its Olympic debut as all flag football competitions are scheduled for afternoon and evening time slots. The men’s medal games are from from 6-8:30 p.m. on July 21, 2028 with the women’s finals beginning at 1 p.m. on July 22.
An artist’s rendering of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics swimming venue at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
(LA28)
Marquee events swimming, track and field, and artistic gymnastics (July 15-20, July 22-25) will dominate the prime-time windows in the United States as the Summer Games return to American soil for the first time since 1996.
U.S. viewership of the Olympics waned from 2018 to 2022 as three consecutive Games in Asian countries made for complicated time zone changes. Viewers in the Pacific Time Zone were 16 hours behind live coverage from Tokyo in 2021, when the pandemic-delayed Games averaged a record-low Olympic viewership for NBC. But numbers skyrocketed at the Paris Games, where evening sessions in Europe made for lunchtime viewing stateside, building interest just in time for L.A. to take the torch.
“We are energized by today’s milestones,” LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover said in a statement Monday that also celebrated 1 million enrollments with the youth sports program PlayLA, “and remain focused on the work ahead as the Road to 2028 continues.”
A full list of times for specific events are expected to be released later this year.
LA28 announced its eighth sponsorship deal of the year last week, inking Uber and Uber Eats as the official rideshare and on-demand delivery partners, respectively. The private organizing group plans to release information for volunteer opportunities this year, and registration for the ticket lottery should follow in early 2026.
Of course he would take the guaranteed money, more than anyone else in the league besides Brooklyn could give him.
Of course he would stay in Los Angeles, where son Bronny sits on the bench and his home sits on a hill and his myriad businesses are sitting pretty.
Of course, of course, of course … but …
Bronny James (9) leaves the court ahead of father LeBron after a win over Minnesota, during which they became the first father and son to play together in the NBA on Oct. 20, 2024.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Wait a minute. There was a catch.
For the first time since James arrived here seven years ago, there was no second or third or fourth year attached to his contract.
The Lakers didn’t offer him an extension. They refused to guarantee him a spot here after next spring.
For the first time in his Laker career — actually, the first time in his entire 23-year career — James will thus play this season on an expiring contract.
In NBA speak, that means two words.
Trade bait.
Except James has a no-trade clause, and it’s unimaginable he would agree to go to another team that would have to gut their roster to match his salary.
So for the first time, the wiley, elusive, flexible LeBron James is stuck.
He’s stuck on a team clearly catering to the needs of a different superstar in Luka Doncic.
He’s stuck on a team that might be viewing his contract not as an asset but an albatross.
He’s stuck on a team that might be looking to get rid of him but can’t.
He’s stuck on a team where he said he wants to end his career, but where that ending might eventually be out of his control.
He could perhaps free himself by thinking about Nov. 29, 2015.
That is the date that Kobe Bryant, a month into his 20th season, officially announced his retirement.
You remember it, right? What happened next was the most surprisingly delightful farewell season-long tour in the history of sports.
“I thought everybody hated me,” Bryant said at the time. “It’s really cool, man.”
Hate him? America loved him, and showed him that love in every NBA arena across the country, standing ovations from coast to coast as he cruised his way toward that stunning 60-point career finale.
The Lakers were generally terrible, the hobbled Bryant was mostly awful, but the nights were wholly magical, the stone-faced bad guy opening himself up to a national respect and admiration that he never knew existed. It was important that he saw this before he retired. It became infinitely more important that he saw this before he died.
LeBron James flexes for the crowd during a game against the Hornets.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
At the end of the tour I wrote, “… a final act that, in typical Kobe Bryant fashion, was unlike any other in the history of American sports. Opening up to a world he never trusted, becoming accessible and embraceable after years of stony intensity, Bryant used the last five months to flip the narrative on his life and career, erasing the darkness of a villain and crystallizing the glow of a hero.”
Bryant had said before the season that he would never do a farewell tour, that he didn’t want to be lauded like baseball fans lauded the prolonged retirement journey of the New York Yankees’ Derek Jeter.
“We’re completely different people; I couldn’t do that,” he said.
Yet saddled with an expiring contract just like James, Bryant ultimately wanted to do something that James might consider, giving the organization a head start at rebuilding while controlling his own narrative.
Before Bryant’s decision could be leaked, he announced it himself in an open letter to basketball that was so touching it became an Oscar-winning film. He even arranged for a copy of the letter, sealed in an envelope embossed with gold, to be placed on the seat of every fan attending that night’s game at then-Staples Center against the Indiana Pacers.
Not exactly a T-shirt, huh? It was elegant, it was classy, it was perfect, just like the tour, initially criticized in this space as being selfish before your humbled correspondent finally realized that Bryant was right, it was really, really cool.
“It’s fun. I’ve been enjoying it,” Bryant said. “It’s been great to kind of go from city to city and say thank you to all the fans and be able to feel that in return.”
You hear that, LeBron?
This is not a call for James to retire, but a call for James to begin considering how that will happen, and how the classy Lakers would nail it if it happened here.
Lakers star LeBron James battles three-time MVP Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets for rebounding position during a playoff game in Denver.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Granted, the James and Bryant situations are not comparable. Even though James is 40, and Bryant was 37, James is still one of the league’s best players while Bryant was statistically one of its worst. And while James is still physically powerful, Bryant never fully recovered from his torn Achilles and was battered and broken.
James might have more gas in the tank while Bryant was clearly done.
But James himself has indicated that he probably has, at most, two years left. And every season his injuries become more insistent and debilitating.
And now that the Lakers are under new ownership with no ties to James, and now that current management has already given this team to Doncic, James doesn’t have much of a future here.
He has made noise about going back to Cleveland, and maybe after this season he’ll want to return to where his career started.
But if he’s even thinking about retirement after this year — a legitimate option for the first time — he shouldn’t wait to do so while walking off the court following an early-round loss by a mediocre Laker team.
Nobody does retirement tours like the Lakers. And nobody has ever done one like Kobe Bryant.
Decidedly in the twilight of his career, LeBron James can learn from both.
SAN FRANCISCO — The Dodgers finally looked like the Dodgers again on Friday night.
Too bad it didn’t happen until they were already down six runs.
For the first time in a week, the highest-scoring offense in baseball finally rediscovered its high-flying form, handing San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb his worst start all season while sending shivers up the spine of the orange-clad contingent at Oracle Park.
But by the time it happened, the club had already dug a hole too deep for even its star-studded lineup to climb out of, unable to completely erase an early six-run deficit in a 8-7 loss to their division rivals — sending the Dodgers to a seven-game losing streak that marks their longest skid since September 2017.
“I like the fight. I thought one through nine, there were good at-bats in there, scored some runs, had a chance to win again,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And unfortunately, on the pitching side, we just couldn’t prevent enough.”
Friday, of course, never figured to favor the Dodgers given the difference in caliber of the starting pitching matchup.
On one side stood Webb, the crafty and relentless All-Star right-hander who has largely dominated the Dodgers in his seven-year career.
On the other was Dustin May, the once-promising Dodgers right-hander who has yet to realize his tantalizing potential in what has been his first fully healthy big-league season so far.
Still, for a little while on a cold night along the San Francisco Bay, little separated the two sinker-ball specialists, the Dodgers and Giants locked in the kind of close contest that has been the hallmark of this rivalry in recent years.
In the top of the third, Shohei Ohtani even put the Dodgers in front, splashing his NL-leading 32nd home run of the season into McCovey Cove beyond right field for only the eighth splash-down home run by a Dodger player in Oracle Park history.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani tosses his bat after hitting a two-run home run in the third inning against the Giants on Friday.
(David Barreda / Los Angeles Times)
But eventually, May came unglued, giving up seven runs in less than five innings as the Giants surged to an 8-2 lead. And though the Dodgers (56-39) eventually got to within one, tagging Webb with a season-high six runs, they came up empty in their final couple trips to the plate, wasting plenty of positive subplots in another losing story.
“Today we were able to string some hits together, put some innings together,” shortstop Mookie Betts said. “But we just come up short.”
After starting his night with increased fastball velocity and ruthless assault of the strike zone, May lost his command in the fourth inning.
Dodgers pitcher Dustin May delivers against the Giants on Friday.
(David Barreda / Los Angeles Times)
Rafael Devers walked on four pitches to start the inning. Matt Chapman received another free pass despite a mid-at-bat mound visit from catcher Will Smith. And with one out, Jung Hoo Lee laced a two-run triple over the outstretched glove of Teoscar Hernández, who returned to the lineup after missing the last four games with a foot contusion but still seemed hobbled while trying to track the ball down in the right-field gap.
“Just got a little bit out of sync, couldn’t time things back up,” May said of his delivery, which has teetered between flashes of dominance and stretches of frustration during his return from a second career elbow surgery.
“During my warm-up throws in the fourth, it felt a little off. Trying to get my foot down a little earlier didn’t really help. That’s been a cue. But yeah, it just went bad.”
Things got worse in the fifth, when the Giants (52-43) plated five more while sending 10 batters to the plate.
Dominic Smith led the inning off with a homer. May then gave up a single and two walks to load the bases. The Dodgers missed their chance to escape the inning, when Hyeseong Kim failed to turn a difficult but potential inning-ending double play quickly enough at second base.
May was replaced by Anthony Banda, who was greeted with another two-run triple by Willy Adames (who had already homered to open the scoring in the second inning) and a run-scoring infield single from Lee, who outraced Banda to first base to punctuate a painfully long inning.
“To win a big-league ballgame is tough, but you’ve still got to pitch well, you’ve got to catch it and you’ve got to take good at-bats,” Roberts said. “If all three of those things don’t line up in one night, it’s hard to get a win.”
Mookie Betts grimaces in pain after being hit by a pitch in the sixth inning against the Giants on Friday night.
(David Barreda / Los Angeles Times)
It was at that point, coming off a six-game stretch in which they’d scored 10 total runs, that the Dodgers’ bats finally came to life.
In the top of the sixth, Hernández launched a two-run double that Lee couldn’t quite corral on the run at the warning track, before Michael Conforto followed with a two-run homer that chased Webb and cut the deficit to two.
In the seventh, the Dodgers struck again, when Betts slid into third after hitting another ball just beyond Lee’s reach in center and later scored on Smith’s RBI single.
“It’s definitely more encouraging,” said Betts, who has been among the coldest hitters in the Dodgers lineup lately. “I can’t speak for everyone. But I haven’t done anything this whole time … Just to get us going, get some hits there, that’s the positive that you can take out of it.”
That, however, was as close as the Dodgers got. Smith was left stranded to end the seventh. Kim’s two-out double in the eighth was squandered. And, in the most frustrating of endings, a two-on, one-out opportunity in the ninth went by the wayside when Smith rolled into a double play.
The division lead is down to four.
And as the Dodgers continue to stumble toward the All-Star break, moral victories remain the only wins in sight.
“I know it sucks, but you have to try to take some positive out of it,” Betts said. “At least we battled back.”
Over the past 25 years, the world has grown to love one of Nickelodeon’s most recognizable characters, Dora Márquez. Whether for her conspicuous bowl cut and pink tee, or her singing anthropomorphic backpack, Dora the Explorer has sparked joy in children for generations.
But what happens when that adventurous girl loses the items that have guided and defined her for so long?
Self-discovery is the end goal of Dora’s latest quest in the new live-action film, “Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado,” which debuted July 2 on Paramount+. The film marks the start of a new journey for a girl who has long existed in the minds of viewers as the adventurous 7-year-old protagonist of the original 2000 animated series “Dora the Explorer” — and later in the short-lived 2014 sequel, “Dora and Friends: Into the City!”
Along with her animal-loving cousin Diego (Jacob Rodriguez) and friends, Dora (Samantha Lorraine) must rediscover who she is while trekking through the treacherous Amazonian jungle in search of Sol Dorado: an ancient treasure that grants one magical wish to whoever locates it. Yet her plans go awry when she finds herself losing one of her most valuable tools.
Although most adults would not rank Dora in the same company as the gritty lead adventurers of “Indiana Jones” or “Tomb Raider,” the film features death-defying scenes that deserve a second look — thanks to the use of real fire and critter-riddled caves in the middle of the Colombian jungle.
Authenticity was key for director Alberto Belli (“The Naughty Nine”), who proposed to studio executives that Dora explore her Andean heritage, including the use of the indigenous language of Quechua, which is spoken by approximately 10 million people in South America.
“This is the first time that we hear Dora speaking Quechua, and we went through great lengths to make sure that the pronunciation was right,” says Belli, who also consulted with Incan culture experts on the Andean kinship principle of “ayllu,” along with the use of “quipu,” a recordkeeping device of knotted cords — both elements which are included in the storyline.
“We’ve seen figures like ‘Indiana Jones’ exploring other cultures, but Dora is the only mainstream [adventurer] exploring her own culture,” says Belli. “And she’s celebrating and interested in the history more than the treasure.”
(PABLO ARELLANO SPATARO/NICKELODEON/PARAMOUNT+)
Dora’s innate curiosity is part of what cultivated her popularity among young children since Nickelodeon launched the series. Who can forget the pip-squeak who broke the fourth wall to reel in preschool audiences with problem-solving questions? Even if its repetitive verbiage drove parents a little mad? (You try saying “Swiper, no swiping!” three times fast!)
But for creators Chris Gifford and Valerie Walsh Valdes, the idea of Dora, as the world has come to love, was not so straightforward. Their early brainstorm sessions, along with Eric Weiner, first sprung up concepts of a little boy bunny who would follow a map toward a final destination — tagging along with him was a red-haired girl named Nina and a pocket-sized mouse named Boots.
Nickelodeon’s executive producer Brown Johnson— creator of the network’s preschool block, Nick Jr. — pitched the idea of the main character being Latina after attending an industry conference that underscored the dearth representation of Latinos in the media. According to the 2000 U.S. census, Latino communities were the nation’s fastest growing ethnic group at the time — and 20% of the kindergarten population across eight states, including California, identified as Latino.
The call for Latino characters was so resounding at the time that it caused some advocacy organizations to launch a weeklong boycott in 1999 to protest the dearth of Latino representation — Latinos made up fewer than 2% of TV characters at that time, despite making up 11% of the population in 1999. “ So we said, okay, how do we do it?” says Gifford.
“One thing that we picked up on very early was using the language in a way to solve problems, almost as a superpower,” says Gifford. “I think that was a huge part of the success of Dora.”
Gifford calls Dora’s use of Spanish a “game changer,” and that certainly seems to be the case — in the show, magical passageways remain locked unless the viewer utters the occasional Spanish phrase or word. At the end of every successful mission, Dora belts out her victorious tune: “We did it, lo hicimos!”
Released on August 14, 2000, the first episode of “Dora the Explorer” moved forward in spite of an English-only movement bubbling up in California politics a few years prior; Proposition 227 passed in 1998 by a large margin, effectively curtailing bilingual education in the state.
(PABLO ARELLANO SPATARO/NICKELODEON/PARAMOUNT+)
“It was not the time that [someone] would think to [make Dora a bilingual character], but of course it was exactly the right time for it to happen,” says Gifford.
The release of “Dora the Explorer” could not be more timely. While political angst pushed against the use of Spanish in the classroom, the country was simultaneously experiencing a “Latin Boom,” a pop culture movement propelled by Hispanic musical acts like Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias, who broke ground in the U.S. mainstream with bilingual hit singles like the famed “Livin’ la Vida Loca” and “Bailamos,” respectively. At the same time, actors like Rosie Perez, Salma Hayek and Jennifer Lopez were also making great strides for Latinas in film.
“There was this awareness [that] the Latino talent we have in this country [was] all coming to the forefront,” said Walsh Valdes. “The zeitgeist was there for us.”
But Dora’s appeal did not entirely hinge on her being a Latina character. In fact, she was designed to be ethnically ambiguous for that reason, suggested Carlos Cortés, professor emeritus in history at UC Riverside, who consulted the creative team. “Let’s let everybody be a part of this,” says Walsh Valdes on the choice to write Dora as pan-Latina.
Instead, the focus of the show remained on the missions; whether it was returning a lost baby penguin to the South Pole, or leading aliens back to their purple planet. In its first year, “Dora the Explorer” averaged 1.1 million viewers ages 2 to 5 and 2 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Co. The original show stretched on for almost two decades before closing out on Aug. 9, 2019.
“We saw such excitement from [little kids feeling] empowered by this girl who can go to a place like the city of lost toys… and little kids who can’t tie their own shoes can feel like they’re helping her,” says Gifford.
The Dora world has also expanded into a tween-coded sequel, “Dora and Friends: Into the City!” and the spin-off “Go, Diego, Go!” — the environmental protection and animal rescue show starring Dora’s cousin Diego. Last year, Dora got a reboot on Nickelodeon’s parent company Paramount+, which was a full circle move for Kathleen Herles, who voiced Dora in the original series.
Now, Herles takes on the motherly role of “Mami” in the 2024 animated series, now available to stream on Paramount+. “Talk about going on another adventure,” says Herles in a video call.
Herles still remembers panicking after her audition back in 1998. Gifford, who was in the room, asked to speak to Herles’ mother, a Peruvian immigrant with slim knowledge of the entertainment biz at the time. “Being Latina, at first I [was] like, ‘Oh my God. She’s going to think I got in trouble,’” says Herles.
The opportunity not only changed the course of Herles’ life financially, but it also opened the door for her to travel the world and reenter the realm of entertainment after a brief career in interior design. Coincidentally, at the time of our call, the 34-year-old voice actor was house hunting in Los Angeles, preparing to move from her native New York City so that she can pursue more career opportunities.
“To me that’s really a testament to [the power of] Dora… because Dora’s an explorer, and she gave me the opportunity to explore,” says Herles.
For 18-year old actress Lorraine, who stars as Dora in “Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado,” this marks her first lead role in any film. She fills big shoes; Isabela Merced, who now stars in HBO’s “The Last of Us,” was cast in the first live-action, standalone 2019 film for the franchise, “Dora and the Lost City of Gold.”
“When it comes to Latino representation, [Dora] was a trailblazer for that,” says Lorraine. “Being able to see a Latina woman in charge and taking the lead? We need more of that to this day.”
The Miami-born actor of Cuban descent, who previously starred in the 2023 Netflix movie “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah,” answers the audio call after having just arrived in New York City, where she entertains the possibility of a Broadway career.
Like many young adults her age, Lorraine grew up enchanted by Dora’s adventures — so much that she admittedly got the same bob haircut. “She’s my role model,” says Lorraine. “Every time we would shoot a scene, I would think to myself, ‘What would little Samantha want to watch?’”
Throughout every Dora series and film, courage is the connective tissue in her story. “Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado” reminds audiences that the true navigational force behind the pint-size girl was always within her.
And with a full rollout of fresh Dora content — including the new third season of the rebooted 2024 series “Dora,” and an hour-long special called “Dora & Diego: Rainforest Rescues” — even 25 years after the Latina explorer first appeared on screen, it’s clear that her legacy is enduring.
“She will always be that girl,” says Lorraine. “[She’s] that girl who yearns for adventure and has that curiosity spark in her, and that thirst for knowledge.”
But that hasn’t stopped his name — Dennis Rodman — from coming up during coverage of the prestigious tennis tournament, which she has been attending in support of her boyfriend, Ben Shelton.
On Monday, after Shelton defeated Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (1), 7-5 to advance to the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time, Rodman took to her Instagram Story to express her frustration about the matter.
“For Ben’s matches he has his family there as his support system, which includes his dad,” wrote Rodman, who is often shown on the broadcast sitting in the stands with Shelton’s parents and his sister, Emma. “my dads not even in MY life no need to bring him up during HIS matches when I don’t even want him talked about during mine. It’s him and his loved ones’ moment. Thank you.”
Named the NWSL rookie of the year in 2021, Rodman helped the Washington Spirit win its first league championship the same season. She also has made a name for herself with the U.S. women’s national team, scoring three goals during the squad’s run to Olympic gold last year in Paris.
Rodman has made no secret of the fact that her father — a five-time NBA champion and basketball Hall of Famer — has not been a constant presence in her life. She spoke before the Olympics about his pattern of showing up occasionally — as he did for a 2021 NWSL playoff game — and then disappearing once again from her everyday life.
“Like I’ve said before, I’ve gotten closure with it all,” Rodman said at the time. “I know he’s proud of me. I truly do. He has his own things to deal with, but at the end of the day, he’s communicated to me that he knows I was going to be here, and that’s all I need.”
In December, Rodman spoke more about her complicated relationship with her father and the “anger” she often feels toward him.
“He’s not a dad,” Rodman said. “Maybe by blood but nothing else.”
Certain elements of Jules Verne’s 1870 novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” have become a TV series, “Nautilus,” premiering Sunday on AMC, which picked up the show after Disney+, which ordered and completed it, let it drop. Created by James Dormer, it’s not an adaptation but a prequel, or an origin story, as the comic book kids like to say, in which Nemo, not yet captain, sets sail in his submarine for the first time.
Verne’s imaginative fiction has inspired more and less faithful screen adaptations since the days of silent movies. (Georges Méliès 1902 “A Trip to the Moon,” based partially on Verne’s 1865 “From the Earth to the Moon,” is accounted the first science-fiction film.) For a few midcentury years, perhaps inspired by the success of Disney’s own “20,000 Leagues” — a film they continue to exploit in its theme parks — and Mike Todd’s “Around the World in 80 Days,” it was almost a cottage industry: “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “In Search of the Castaways,” “Five Weeks in a Balloon.” I grew up watching these films rerun on TV; they are corny and fun, as is “Nautilus,” with fancier effects, anticorporate sentiments and people of color.
We have seen Nemo played by James Mason, Michael Caine, Patrick Stewart, Ben Cross and Robert Ryan, but in “The Mysterious Island,” Verne’s sort-of sequel to “Twenty Thousand Leagues,” he identified Nemo as an Indian prince, as he is shown here, played by Shazad Latif, deposed by an imperial power, his wife and child murdered. The character is usually a bit of a madman, and this Nemo — pigheaded, bossy — is not wholly an exception, though he is also a young, smoldering, swashbuckling hero and a man more sinned against than sinning. We meet him as a prisoner of the British East India Mercantile Company, “the most powerful corporation to ever exist, more powerful than any country,” which is building the Nautilus in India with slave labor, in pursuit, says villainous company director Crawley (Damien Garvey), of “prying open and exploiting the Chinese market.” I’m not sure how a submarine is supposed to do that, but, eh, it’s a reason.
Nemo has been collaborating with the submarine’s inventor, Gustave Benoit (Thierry Frémont), who had accepted the corporation’s money under the promise that it would be used for exploration — scientists can be so dense. Nemo, whom the professor credits as the mind behind the ship’s engine, has his own use for the Nautilus and executes a hasty escape with a half-random crew of fellow inmates in a deftly staged sequence that borrows heavily from “Indiana Jones,” an inspirational well to which the series returns throughout.
And we’re off. On the agenda: escaping, revenge and finding buried treasure to finance revenge.
Joining the Nautilus crew are Loti (Céline Menville) and Humility (Georgia Flood).
(Vince Valitutti / Disney+)
When the Nautilus, hardly on its way, cripples the ship they’re traveling on — under the impression that the sub is under attack — the crew is joined, unwillingly, by Humility Lucas (Georgia Flood), a science-minded British socialite with super engineering skills, who is being packed off to Bombay to marry the abominable Lord Pitt (Cameron Cuffe). She’s accompanied by a chaperone/warder, Loti (Céline Menville), a Frenchwoman who has a mean way with a dagger, and cabin boy Blaster (Kayden Price). And a little dog too. Sparks obviously will fly between Nemo and Humility — bad sparks, then good sparks, as in an Astaire and Rogers movie — and there are actual sparks from a bad electrical connection Humility works out how to fix.
Apart from Benoit, Humility and Loti, a big fellow named Jiacomo (Andrew Shaw), who hails from nobody knows where and speaks a language no one understands, and a British stowaway, the crew of the Nautilus are all people of color — South Asian, Asian, Middle Eastern, African or Pacific Islander. Few are really developed as characters, but the actors give them life, and the supporting players carry the comedy, of which there’s a good deal. One episode inverts the tired old scenario in which white explorers are threatened with death by dark-skinned natives; here, the captors are Nordic warrior women. The show is anticolonial and anti-imperialist in a way that “Star Wars” taught audiences to recognize, if not necessarily recognize in the world around them, and anticapitalist in a way that movies have most always been. (The final episode, which has a financial theme, is titled “Too Big to Fail.” It is quite absurd.)
It can be slow at times, which is not inappropriate to a show that takes place largely underwater. But that its structure is essentially episodic keeps “Nautilus” colorful and more interesting than if it were simply stretched on the rack of a long arc across its 10 episodes. It’s a lot like (pre-streaming) “Star Trek,” which is, after all, a naval metaphor, its crew sailing through a hostile environment encountering a variety of monsters and cultures week to week; indeed, there are some similar storylines: the crew infected by a mystery spore, the ship threatened by tiny beasties and giant monsters, encounters with a tinpot dictator and semimythological figures — all the while being pursued by a Klingon Bird of Prey, sorry, a giant metal warship.
The greatest hits of underwater adventuring (some from Verne’s novel) are covered: volcanoes, giant squid, giant eel, engine trouble, running out of air and the ruins of a lost civilization (Is it Atlantis? Benoit hopes so). Less common: a cricket match on the ice. Apart from a pod of whales outside the window (and, later, a whale rescue), not a lot of time is devoted to the wonders of the sea — the special effects budget, which has in other respects been spent lavishly, apparently had no room left for schools of fish. But these submariners have other things on their minds.
The odds of a second season, says my cloudy crystal ball, are limited, so you may have to accommodate a few minor cliffhangers if you decide to watch. I did not at all regret the time I spent here, even though I sometimes had no idea what was going on or found it ridiculous when I did, as there was usually some stimulating activity or bit of scenery or detail of steampunk design to enjoy. I mean, I watched an episode of “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” recently, a 1960s submarine series, in which guest star John Cassavetes created a superbomb that could destroy three-quarters of the world, and almost nothing in it made any sense at all, including the presence of John Cassavetes. “Nautilus” is actually good.
COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — Djordje Mihailovic and Calvin Harris scored four-minutes apart in the first half and the Colorado Rapids beat the Galaxy2-0 on Wednesday night in a game delayed two hours due to weather.
Colorado (7-8-4) snapped a three-game losing streak.
The Galaxy (1-13-5) lost to the Rapids for the first time since May 6, 2023.
Mihailovic headed in Sam Vines’ cross for his eighth goal of the season to end Colorado’s a 261-minute goal drought. Harris, in his first start of the season, scored his second goal in 12 appearances.
Harris nearly made it 3-0 in the 55th on a shot that hit off the post.
Rookie Nico Hansen, standing in for the injured Zack Steffen since May 17, recorded his third clean sheet in just seven starts.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Randolph Bracy and LaVon Bracy Davis are taking sibling rivalry to a new level as the brother and sister run against each other in a race for a Florida state Senate seat on Tuesday.
Not only that, one of their opponents for the Democratic nomination in the district representing parts of metro Orlando is Alan Grayson, a combative former Democratic U.S. congressman who drew national attention in 2009 when he said in a House floor speech that the Republican health care plan was to “die quickly.”
The headline-grabbing candidates are running in the special primary election for the seat that had been held by Geraldine Thompson, a trailblazing veteran lawmaker who died earlier this year following complications from knee-replacement surgery. A fourth candidate also is running in the Democratic primary — personal injury attorney Coretta Anthony-Smith.
The winner will face Republican Willie Montague in September for the general election in the Democratic-dominant district. Black voters make up more than half registered Democrats in the district.
Florida Sen. Randolph Bracy, rear, makes a point during a Senate Committee on Reapportionment hearing in a legislative session, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, in Tallahassee, Fla.
(Phelan M. Ebenhack / Associated Press)
Both siblings have experience in the state legislature. Bracy Davis was a state representative, and Bracy was a former state senator. Adding to the family dynamics was the fact that the siblings’ mother, civil rights activist Lavon Wright Bracy, was the maid of honor at Thompson’s wedding and was one of her oldest friends. She has endorsed her daughter over her son.
The siblings’ family has been active in Orlando’s civic life for decades. Their father, Randolph Bracy Jr., was a local NAACP president, a founder of a Baptist church in Orlando and director of the religion department at Bethune-Cookman University.
It wasn’t the first time the family has been caught up in competing endorsements. When Bracy and Thompson ran against each other for the Democratic primary in a state senate race last year, Bracy Davis endorsed Thompson over her brother. Campaign fliers sent out recently by a Republican political operative start with “Bracy Yourself!”
Bracy, 48, who one time played professional basketball in Turkey, told the Orlando Sentinel that it was “disappointing and hurtful” for his sister to run after he had announced his bid. But Bracy Davis, 45, an attorney by training, said she was running for the people in state senate District 15, not against any of the other candidates. She said that she intended to continue Thompson’s legacy of pushing for voters’ rights and increasing pay for public schoolteachers. Thompson’s family has endorsed Bracy Davis.
Grayson was elected to Congress in 2008 and voted out in 2010. Voters sent him back to Congress in 2012, but he gave up his seat for an unsuccessful 2016 Senate run.
Facing unrestricted free agency for the first time in his illustrious career, Khalil Mack could have chosen any team to chase his championship ambitions. Why did the star edge rusher choose to stick with a franchise that has never won the Super Bowl?
“Why not here?” the Chargers edge rusher wondered back.
Praising the leadership under coach Jim Harbaugh and general manager Joe Hortiz, the players on the roster and his familiarity with the franchise, Mack’s decision to return to the Chargers wasn’t that complicated at all.
“It was a no-brainer,” he said this week during Chargers minicamp in his first comments with local reporters since January.
In his last public comments, Mack was swirling in the disappointment of the Chargers’ wild-card loss to the Houston Texans. The 34-year-old flirted with retirement. For a former two-star recruit who went to Buffalo, Mack has little else to prove at the professional level. Nine Pro Bowl selections. Three All-Pro honors. The 2016 Associated Press defensive player of the year.
But still no playoff wins.
“You’re chasing that feeling of wanting to win important games deep in the season,” said Mack, who has gone one-and-done in the postseason five times. “Being that I haven’t reached that point yet, I couldn’t give up on that dream and that goal for myself and for this franchise.”
Mired in their own postseason drought, the Chargers have not won a playoff game since the 2018 season. Their last two attempts flamed out spectacularly. The 27-point blown lead in Jan. 2023 was the largest in franchise history. Last year, quarterback Justin Herbert threw a career-high four interceptions against Houston.
Despite the jarring end, the Chargers’ surprising 11-6 regular-season record in the first year under Harbaugh positions the franchise well for the long-awaited breakthrough. Wanting to continue the momentum was a key hope for the offseason.
“l was begging and pleading with him to come back,” safety Derwin James Jr. said. “I just knew for him to come back like that, he really loves us and he really wants a shot at it again.”
Mack, who signed a reported one-year, $18 million deal, had six sacks and 39 tackles last season, a stark drop from his resurgent 2023 that featured a career-high 17 sacks and 75 tackles. Nursing a complicated groin injury, he missed a game for the first time in his Chargers tenure.
But entering his 12th season, Mack insists getting in top physical shape is the easy part. On Thursday, Harbaugh was shocked when reminded that Mack was 34 years old. Mack was working with Chargers executive director of player performance Ben Herbert for weeks before the team started their offseason regimen, defensive coordinator Jesse Minter said.
The workouts suddenly got so popular that one random weekday, Minter was stunned to see so many players that they could have held a defensive walk-through. Echoing Harbaugh, Minter called it the “Herb Effect.” It has Mack under its spell.
“Herb is a big deal,” Mack said. “He was a big part of that decision coming back here as well. Just knowing the mindset that he has and how he thinks about the body. It’s just the same approach and the same mindset that I have when I train by myself or with anybody else. I want to be a machine. I want to be as solid as possible, as strong as possible. Move people easy. And this program is all of that.”
For the first time in his Chargers tenure, Mack is without running mate Joey Bosa, who was cut in a salary-saving move. After three injury-riddled seasons punctuated his nine-year Chargers career, Bosa signed with the Buffalo Bills.
It’s weird without his former teammate, Mack said. He recently texted Bosa about how different the edge rusher room felt without Bosa breaking the silence with awkward jokes. They will at least reunite at Bosa’s wedding next year.
Bosa’s departure opens the door for third-year edge rusher Tuli Tuipulotu to step into a starring role. The USC alumnus started 20 games in the last two seasons as Bosa struggled with injuries and had a career-best 8 1/2 sacks last season.
“Tuli is a special player, man,” Mack said. “I’ve been saying that ever since he stepped foot into the building, what, three years ago now. … It’s not going to be no surprise to me when he’s a 10, 12 sack guy this year.”
The Chargers drafted SEC defensive player of the year Kyle Kennard in the fourth round to bolster the edge room that also includes 32-year-old Bud Dupree.
Mack’s return was one of the first offseason moves the Chargers announced, and while he could have waited longer to entertain options from other teams as an unrestricted free agent, he chose not to linger on the market. Balancing financial decisions with his career and family, Mack kept a single focus.
“It’s just not wanting to give up on that goal and that ambition that I had ever since I had stepped in the league,” Mack said. “I knew I wanted to play in important games and win a Super Bowl at least.”
Rashawn Slater not focused on contract extension talks
After missing organized team activities while waiting for a contract extension, star left tackle Rashawn Slater returned to mandatory minicamp this week with no concerns about the status of his deal approaching the season.
“Realistically speaking, I’ve known for a long time it’s how these things go,” Slater said Thursday on the final day of minicamp of getting an extension done before the season. “It’s not something that’s bothered me. It’s just the business of football, so I have full confidence.”
In 2025, Slater would play on a fifth-year option due to pay him about $19 million. The left tackle coming off his second Pro Bowl selection was rated the second-best tackle last year, according to Pro Football Focus.
Many teammates were at the Chargers practice facility during organized team activities, but Slater continued his routine in Texas, where he works with Duke Manyweather, the top private offensive line coach among the NFL’s best. Despite not working with the Chargers strength staff, Slater was more than prepared upon his return. The offensive lineman passed the conditioning test, and Harbaugh said Slater reported it was “too easy.”
But Slater wanted to correct the record.
“I didn’t say ‘too easy,’” he said Thursday. “I just said it was ‘easy.’ I’m not trying to rub it in anybody’s face.”
WAILUKU, Hawaii — A Rams–Jalen Ramsey reunion might not be in the offing.
Coach Sean McVay on Tuesday reiterated his respect for the star cornerback who helped the Rams win Super Bowl LVI, but for the first time he indicated that there might be too many “obstacles” to making a trade with the Miami Dolphins for the three-time All-Pro.
Ramsey is due to earn $24.3 million this season, and his salary-cap number will increase substantially over the next few seasons, according to Overthecap.com.
“Usually, those are scenarios and situations that you have to have plans in place prior to executing some of the decisions that have occurred,” McVay said, perhaps referencing the contract adjustment quarterback Matthew Stafford received and the signing of free-agent receiver Davante Adams. “Definitely don’t want to rule anything out… but there would be some obstacles that are real that are in the place of maybe preventing that from occurring.”
The Rams are set to open the season with a cornerback group that includes returning starters Darious Williams and Ahkello Witherspoon, with Cobie Durant, Emmanuel Forbes Jr., Josh Wallace and Derion Kendrick also competing for playing time.
The Rams recently waived Kendrick, who was due to earn $3.4 million in the final year of his rookie contract, but re-signed him Tuesday, probably for a one-year veteran minimum contract.
Kendrick is in Maui for the Rams minicamp, which featured a 30-minute jog through Tuesday.
“It was really just kind of a financial business deal,” McVay said, adding that he, general manager Les Snead and defensive backs coach Aubrey Pleasant had communicated with Kendrick their desire to keep him in the fold before he was waived.
McVay did indicate that talks with running back Kyren Williams’ agent regarding a possible extension were progressing.
“We’re getting closer to hopefully finding a conclusion to this,” McVay said. “Now, until that’s actually agreed upon from both sides, we’re really in the same boat. … So, we’re trying to be able to solve that, and if we’re able to land that we’ll be excited about that.”
Neither left tackle Alaric Jackson nor newly signed tackle D.J. Humphries are with the team in Maui.
The Rams signed Humphries last week because Jackson is dealing with blood-clot issues for the second time in his pro career. In March, Jackson signed a three-year contract that includes $35 million in guarantees.
“He was able to communicate that he was feeling some things in his lower leg, and he ends up going and getting a scan and it revealed that was the case,” McVay said. “You pray for him to be able to have a healthy, safe recovery, and we’re really just taking it a day at a time with him.
“What we did want to be able to do in the meantime was be proactive about a contingency plan. … D.J.’s a guy that we’ve got a lot of respect for. Obviously, familiarity with him just playing against him and he’s a veteran. Felt like that was definitely the right move for our team in the meantime.”
Etc.
The Rams conclude their minicamp Wednesday with a public workout at War Memorial Stadium … Rams veterans on Tuesday helped coach in a flag football camp for high school students. Rookies worked with Habitat for Humanity to rebuild homes in Lahaina that were lost to wildfires in 2023.
All eyes are on Shohei Ohtani, as he made his long-awaited return to the pitching mound and delivered his first pitches as a member of the Dodgers on Monday night in a 6-3 win over the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium. Ohtani last pitched on Aug. 23, 2023, while with the Angels. He underwent his second Tommy John surgery the following month.
Ohtani is 38-19 with 3.01 earned-run average over 86 starts in his MLB career entering Monday’s game and finished fourth in the AL Cy Young Award voting in 2022, when he went 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA. He is expected to help bolster a depleted Dodgers starting rotation that has been missing Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, among others, for extended stretches this season.
Shohei Ohtani pitches for the Dodgers against the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium on Monday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Shohei Ohtani delivers against the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium on Monday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Shohei Ohtani pitches against the San Diego Padres on Monday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani in Phoenix in February.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani throws during spring training in Phoenix in February.
(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani enters the field at the Tokyo Dome for a workout ahead of the Tokyo Series against the Chicago Cubs in March.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani warms up during a baseball spring training workout in Phoenix.
(Matt York / Associated Press)
Fans head up some stairs wearing Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto jerseys before the game between the Dodgers and the Detroit Tigers at Dodger Stadium on March 27.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani runs onto the field during introductions during the Dodgers’ home opener in March.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani throws a live batting practice before a game against the New York Mets on May 25.
(Adam Hunger/AP)
The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani throws in the outfield before a game against the New York Mets at Dodger Stadium on June 4.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Dodgers coaches keep a watchful eye as Shohei Ohtani throws in the bullpen before the game against the New York Mets at Dodger Stadium on June 4.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Dodgers fans watch as Shohei Ohtani throws in the outfield before the game against the New York Mets at Dodger Stadium on June 4.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani plays catch before the Dodgers take on the New York Mets at Dodger Stadium on June 2.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
Shohei Ohtani walks past a throng of journalists before the Dodgers play an exhibition game against the Yomiuri Giants at the Tokyo Dome in March.
INDIANAPOLIS — Game on the line, season quite possibly on the line, the Oklahoma City Thunder had only one place to turn.
They went to the MVP.
And Shai Gilgeous-Alexander delivered, scoring 15 of his 35 points in the final 4:38, capping Oklahoma City’s rally from a 10-point, second-half deficit and sealing a 111-104 win over the Indiana Pacers 111-104 on Friday night to tie the NBA Finals at two games apiece.
“He definitely showed who he is tonight,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said.
It was all SGA for OKC down the stretch. The Thunder closed the game on a 16-7 run; he had all but one of those points.
“We played with desperation to end the game,” Gilgeous-Alexander said, “and that’s why we won.”
Jalen Williams added 27, Alex Caruso had 20 and Chet Holmgren finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds for the Thunder. They did it the hard way — with a season-low three three-pointers, and no assists from Gilgeous-Alexander for the first time all season.
Pascal Siakam scored 20 for Indiana, which got 18 from Tyrese Haliburton and 17 from Obi Toppin.
Game 5 of the series — now essentially a best-of-three — is at Oklahoma City on Monday night.
“This kind of a challenge is going to have extreme highs and extreme lows,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “This is a low right now and we’re going to have to bounce back from it.”
The Thunder basically saved their realistic chance at winning the title. Teams with a 3-1 series lead in the NBA Finals have gone on to win the championship 37 times in 38 past chances. The Pacers looked well on their way to being the 39th team with such an edge, before Gilgeous-Alexander saved the day.
“We knew it when we woke up this morning; 3-1 is a lot different than 2-2 going back home,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
The Pacers came out flying, scoring 20 points in the first 4:59 — only the second time all season the Thunder gave up so many so quickly. They led by as many as nine early, but were unable to pull away.
And things got chippy for the first time in the series: Toppin was called for a Flagrant 1 on Caruso midway through the second quarter, then Toppin was the recipient of a Flagrant 1 from Lu Dort just before the half. The Pacers closed on a 15-6 run, taking a 60-57 lead into the break.
Toppin’s baseline dunk late in the third put Indiana up 86-76, its first double-digit lead of the series coming late in the 15th quarter of the series. Back came OKC: A 13-3 run tied the game early in the fourth at 89, the first of a handful of those down the stretch.
Tied at 91. Tied at 95. Tied at 97. And, finally, the lead: Gilgeous-Alexander’s step-back with 2:23 left put the Thunder up 104-103, their first lead of the second half.
They kept it the rest of the way.
“We wanted to win,” Siakam said. “I thought we played well enough for some stretches … but unfortunately, it didn’t happen.”
It’s 7 p.m. on a Thursday at the driving range at the Westside’s Rancho Park Golf Course.
At one end of the raised platform, the stalls are mostly occupied by polo shirt-wearing men quietly practicing their swings. But at the other end, a crowd gathers. People of all backgrounds are vibing to hip-hop and Afrobeats playing over two portable speakers and socializing over beer and snacks from the food stand. They’re dressed in streetwear and stylish sports apparel — Jordan 1s, fitted caps, tennis skirts and baggy pants. One woman is wearing tall platform boots and a patterned skirt and hugging friends. When someone steps up to take a swing, others watch and offer support and pointers.
“Remember to breathe,” someone says.
“Relax your grip,” advises another.
Aspiring golf pro Rob Perea, right, teaches beginning golfers during a Swang golf event.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Not your typical golf meetup, this is Swang, an L.A. golf collective that hosts a regular gathering called “Free Range,” where attendees can receive casual guidance from longtime golfers — and just hang out. With the welcoming motto “pull up, tap in,” founder Modi Oyewole created Swang to provide a space for the golf-curious and those who’ve been searching for like-minded folks to play with in the historically white- and male-dominated sport. He says that for generations, entering the world of golf has been both financially and culturally difficult.
“When I ask people how they found out about us, a lot of the stories are the same,” says Oyewole, 38. “People never felt like this was a thing they could do. But with this, we are quite literally saying, f— all that. We can do this too. You can wear what you want. You can be you and still come play.”
Swang golf collective founder Modi Oyewole, left, with Juliet Udeochu.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
A small camera crew follows Oyewole, who is wearing a Toro y Moi T-shirt, cargos and Adidas sneakers, capturing content for Swang’s social media accounts. He takes a powerful swing, sending the ball flying onto the field. You’d think that he’s been playing for years, but golf is a new passion for the multifaceted creative who’s worked at various record labels and for brands like Nike and Redbull.
Oyewole’s father introduced him to the sport about 20 years ago during the height of Tiger Woods’ career. “I think seeing a Black person in this sport that’s predominantly white and him dominating it definitely got my dad like, ‘Alright, we can do this now. We have representation,’” Oyewole recalls. His dad began taking him and his younger brother to a public driving range in their District of Columbia neighborhood until it shut down.
Oyewole didn’t think about golf again until several years later, when one of his friends invited him to the Hypegolf Invitational hosted by Hypebeast in Santa Clarita — an invitation he accepted begrudgingly, he says. But what he saw surprised him.
“This was my first time experiencing golf in it’s entirety, ever. I’d never been to a golf course, let alone a very fancy country club, and I’d also never seen golf presented in this way,” he recalls.
One of the first people he saw at Hypegolf was rapper Macklemore, who was rocking a clothing collaboration between his golf line Bogey Boys and Adidas. Every hole on the course was sponsored by a different brand. DJs were spinning upbeat music, and all of the attendees were, in Oyewole’s words, “swaggy.”
Blaise Butler of Los Angeles sets up a golf ball on the tee, left, while attendees pose for photos. Swang’s Instagram bio reads that it’s a community for those “who were never invited — but always belonged.”
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
He was also amazed to run into several people within his orbit who he didn’t know played golf. “It was just one of those moments where I was like, ‘Wait, I feel like they figured out a way to make this digestible to a person like me,’” says Oyewole. “It was eye-opening because it taught me that the game was cool, and it wasn’t the game that I was upset at. It was the context surrounding the game.”
A few weeks later, Oyewole quit his job as the vice president of creative, experiential and content development at Def Jam Recording. With his newfound free time, he started playing golf at the Maggie Hathaway Golf Course in South Central — named after a longtime civil rights activist who helped break the color barrier on L.A.’s public golf courses — with a friend who gifted him hand-me-down clubs. Before long, he was hooked.
He hosted the first Swang event in August 2023 at the Rancho Park driving range. Oyewole and two of his friends brought a speaker to play music, along with golf clubs and balls for attendees to practice with. About 25 people showed up, including a few golf influencers like Jacques Slade and Loulou Gonzalez — some of whom had never played golf before and others who’ve been playing their whole lives.
“Just seeing that was magical, but I think what was more magical than that was hearing these longtime golfers say, “Man, I’ve been golfing forever and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Oyewole says. “You’re not going to see this makeup of people in this size at the driving range. It doesn’t happen. Golf doesn’t look like this.”
Swang arrives in L.A. at a time when golf is booming in popularity post-pandemic, particularly among women and young people. Although golf has long been perceived as a sport that “older” people play, the National Golf Foundation revealed that in 2024, the largest group of on-course golfers — nearly 6.3 million players — were between the ages of 18 to 34. Since 2019, there’s been a 41% increase of female golfers, the NGF reports, and every year since 2020, roughly 3.3 million people have hit the course for the first time. The surge can be credited to content creators and YouTubers amplifying the sport online, trendy apparel brands, shows like “Full Swing” on Netflix, nightlife-adjacent establishments like TopGolf and collectives like Swang who are introducing the sport to a new demographic.
A crowd fills the top level of the driving range.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Swang attracts roughly 75 to 100 regular attendees at each Free Range session. Among them are creatives, musicians, entrepreneurs, tech professionals, actors, marketers and more.
Although some people bring their own golf gear to the meetups, none is required. It’s also “a safe place to suck,” Oyewole says.
Prior to discovering Swang, Adil Kadir’s only experience with the sport was going to TopGolf, but it was something he wanted to get better at. As someone who worked in the tech industry, he viewed golfing as a “language” or entry point that could improve his “ability to integrate into the world of business.”
But through Swang, he discovered that golfing was also fun. “Nothing can really stimulate the amount of dopamine you get from actually hitting the ball the right way,” he says.
Beginning golfers get individual instruction.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Stacey Esteban was nervous about attending Free Range for the first time because of negative experiences she had at other golf ranges in L.A.
“I’ll hear side comments from other people who don’t look like me, and they’re trying to give me lessons that I never asked for, and it doesn’t feel safe for me. But here, I was like, ‘It’s safe,’ ” says Esteban, who started playing golf during the pandemic. “These are people I’d want to talk to and hang out with.”
Josh Hubberman, 43, has been playing golf on and off since he was a child, but he didn’t get back into the sport until he went to a Swang meetup last year. “Driving ranges are often quiet [with] two people in a bay, and you’re kind of just politely waiting for a bay to open,” says Hubbeman, who is the co-founder of the creative venture studio Cthdrl. “Then when you show up at Swang, we have music playing. We take over 10-plus bays, and it’s a big social event as well, so there’s an energy that immediately, you get on site and it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s got to be Swang!’ ” About a year later, Hubberman reached out to Oyewole about teaming up with Cthdrl and working together to turn Swang into a viable business.
Swang is already making an impact on the golf industry in L.A. and beyond. In August, the collective programmed the music at an exclusive TopGolf event featuring rapper Larry June. Earlier this year, Swang partnered with the Rolling Loud music festival to co-produce a golf invitational and release a capsule collection. Swang also hosted a tournament in L.A. called Spicoli’s Scramble — in honor of Oyewole’s late best friend — and raised $20,000 for the Grammy Museum and Recording Academy’s Quinn Coleman scholarship.
The larger vision for Swang, Oyewole says, is to continue hosting the Free Range sessions and eventually add a membership component that would allow members to access exclusive events and experiences such as group trips to golf tournaments around the globe. The collective recently started creating short- and long-form social media content, and they will debut their first Swang apparel piece at Paris Fashion Week later this month.
Back at the driving range, chill R&B music is playing, and a handful of attendees are taking their final swings for the night before the overhead lights at the range shut off.
Reni Somoye, 32, was about to leave, but she decides to stay after another attendee encourages her to hit the ball one last time. She’s been watching other people throughout the night and realized that she needed to swing more powerfully. When it’s her turn, she walks toward the edge of the stall, pauss, swings and then strikes the ball so hard it flies out onto the field. The group that was mingling nearby begins to cheer.
She turns around, smiling from ear to ear, and daps up the coach.
OKLAHOMA CITY — This has been Oklahoma City’s formula all season: Lose one game, respond in the next.
That’s exactly what the Thunder did in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points, Alex Caruso added 20 off the bench and the Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers 123-107 on Sunday night to tie these finals at one game apiece.
Jalen Williams scored 19, Aaron Wiggins had 18 and Chet Holmgren finished with 15 for the Thunder. It was the franchise’s first finals game win since the opener of the 2012 series against Miami.
“We did some things good tonight. We did some things bad,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We’ve got to be able to get better and be ready for Game 3.”
Tyrese Haliburton scored 17 for Indiana, which erased a 15-point, fourth-quarter deficit in Game 1 but never made a push on Sunday. Myles Turner scored 16 and Pascal Siakam added 15 for the Pacers, the first team since Miami in 2013 to not have a 20-point scorer in the first two games of the finals.
Game 3 is Wednesday at Indianapolis, in what will be the first finals game in that city in 25 years.
“A bad first half, obviously, was a big problem,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “And we just played poorly. A little better in the second half. But you can’t be a team that’s reactive and expect to be successful or have consistency.”
Gilgeous-Alexander’s first basket of the night was a history-maker: It gave him 3,000 points on the season, including the regular season and playoffs. And later in Game 2, he passed New York’s Jalen Brunson (514) as the leading overall scorer in these playoffs.
But the real milestone for the MVP came a couple hours later, when he and most everybody else on the Thunder got a finals win for the first time.
A 19-2 run in the second quarter turned what was a six-point game into a 23-point Thunder lead. It might have seemed wobbly a couple of times — an immediate 10-0 rebuttal by the Pacers made it 52-39, and Indiana was within 13 again after Andrew Nembhard’s layup with 7:09 left in the third — but the Thunder lead was never in serious doubt.
“They did a good job being disruptive,” Siakam said. “They got out in transition. … They were super aggressive, which is what they do.”
With the noise level in the building often topping 100 decibels — a chain saw is 110 dB, for comparison purposes — the Thunder did what they’ve done pretty much all season. They came off a loss, this time a 111-110 defeat in Game 1, and blew somebody out as their response.
Including the NBA Cup title game, which doesn’t count in any standings, the Thunder are now 18-2 this season when coming off a loss. Of those 18 wins, 12 have been by double digits.
“That’s a long 48 hours when you lose Game 1 like that, coming into Game 2,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “The guys did a great job of just focusing on what we needed to do to stack to a win tonight. That’s how we got it.”
ST. LOUIS — The Dodgers have sent Clayton Kershaw to the mound to give a slumping team a lift countless times during his 18-year career. And they’ve rarely been disappointed.
So they did it again on a sultry Sunday afternoon in St. Louis and once again Kershaw delivered, earning his first win of the season in a 7-3 victory over the Cardinals that snapped a two-game losing streak and ended a slide that had seen the team lose five of its last seven.
“He’s been a stopper for many years. He’s been a staff ace for many years. He’s going to the Hall of Fame,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “So he understands. And he’s going to be prepared.”
Especially after the Cardinals picked at an old wound just before the first pitch, using the massive scoreboard facing the Dodgers’ dugout to replay video of Kershaw bent over, hands on knees, after giving up a series-winning home run to Matt Adams in Game 4 of the 2014 National League Division Series.
Kershaw answered that slight with his best outing of an injury-delayed season, allowing just a run on six hits in five innings. He struck out seven, the most he’s had in exactly two years, leaving him just 17 strikeouts shy of 3,000 for his career. And more importantly, he did not issue a walk for the first time in five starts.
That performance was especially useful coming a day after the Dodgers’ rotation was scrambled before the team’s big three-game series with the Padres. Right-hander Tony Gonsolin was moved back to the injured list Saturday with discomfort in his surgically repaired elbow, leaving the Dodgers with 14 pitchers on the IL and without a starter for Tuesday’s game in San Diego. A scan of Gonsolin’s elbow on Saturday showed no structural damage.
Michael Kopech, activated from the injured list Saturday, pitched a scoreless inning of relief in the ninth.
For Roberts the most telling stat in Kershaw’s line was the lack of walks since Kershaw has struggled with his control in his first brief comeback.
“What’s been consistent is the inconsistency of the command,” Roberts said. “There’s certainly uncharacteristic walks in there, getting behind in counts, which is so uncharacteristic with Clayton.”
Kershaw hit 91.5 mph with his fastball Sunday and averaged 89.6 mph.
“The velocity is something that he’s really mindful of and there might be a little bit of overthrow in there trying to chase a certain number versus just kind of commanding the baseball,” Roberts said. “He wants both. He wants the velocity and feels he can command the ball.”
Kershaw also became the first Dodger pitcher in the series to get some help from his offense, which scored four times in the first four innings and seven times in the game, the most runs the team has scored in a game this month.
The Dodgers, who stranded 21 baserunners while going one for 25 with runners in scoring position in the first two games in St. Louis, wasted their first scoring opportunity Sunday. After Shohei Ohtani led off with a double to left-center, the next three hitters failed to get the ball out of the infield.
Mookie Betts runs the bases after hitting a solo home run for the Dodgers in the seventh inning Sunday.
(Jeff Roberson / Associated Press)
But they scored three times in the second when three of the first four batters, Max Muncy, Will Smith and former Cardinal Tommy Edman, all singled to center ahead of Hyesong Kim’s two-run triple to right.
A leadoff triple by Smith followed by a one-out double from Edman made it 4-0 in the fourth. And Kershaw, staked to the early lead, sailed into the fifth with a shutout before two singles and a two-out double by Masyn Winn got the Cardinals on the board.
St. Louis added to that against reliever Lou Trivino in the sixth, with Willson Contreras doubling off the left-field wall, then scoring on Alec Burleson’s one-out fly ball to center.
The teams traded runs in the seventh with Mookie Betts lining a two-out solo homer just over the wall in left in the seventh and the Cardinals answering with a walk and two-out singles by Brendan Donovan and Contreras.
The Dodgers then closed out the scoring with two runs in a sloppy eighth inning that featured a single, two walks, two batters hit by pitches, a passed ball and a sacrifice fly.
Now, the Dodgers move on to San Diego, which is just a game back in the NL West. Roberts, however, downplayed the importance of the first series of the season against the division rival.
“Outside of it just [being] a division opponent, and us trying to find a way to win a game, it really doesn’t have any extra impact,” he said. “Right now we’re not playing our best baseball, but I think that that environment is going to bring out the best in us.
“It’s a fun place to play a ball game. But as far as kind of the stakes right now, I don’t think it really has a whole lot of extra.”
PARIS — Carlos Alcaraz rallied from two sets down and saved three match points to beat Jannik Sinner 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (10-2) on Sunday and retain his French Open title for a second straight year.
Alcaraz, who won his fifth Grand Slam tournament in as many finals, produced one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the clay-court tournament.
It was the first time that Sinner had lost a Grand Slam final.
It was also the longest-ever French Open final — 5 hours, 29 minutes — in the Open Era.
After 3 hours, 43 minutes, Sinner had his first match point. But with just over five hours since the match began, Alcaraz served for the title at 5-4 up.
The drama was still not over.
Sinner made a remarkable retrieve from yet another superb Alcaraz drop shot. At the very limit he could stretch to, Sinner glided the ball over the net, with the ball landing with the softness of an autumn leaf and out of Alcaraz’s reach to make it 15-40.
When Sinner won the game to make it 5-5, it was his turn to milk the applause and he was two points away from victory in the 12th game, with Alcaraz on serve and at 15-30 and at deuce.
But Alcaraz made a staggering cross-court backhand to make it 6-6 and force a tiebreaker, with the crowd going wild when Alcaraz’s cross-court winner made it 4-0.
Sinner could not find a way back and Alcaraz won the match with a superb forehand pass down the line and then fell onto his back to celebrate.
Burning questions abound ahead of Sunday’s 78th Tony Awards, hosted for the first time by Cynthia Erivo and broadcast live from New York’s Radio City Music Hall.
Will Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Pulitzer-winning “Purpose” win best play over comedian Cole Escola’s bawdy “Oh, Mary!”? Will George Clooney pull off a win for best performance by an actor in a leading role? Will “Maybe Happy Ending” get a truly happy ending by taking the statuette for best musical? It is, after all, leading the pack with 10 nominations, tied with “Buena Vista Social Club” and “Death Becomes Her.”
This year will also feature a 10th anniversary reunion performance by the cast of “Hamilton,” as well as a variety of spirited performances by this year’s crop of musical nominees.
So, how to watch it all?
Criss — who was nominated for the first time this year — and Tony-winner Renée Elise Goldsberry will host a live pre-show, “The Tony Awards: Act One,” which begins at 3:40 p.m. Pacific and can be viewed for free on Pluto TV, by clicking on the “live music” channel.
The main ceremony is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. Pacific, directly after the pre-show. It will air live on CBS and be available to stream for subscribers of Paramount+ with Showtime. If you’re a regular Paramount+ subscriber, you won’t be able to watch the show until the following day, when it will be featured as a special on-demand option.
If you don’t have Paramount+, fear not. The streamer is offering a seven-day free trial. If you keep the service past the allotted time, it costs $12.99 per month. The regular Paramount+ plan without Showtime — called Paramount+ Essential — costs $7.99 per month.
MUNICH — Paris Saint-Germain, Champions League winner.
At long last the club that was transformed by Qatari billions and bought and sold a succession of the world’s greatest players in an extravagant bid to get to the top has its hands on the big one.
European club soccer’s grandest prize has a new home after PSG thrashed Inter Milan 5-0 in Saturday’s final in Munich.
The trophy that not even Lionel Messi, Neymar or Kylian Mbappe could deliver to the French club was finally claimed by Luis Enrique, the Spanish coach who has overseen PSG’s shift from the era of galactico signings to one of genuine team-building.
Fitting then that Désiré Doué, the 19-year-old French forward emblematic of the club’s new generation, was the chief inspiration on a balmy night. He became the third teenager to score in a Champions League final, following Patrick Kluivert and Carlos Alberto.
Doué scored twice and set up another goal in little over an hour on the field before being substituted in the second half.
Achraf Hakimi, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and substitute Senny Mayulu, the fourth teenager to ever score in a final added to Doue’s double as PSG recorded the biggest win in a final in the Champions League’s 69-year history.
Now PSG can truly sit alongside the royalty of European soccer. Not by virtue of turnover or merchandizing, but on the merits of its achievements on the field.
The Champions League is the ultimate barometer of the continent’s elite clubs and up until now PSG has been a flashy contender that always came up short.
That all changed at Allianz Arena, the home of Bayern Munich, one of the titans of Europe, and a fitting stage for PSG’s crowning moment. Not least because it was against Bayern that it lost its only other Champions League final in 2020, leaving Neymar in tears in an empty stadium in Lisbon where fans were locked out because of the pandemic.
On this occasion, thousands of PSG supporters were there to revel in the moment, waving flags, lighting flares and drowning out their rivals from Inter, many of whose supporters left the stadium long before the final whistle.
They’d been partying in the streets of Munich throughout the day, but that was nothing compared to the scenes of joy when Marquinhos held the trophy aloft in front of teammates, with fireworks and golden confetti exploding behind them.
PSG truly delivered when it mattered after so many setbacks in this competition. If there were any nerves from Luis Enrique’s players it did not show as they dominated Inter from the start.
It took just 12 minutes for the French champion to go ahead with a move of speed and precision when Vitinha’s threaded pass into the box found the feet of Doué. The forward could have shot, but instead slid in Hakimi to tap into an open net.
Former Inter player Hakimi’s celebrations were muted but PSG’s fans erupted.
Eight minutes later and the lead was doubled — though this time it relied more on luck than precision as Doué’s shot from the right of the box deflected off Federico Dimarco and past Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer.
He got his second in the 63rd, sliding the ball into the bottom corner when through on goal.
Kvaratskhelia added a fourth 10 minutes later and Mayulu then found the back of the net in the 86th, just two minutes after coming on to add his name to the list of teenage scorers in a final.
It turns out the timeline was moved up one series and three days.
Trout was activated off the injured list before Friday night’s game against the Cleveland Guardians. The Angels slugger missed 26 games with soreness in his left knee eventually diagnosed as a bone bruise. The three-time American League MVP had two operations last year on the knee after tearing his meniscus.
“I’m just itching to get out there,” Trout said before the game. “I think came out of the other day (of running bases) good. I wasn’t too sore or anything, I told them I was good enough to go out there and have some good at-bats.”
Trout’s return comes with something he hasn’t done in his 15-year big league career. This will be the first time in 1,532 starts that he will be hitting fifth in the lineup.
The only other time Trout batted fifth in 1,547 previous games was on May 14, 2022, against the Athletics, when he entered in the fourth inning and finished the game in center field.
“We know where Mike Trout is in the order. It doesn’t matter where he is hitting, he could be hitting ninth,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “It’s got to be a different feeling for sure for them. I mean, he’s been in the two or three hole for what, 12 years now? But he’s still a really good player.”
Manager Ron Washington is happy to have Trout back, especially since he noted Trout wasn’t aggressive in rushing back. Washington also knows that Trout isn’t ready to return to his normal spot batting second or third.
“He hasn’t seen anything. So when you look at what we have, that’s where he sits,” Washington said. “It doesn’t make sense for him to protect (Logan) O’Hoppe. So I’ll put Mike behind him to protect O’Hoppe. He’s not ready to be at the top of the lineup, especially with those guys up there. As we go along the next couple of days, he’s not going to remain fifth.”
The 33-year old Trout was hitting .179 with nine home runs, 18 RBIs and a .727 OPS in 29 games before the injury. He will be the designated hitter for the weekend series against the Guardians before possibly returning to right field when the Halos head to Boston on Monday for a three-game series.
Even though Trout has shied away from wanting to be the designated hitter, he has done well in that spot. In seven games this season, he is eight for 28 (.286) with six home runs and nine RBIs.
Trout said whether or not he plays more games than originally planned at DH the remainder of the season is something that remains to be seen.
“Bone bruises are tricky. I know I am going to be sore but I can deal with it,” he said. “I definitely have to be cautious, especially the first couple games.”
Trout’s return comes with the Angels on a five-game skid after an eight-game winning streak that included a three-game sweep of the defending World Series champion Dodgers. Los Angeles were 25-30 going into Friday’s game.
“There’s so many games that any sense of newness or something to make you excited is something that you’d latch on to. So today is definitely a moment like that,” O’Hoppe said about Trout’s return. “He’s the heart of this organization. So we’re happy to have our heart beating again for sure.”
Trout has missed 404 of the Angels’ 664 games — almost 61% — since May 17, 2021, when he tore his calf muscle against Cleveland and was sidelined for the rest of that season. This is the fifth straight year he has had a stint of at least 25 games on the IL.
He missed five weeks of the 2022 season with a back injury, and all but one game after July 3 in 2023 after he broke a bone in his hand on a foul ball. Trout played in 29 games last season before the meniscus injury.
“Do y’all think — I want to ask y’all a real question — do you think, if I ever came back to TV, do you know where the only place I would ever come back to is?” Kotb asked her former colleagues after replacement co-host Craig Melvin inquired about that rumor. “Right here. This is the spot.”
“Delete, not true,” she said of the Clarkson rumor.
Something that is true? Kotb revealed that she left “Today” in part to take care of 6-year-old daughter Hope, who was diagnosed about two years ago with Type 1 diabetes. Previously known as juvenile diabetes because it’s most often diagnosed in childhood, the autoimmune disorder can occur in adults as well.
Hope’s health issues arose more than two years ago, she said. Now the child has to use synthetic insulin regularly to stay well, since her condition prevents insulin production by her pancreas.
“As anyone with a child who has Type 1 [knows], especially a little kid, you’re constantly watching, you’re constantly monitoring, you’re constantly checking, which is what I did all the time when I was [at ‘Today’],” she told Melvin and Savannah Guthrie. “You’re distracted.”
Hope, however, is just like “every other kid” except for about five minute at breakfast, lunch, dinner and sometimes overnight, Kotb said.
But being there for her daughter had become nonnegotiable, she told People in a story published Wednesday, so “Today” had to become part of yesterday. No more alarms going off at 3:15 a.m. every morning.
Now she sleeps in until 4:30 a.m. She also just launched a new wellness venture, Joy 101. But her children remain her focus.
“I really wanted to and needed to be here to watch over [Hope]. So, whenever she needs anything, and it can happen at night, multiple times, I’m up — I’m up up up,” she said.
“But I would never, ever want Hope to one day grow up and say, ‘Oh, my mom left her job because [of me].’ It wasn’t that alone. But if you look at it cumulatively, it was a part of that decision.”
Hope, Kotb told People, “is a happy, healthy, rambunctious, amazing kid, and we have to watch her. Diabetes is a part of her, but not all of her. I hope it shapes her but never defines her.”
