James

If there’s a day of uncontaminated enthusiasm on the NFL calendar it’s the first day of training camp. Everyone’s healthy, everyone’s hopeful, and the Super Bowl is seemingly in reach for everyone.

A few thousand Chargers fans were at the team facility Wednesday to watch the inaugural practice, and afterward coach Jim Harbaugh and many of the players stuck around to sign autographs, pose for selfies and make small talk. It was the kind of scene unfolding all around the NFL.

“It was amazing,” said All-Pro safety Derwin James of the practice. “Kind of like the first day of school.”

Were they to receive a grade for their first two seasons under Harbaugh, the Chargers might get an incomplete. They played well enough to make the playoffs in both seasons — overcoming a dizzying array of injuries on the offensive line a year ago — yet failed to show up in the postseason, suffering lopsided losses at Houston and New England.

Harbaugh said the first day of camp feels like “Christmas morning” to him. When asked whether the entire team was full speed and ready to go, he made the analogy of an airplane gathering speed down a runway before achieving flight. There’s a deliberate ramp-up to the intensity of training camp, he said.

So now it begins again, and with a rebooted offensive line with two of the most promising bookend tackles in the game, first-round picks Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt, both of whom were sidelined for most or all of last fall.

Slater suffered a season-ending knee injury in training camp. Alt missed three games with a high-ankle sprain in Week 4, then suffered a more severe injury to the same ankle upon his return.

For those players in particular, each medically cleared to return, every day off crutches is a good day.

That said, Slater is determined not to dwell on what happened a year ago.

Chargers fan Christian Cavanias cheers while attending the team’s training camp in El Segundo on Wednesday.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“I’ve been injured before in the NFL, and I learned a lot from that experience,” he said. “I don’t think analyzing it any deeper than what it was is really worthwhile. I attacked the rehab and moved on, didn’t really give any thought to it. Trying to set the tone for the season, show up and be the best version of myself I can be.”

A healthy offensive line isn’t the only big change for the Chargers. They have a new offensive coordinator in former Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, and a new defensive coordinator in Chris O’Leary, who is replacing his mentor, Jesse Minter, new coach of the Baltimore Ravens.

McDaniel began making small adjustments to Justin Herbert’s footwork during organized team activities, and those changes have become second nature for the Chargers quarterback.

“I’ve had a few weeks as well to work on it when I was back home,” Herbert said. “I thought it was a great time to be able to master my footwork, and then to come back out and just play fast and not have to worry about it.”

Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert speaks during a news conference at training camp on Wednesday.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Like Harbaugh, McDaniel has the kind of boundless energy that almost has him looking like a player when the team is running drills.

“He’s all hands on,” James said of McDaniel. “I feel like he’s almost out there running the route, how close he is to the receiver sometimes.”

McDaniel needles the other side of the ball too, James said, warning defenders to be ready for a deep pass before hitting them with a quick out.

“He’s playing some mind games,” James said with a smile. “It’s cool, though.”

Chargers free safety Derwin James speaks to reporters at training camp on Wednesday.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

There was a bit of buzz at camp about Herbert getting engaged to girlfriend Madison Beer, with the couple posting photos Tuesday of the proposal, complete with the quarterback dropping to a knee to pop the question.

Harbaugh called the development “awesome” and said the coaching staff didn’t know in advance. He said Herbert had mentioned earlier in the summer that a proposal was coming, but didn’t let the coaching staff know about the particulars until after it happened.

For his part, Herbert conceded that he was more nervous about proposing than he was before the first start of his NFL career. Then again, he had a lot more time to dwell on asking his girlfriend than he had to prepare for playing, as he was immediately pressed into action on the Sunday of his NFL debut.

Aquilino’s uncle David Bonomi said his nephew was a “friendly, talented artist” who had been killed in a “brutal, cruel and evil manner”.

He said the family had reported him missing as it was “very unusual for him not to have been in contact” as he called his mother every day.

Speaking earlier about the review of the four unexplained deaths, Det Supt Rachael Bentley, from Devon and Cornwall Police, said: “As a major crime investigation team we were informed by the coroner’s officer for His Majesty’s Coroner that there were four deaths at Sandy Lodge.

“As part of the investigation, a detective inspector, separate to the investigation but within major crime, did a review of those deaths, and that included commissioning some more forensic work, some CCTV, and statements.”

Inquiries were ongoing and Desborough was “not a suspect at this time”, Bentley said.

“We don’t believe there is a link at this time, but I said it’s an ongoing investigation,” she said

She said police attended each of the deaths at Sandy Lodge and inquiries suggested natural causes but coronial investigations were paused when Desborough was arrested for murder.

Eight years ago, during a campaign for Texas attorney general, Justin Nelson ran television advertisements with security camera footage of Ken Paxton pocketing an expensive pen that didn’t belong to him.

Four years ago, George P. Bush went after Paxton by putting up billboards that said “he’s a crook” next to his mugshot from when he was charged with securities fraud.

And this year, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said “judgment day is coming” as he tried to fend off a Republican primary challenge from Paxton.

All of them lost. Now the question is whether James Talarico, who topped Rep. Jasmine Crockett in an expensive and fiercely contested Democratic primary, will have any more luck as he faces off against Paxton in one of the country’s most closely watched U.S. Senate races.

“The guy’s ability to take shots and just keep moving on and stay in elected office is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my career, in 25 years of running campaigns,” said Ash Wright, who worked as a senior adviser to Bush.

Paxton never has been convicted and he’s survived by championing conservative legal battles over immigration, abortion and transgender issues in a Republican-dominated state. Much like President Trump, he’s long portrayed himself as the victim of political persecution.

Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico speaks at a rally in Houston in May.

(Danielle Villasana / Getty Images)

Former Paxton challengers and a half-dozen campaign strategists who worked against him warned that Texans may tune out any attempt to revive scandals that they’ve heard about for years, especially when rigid partisanship has convinced voters to be extraordinarily forgiving of candidates’ trespasses.

However, Talarico’s team has studied the previous races and is attempting its own version of the playbook by trying to paint Paxton as part of a broader culture of corruption that has failed to improve people’s lives.

Paxton’s campaign suggested Talarico’s claims were aimed at distracting voters from a record of “out-of-touch views.”

“Every time a fighter, like President Donald Trump and now Ken Paxton, stands up to the permanent political class, even after they are completely acquitted of wrongdoing, people like James Talarico continue pushing the same accusations and claiming corruption,” Paxton campaign spokesperson Madison Cercy said.

Paxton won first reelection despite indictment

Paxton was first elected as Texas attorney general in 2014, and Nelson ran against him in 2018. A Democratic lawyer from Austin, Nelson made Paxton’s indictment on charges of securities fraud central to his campaign, and poked fun at him for picking up another lawyer’s $1,000 pen after finding it at a courthouse security checkpoint.

“Vote Justin Nelson for Texas attorney general,” the narrator said. “He will fight on behalf of all Texans. And he won’t steal your pen.”

Nelson argued that his approach was effective, reflected in Paxton’s narrow margin of 3.6 percentage points in a year when Republican Greg Abbott was reelected as Texas governor by more than 13 percentage points. Nelson’s campaign spent roughly $6.5 million, about half of what Paxton’s campaign spent.

“My message was working,” Nelson said. “I just needed to go louder and longer.”

In 2022, Paxton faced a Republican primary challenge from George P. Bush, the Texas land commissioner and the grandson and nephew of two former presidents from the state.

The securities fraud case was ongoing, and Paxton also was under federal investigation over accusations that he abused his position to benefit an Austin real estate developer, took bribes and retaliated against whistleblower employees.

Paxton responded by portraying himself as a Trump-era Republican and Bush as the heir to a privileged political legacy.

Pro-Paxton organizations spent more than $20 million, about twice as much as Bush and his allies. The race went to a runoff, in which Paxton defeated Bush by 34 percentage points.

Paxton ran against Rochelle Garza, a Democratic civil rights lawyer from Brownsville, in the general election. She said her campaign had a 300-page opposition research file on Paxton but it was difficult to figure out how to approach his past because voters had heard about it for years.

“The amount of potential hits on Paxton can make message discipline challenging,” Garza said.

Paxton ran as the leading legal opponent of President Biden, promoting a string of lawsuits against Biden’s Democratic administration on immigration, abortion and gender policy.

Overwhelmingly outspent, Garza lost by roughly 10 percentage points.

Some supporters see Paxton as a ‘flawed’ fighter

There was more trouble ahead for Paxton.

He split with his wife, who later filed for divorce “on biblical grounds.” He also was impeached by the Texas House, although the Senate acquitted him in 2023 and allowed him to remain in office. The securities fraud case ended in 2024, and Paxton was directed to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution.

Throughout the years, he’s maintained strong support from Republican voters like David and Nancy Lapp, a retired couple from the small town of Wolfforth. They described him as a conservative warrior who has been a victim of persecution.

“He’s had his share of scandals, and almost all of them have, so it’s not necessarily disqualifying anymore,” said David Lapp, 76. “He’s a flawed person, no doubt about it, but he fights for traditional American ideals.”

He added that “nowadays, as long as you’re not in jail, they’ll elect you.”

Beaumont writes for the Associated Press. Associated Press reporters Jesse Bedayn in Del Rio, Texas, and Marc Levy in Wolfforth, Texas, contributed to this report.

LONDON — Booker Prize winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart are in the running again for the prestigious fiction award, alongside Dublin gangs, dystopian science fiction and the New England characters of Pulitzer Prize laureate Elizabeth Strout.

Judges read 163 novels to come up with the 13 semifinalists announced Tuesday for the $66,000 Booker Prize, a list described by historian Mary Beard, head of the judging panel, as literary “dynamite.”

The list includes James’ “The Disappearers,” about a group of gay men in a hostile 1980s Jamaica; Stuart’s “ John of John,” a story of father-son secrets on a remote Scottish island; and Strout’s heartfelt small-town tale “The Things We Never Say.”

Marlon James is semifinalist for the 2026 Booker Prize for fiction. In 2015, he became the first Jamaican writer to win the prestigious literary award.

(Neil Hall / Associated Press)

James won the Booker in 2015 for “A Brief History of Seven Killings,” and Stuart won in 2020 for “Shuggie Bain.” Strout’s “Oh William!” was a finalist in 2022. She won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2009 for “Olive Kitteridge.”

They sit alongside lesser-known names on a Booker longlist that includes authors with roots in Britain, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, Turkey and the United States.

Three of those on the list are debut authors: Turkish American writer Kenan Orhan for the family history saga “The Renovation,” British author Rebecca Perry for the Medieval-to-modern tale “May We Feed the King” and Ireland’s Djamel White for “All Them Dogs,” a thriller set in the Dublin underworld.

White, at 28, is the youngest author in the running. The oldest is 81-year-old M. John Harrison, whose postapocalyptic tale “The End of Everything” is a rare science fiction novel to make the Booker list.

The other contenders are “The Shadow of the Object” by Chloe Aridjis, “Black Bag” by Luke Kennard, “The Vivisectors” by Missouri Williams, “Switzy” by Emma Cline, “Helen of Nowhere” by Makenna Goodman and Gwendoline Riley’s “The Palm House.”

Beard said the five jurors, who include Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and American novelist Patricia Lockwood, tried to look beyond the idea of a typical Booker winner — “slightly serious, about to be classic.” Instead, they chose novels that are “trying to expand the boundaries of how we can think about ourselves in completely different ways,”

“Sometimes they’re using humor, sometimes it’s pathos, sometimes there’s shock value,” Beard said. “They’re risk-takers. They are dynamite. They say, ‘Come on, try seeing it a different way.’ ”

Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout is a semifinalist for the Booker Prize for fiction for her novel, “The Things We Never Say.”

(Leonardo Cendamo)

Founded in 1969, the Booker Prize has a reputation for transforming writers’ careers and is open to novels from any country published in the U.K. and Ireland. Last year’s winner was “Flesh” by Hungarian-British writer David Szalay.

The judges will announce six finalists on Sept. 22, and the winner will be revealed Nov. 9 at a ceremony in London.

Lawless writes for the Associated Press.

After nearly a month of mulling his options, LeBron James announced in a social media post that he will sign with the Philadelphia 76ers on a two-year, $8-million contract.

James, a small forward, will join guards Tyrese Maxey and V.J. Edgecombe, forward Jaylen Brown and center Joel Embiid in a star-studded 76ers lineup. James’ deal includes a player option, Klutch Sports Group Chief Executive Rich Paul told ESPN.

In a series of X.com posts, James said he contemplated retirement before choosing the 76ers over several other suitors.

“I was honest at that last press conference when I said I needed to look at myself and decide if I still love this game. I still truly love this game, and I have more to give,” he said.

James will hope to break a 43-year championship drought for the 76ers, much the same way he erased a 52-year streak without a title for the city of Cleveland when he won a championship with the Cavaliers in 2016.

This likely will be the final free agency decision James will make as the 41-year-old enters a record-breaking 24th season. He said winning a fifth NBA title is his primary motivation.

“This is my last decision. I’m not going for money. I’m not going for family. What am I really playing for at this point?” James wrote on X. “I still want to sacrifice. I still want to work. I still want to grind. I still want to compete, to win and to have a chance at the feeling of winning another championship.

“I believe I can help make the Philadelphia 76ers a championship team and I am so excited to energize a new fan base and start this incredible journey one last time.”

The 76ers finished 45-37 and seventh in the Eastern Conference last season. However, they traded for Brown, a bona fide superstar, sending Paul George, two first-round draft picks and two second-round picks to the Boston Celtics on July 6. Brown, a nine-year veteran, averaged 28.7 points a game last season and helped the Celtics win the NBA title in 2024.

This was the fourth foray into free agency for James, who played the previous eight seasons with the Lakers, his longest continuous stint with any franchise.

It was widely reported that James would accept the $3.9 million veterans’ minimum exception. He will be paid far less than the approximately $57 million new teammates Embiid and Brown each will make, but James has made a record $584 million in career salary and his net worth is an estimated $1.4 billion thanks to endorsements and investments.

Reaction to the signing was swift. Nobody seemed more excited than Dawn Staley, the decorated South Carolina women’s basketball coach and a Philadelphia native. A longtime friend of James and his family, she posted a video while courtside at a game.

“Yo Philly, yo Philly, yo Philly! We got the King, y’all!” Staley said before telling James’ wife, Savannah, that she is available for advice on a school for the James’ daughter. “Savannah, we got you! ‘Bron, ‘Bron, good, great choice. My guy!”

James’ new teammates also expressed delight on social media. Maxey compared his recruiting skills to his college coach John Calipari, while Edgecombe recreated James’ famous “Can’t believe this is my life” meme.

James, an Akron, Ohio, native, played his first seven seasons with the Cavaliers after being the first overall draft pick in 2003 at age 18, spent four with the Miami Heat then returned to Cleveland for an additional four years before signing with the Lakers ahead of the 2018-2019 season. He has won four NBA championships, including one with the Lakers in 2020.

James informed the Lakers on June 30 that he would be signing elsewhere. Since then several teams made pitches for his services, with the Golden State Warriors, Heat, Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves considered favorites along with the 76ers.

Not only were fans of those teams anxious to learn his decision. Last week, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the regular-season schedule had not been set because the league was waiting on James.

“We have to finish up the schedule. And where LeBron plays will affect the schedule,” Silver said at the CNBC Sport x Boardroom Game Plan Summit in New York. “So I would like him to make his announcement already, so we can finish the schedule, because, as you might imagine, the teams are calling us, the networks are calling us, and everybody wants to lock in the schedule. But it will influence how we set the schedule, how we set opening week, Christmas Day, etc. So I need him to make a decision.”

A day later, James stood on stage at Fanatics Fest in New York and said he wanted to join a team that “shares the same model as myself, and that’s like practicing championship [habits] every day, but trusting the process more than anything.”

A false alarm became part of the narrative when the Heat posted a link July 21 to a scheduled livestream titled “LeBron James Introductory Press Conference” to its YouTube channel. A team spokesperson said it was a mistake, that the club’s social media department was preparing for the possibility of James’ signing. The post was deleted.

James has announced his agreements with new teams in various ways. When he left the Cavaliers in 2010 to team with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the Heat, he announced his choice on a live television special called “The Decision,” saying “I’m taking my talents to South Beach.” On Friday morning, a thread on X relayed the big news.

Fans in Cleveland burned his jersey, and Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert posted a letter on the team website calling James’ decision a “cowardly betrayal.”

Four years and two NBA championships with the Heat later, James returned to his home state of Ohio to play for the Cavaliers again in 2014. His first-person Sports Illustrated essay written with senior writer Lee Jenkins shared his “I’m Coming Home” choice with the world.

“I always believed that I’d return to Cleveland and finish my career there,” James wrote. “I just didn’t know when. After the season, free agency wasn’t even a thought. But I have two boys and my wife, Savannah, is pregnant with a girl. I started thinking about what it would be like to raise my family in my hometown. I looked at other teams, but I wasn’t going to leave Miami for anywhere except Cleveland.”

James led the Cavaliers to four consecutive NBA Finals and a championship in 2016 when Cleveland overcame a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Warriors. It was the greatest NBA Finals comeback in history and brought the Cavaliers their first title.

But it turns out most of his child-rearing came in Los Angeles. In 2018, James decided not to pick up his player option and signed a four-year, $153.3-million contract to play for the Lakers, choosing them over the 76ers and a return to the Cavaliers. His salary escalated each year, rising to $52.6 million last season.

“LA has welcomed the arrival of Rabbit, Logo, Stumpy, Big Dipper, Captain, Silk, Magic, Big Game, Diesel, Mamba, Spaniard and now welcomes a King!!” Lakers co-owner Joey Buss tweeted.

In James’ second season in L.A., the Lakers won their 17th NBA championship in a bubble at Walt Disney World to cap the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. James notched a triple-double in the clinching Game 6 and earned Finals most valuable player for the fourth time in his career.

James set the league all-time scoring record while wearing the purple and gold, but his eight seasons with the Lakers also included failures. The 2021-2022 season is widely regarded as the most disappointing in team history. The overwhelming favorite in Las Vegas to win the championship when the season began, the Lakers finished 33-49 and missed the playoffs.

The Lakers never made it past the Western Conference finals over the next four seasons, including getting swept in the conference semifinals by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2026. James averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists last season while adding to his list of NBA records, setting marks for games played, all-time wins and field goals made.

The Lakers pivoted quickly after James announced he wouldn’t return, overhauling the roster to complement star guards Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. They traded for 7-foot-2 center Walker Kessler and signed free agents Sandro Mamukelashvili, Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton, Matisse Thybulle, Ziaire Williams and Kevon Looney.

Meanwhile, James methodically listened to pitches from a handful of teams, ultimately settling on the 76ers.

Paul, James’ agent and close friend, said on a podcast Monday that the ample time James took making the decision was necessary because the choice was difficult.

“I think it’s important for people to understand: We’re not making this about attention and a spectacle,” Paul said. “It’s not about a ‘Decision’ or anything like that. He has a choice to make. He has a business choice to make.”

Giving himself the best shot at a fifth title was key. James has played in 302 postseason games, by far the most of any NBA player, and scored 20 or more points in 261 of them. His teams are 42-15 in playoff series and 188-114 in games. He has scored the most points in the playoffs (8,521) in addition to the most points in the regular season (43,440).

“It’s amazing what he’s done for the sport, for the league, and he deserves the opportunities that were presented to him to be able to make his own decision on what’s best for him and his family,” Silver said last week. “So I completely respect that.”

BUSTED’S James Bourne has revealed he’s still ‘not out of the woods’ in a rare health update amid a mystery illness.

The star was forced to withdraw from the McFly Vs Busted tour in September last year due to his health.

In April, he revealed he was having surgery to “extend his life” in a worrying health update, and now he’s issued another one.

In a new post on X, James wrote: “As I’m taking a break from the gram, I’ll be posting an update soon about what’s going on with my health in my Spotify bio.

“It’s a long story. Still not out of the woods yet. Thanks for your support and patience.”

The update comes a month after James, 42, gave his only interview to The Sun to talk about a new project he was determined to finish despite his on-going health battle.

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On July 1 he released new album Murder At The Gates, which he created for a brand new musical with legendary American playwright Steven Sater.

He said: “I didn’t want my health to stop me from promoting this project because I’ve put 13 years of my life into it.

“There was a fear of not finishing it. But I knew I had to finish it and give this to the people.

“There’s like a few people that have been waiting for it. There are hardcore fans who show to up for everything – and I have been speaking about this for a long time.

“It feels so good to now have this as a finished product. And it’s the first album I’ve ever produced. So I’m proud of it.”

Take all the time you want, LeBron. It’s your life.

Yes, it’s annoying to have to hear about it every day, but it’s your decision when to tell us where you’re going to play your 24th season of pro ball.

So, go ahead, keep NBA schedule-makers on pins and needles. Savor having workers at my local Trader Joe’s discussing your future on a Monday in the middle of July. Enjoy your twilight limelight.

But don’t tell us, on podcasts and in public appearances, that the factors you’re prioritizing are A) whether a team is built to win now; B) the proximity to your home in L.A.; and C) not money, but overall happiness — and then signal it might be the Golden State Warriors.

The Cleveland Cavaliers? They check all the boxes. That’s “home” for real. And the Cavs are ready to win with a veteran difference-maker such as LeBron. Absolutely, it would be a happily-ever-after conclusion to the LeBron epic.

The Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers? Nowhere close to home, but they check a box too: They’re both set up to win — and in the Eastern Conference, where they won’t have to go through the San Antonio Spurs or Oklahoma City Thunder to reach an NBA Finals.

The Warriors, though?

They check no boxes. Not a one. Not in 2026.

That would be a … choice. But let no one act like this would be LeBron leaving the Lakers for a more competitive situation. It wouldn’t be LeBron landing in a more desirable locale.

Line up Cleveland, Philadelphia, Miami and Golden State and it’s like seeing three diamonds and a square on “Sesame Street.” A 3-year-old could tell that one of those is not like the others. But that’s the third-most likely destination, as of Tuesday morning, according to the DraftKings Sportsbook.

Sure, once upon a time, a starting lineup of Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, LeBron James, Draymond Green and Kristaps Porzingis would have beaten almost anybody. But even those guys — besides 30-year-old Porzingis, they’re all in their late-30s or early 40s, with a ton of NBA mileage — aren’t beating Father Time.

Remember when the Lakers put together a roster awash in washed-up stars in 2021, and how disastrous that was? Turns out pairing Carmelo Anthony, Trevor Ariza, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo, DeAndre Jordan and, yes, Russell Westbrook was a recipe for a truly awful 33-win team.

And the Warriors? They couldn’t get out of the play-in tournament last season, when Curry played only 43 games and Butler played only 38. Also, remember, for the first time in LeBron’s career, the now 41-year-old wasn’t available to start the season. He missed the first 14 games with sciatica.

Maybe Golden State could conjure up some magic in a playoff series — but over an 82-game regular-season marathon? No way, LBJ.

Former Lakers star LeBron James (23) and former Warriors forward Draymond Green, who opted out of his contract this summer, could team up with Golden State. Or maybe not.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

It could be that winning isn’t everything for LeBron. The man’s legacy is locked. He’s won four NBA titles, three Olympic gold medals, 1,229 NBA games and counting. And he’s winning this summer’s engagement game too.

Perhaps it’s come to a point that he just wants to play with his friends, and after earning $53 million with the Lakers last season, he’s willing to sign a deal with Golden State for between $3.9 and $6 million — which is what the Warriors could pay him, according to ESPN cap expert Bobby Marks — to do that.

That’s lovely, but it doesn’t change the fact that LeBron wouldn’t be happy losing.

And losing when he’s the addition to Steph’s team — and make no mistake, the Warriors are Steph’s team — really wouldn’t be fun.

The superstar wars that will be fought between both players’ infamously, uh, passionate fandoms wouldn’t be fun.

The daily drumbeat of criticism from talking heads who tuned into all of those televised games — not fun.

But the commute! It’s only 380 miles or so from Brentwood to Chase Center, and that’s much closer than Cleveland or Philly or Miami.

That makes sense — if you forget there are two NBA teams in the very city where LeBron’s family lives. And on paper, they’re both better than the Warriors. And his son plays for one of them!

But one of those teams is the Clippers and the other has moved on from LeBron.

Oh, the irony.

The Lakers, if they weren’t the ex-team, would check all the boxes. They’re going to be competitive. They’re a group LeBron enjoyed playing with. They are home. And LeBron would check a pretty big box for them too, if money really isn’t a deciding factor.

But the Lakers have replaced LeBron with Walker Kessler, the 24-year-old defensive center who is the perfect complement to Luka Doncic. They’ve put in place the pillars for their future, though they do still happen to have a LeBron-sized hole at forward that isn’t going to be filled by LeBron.

And that’s OK. The next chapter will start eventually, and likely it will be set in a location where LeBron can compete and have a good time, and that he and his family can feel good about.

Or in San Francisco.

LeBron James didn’t have a speech prepared.

“I’m just speaking to y’all from the heart,” the NBA’s all-time leading scorer told the audience Thursday night at the Time 100 Sports gala in New York.

In James’ heart and on his mind at that moment was his oldest son Bronny James, who nearly three years ago suffered sudden cardiac arrest as an 18-year-old rising freshman while practicing with the USC basketball team. He later was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect but eventually was able to resume his basketball career.

James and his son ended up becoming Lakers teammates for two seasons before the 23-year veteran became a free agent this summer. Bronny James is entering his third season with the Lakers after contract became fully guaranteed earlier this month.

“Obviously, if it wasn’t for the coaching staff and the medical team and everybody at USC being there in a timely fashion, we’d possibly be sitting here without our oldest son,” said James “So thank you to everybody and all the efforts when it comes to cardiac arrest.”

In June, Time magazine released its inaugural issue highlighting the 100 most influential people in sports, with James on the cover as “athlete of the century.”

James was one of the featured speakers at the gala honoring those individuals, as were fellow Time 100 Sports list members New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson, Olympic gold medalist skater Alysa Liu, Invictus Games founder Prince Harry and women’s soccer legend Alex Morgan.

Savy King and Damar Hamlin speak onstage during the Time 100 Sports gala July 16 in New York.

(Jemal Countess / Getty Images for TIME)

Earlier in the evening, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin and Angel City FC defender Savy King gave a presentation on their experiences as athletes who suffered cardiac arrest while playing in games for their respective teams.

Like Bronny James, they were both young athletes at the time of their incidents — Hamlin was 24; King was 20 — and both were fortunate to have trained medical staff members on hand to perform CPR and use defribulators to save their lives.

Their message hit home for James.

“Guys, take that serious,” he said. “If you got kids in elementary, you got kids in middle school, kids in high school, colleges. Make sure they have these devices available where you can get them, practice them. It’s very important, super, super important. Obviously, we know how important it is to our family, so we’re a big advocate of that.”

NEW YORK — If LeBron James knows where he will play this coming season, he’s still not saying.

The NBA’s career scoring king and current free agent spoke publicly for the first time in weeks Thursday afternoon, though stopped short of revealing which team he’ll choose to play for this fall — despite at least one cry from someone in a jampacked room shouting for him to “pick a team.”

“It’s going to be fun wherever I land,” James said.

The four-time NBA champion was recording an episode of his “Mind the Game” podcast alongside guest co-host Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers in New York on the opening day of Fanatics Fest, a four-day event featuring dozens of athletes, celebrities and sports legends. Single-day general admission tickets were sold out, organizers said, and it’s likely that many of those patrons — there were at least several hundred there, phones out to capture the moment — were hoping to hear James’ next decision.

Not yet, he said.

“There’s no decision,” James said.

Thursday’s appearance has been planned for months; it was announced publicly in May. James playfully chided Haliburton for asking him about his future — “didn’t we talk about this in the back?” James asked, and Haliburton said he’d ”leave it alone.”

Of course, they didn’t leave it alone. James made reference to a slew of teams such as Cleveland, Miami, Philadelphia and Golden State, though didn’t appear to give much in the way of hints. He did sip from a bottle of red wine that he opened and shared with Haliburton, calling it one of his podcast traditions.

And when fans shouted out suggestions for James’ next team — one even asked him to play for the New York Yankees — no clues were forthcoming.

“We’ll see,” he said.

If former Lakers forward LeBron James knows where he plans to play next season, he wasn’t sharing that news with fans on Thursday.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

James is the NBA’s oldest active player at 41 and the only player in league history to have a career spanning 23 seasons; this coming season will be his 24th. Speculation has been rampant for more than two months about his future, officially starting in May when the Lakers were eliminated from the NBA playoffs.

At that time, James said he didn’t know what he would be doing.

And the only developments that he’s revealed since came on June 30, when he said he would play this coming season and that he was leaving the Lakers after an eight-season run highlighted by the 2020 NBA title.

For more than two weeks, the NBA has been waiting to hear what comes next. James, as he did in a social media post at the time, lauded his time with the Lakers, who also offered him well wishes as he moves forward.

“I spent eight great years with the Los Angeles Lakers,” James said.

James’ resume is beyond compare in NBA history. He’s a 22-time All-Star, a 21-time All-NBA selection, a four-time Most Valuable Player, a four-time NBA Finals MVP, a three-time All-Star Game MVP, and was a member of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team.

He’s also coming off a season where he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game. For his career, he’s averaged 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 7.4 assists in more than 1,600 games.

The podcast was the first of two known speaking engagements for James in New York on Thursday.

He also has an appearance at the Game Plan Summit, an invitation-only event presented by CNBC and Boardroom. James is slated to have a conversation with Boardroom co-founder Rich Kleiman — Kevin Durant’s longtime business partner — about “how he’s built an empire beyond basketball, what’s ahead for him in business, and why the next generation of athletes is poised to wield more influence than ever before.”

James started his career in Cleveland in 2003 and spent seven seasons with the Cavaliers before heading to Miami for four seasons — where he won his first two titles. He then returned to Cleveland for four more seasons, leaving in 2018 to start an eight-season run with the Lakers.

Cleveland and Miami are believed to be on James’ radar again as he weighs this decision, as are several other teams including Philadelphia, Minnesota and Golden State.

“I’m looking forward to what comes next as I wind down my journey,” James said.

Whyno and Reynolds write for the Associated Press. Reynolds reported from Miami.

GREG James has revealed details from inside Taylor Swift’s Madison Square Garden wedding to Travis Kelce over the weekend.

The BBC Radio 1 host was one of the many A-listers to attend the lavish nuptials – after the singer publicly declared he could come along during an October 2025 interview, and stuck to her word.

Greg attended the New York City wedding with his wife Bella Mackie, joining stars such as Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler, Gigi Hadid and more.

And returning to the airwaves, the radio star finally divulged on what the nuptials were really like.

Beginning with his shock to actually be invited, he said: “I still can’t quite believe that it happened, it does feel like an amazingly strange but exciting dream.

“First things first, it was unbelievable fun, that’s the main headline, It was so fun.”

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“Everyone is texting saying stop playing songs, just give us the wedding tea, and we’ll do that now,” said Greg on his breakfast show, who went on to reveal he actually received the invitation back in March.

Greg then said he couldn’t tell anyone about the invite, other than his wife who was coming along.

Divulging on the day itself, he explained: “Then we got to the weekend of it, now obviously, I don’t want to be the guy that ruins this for everyone and then Taylor never speaks to me again.

“Because it was a wedding and there’s lots of nice family things that they did, so I don’t want to speak about all that stuff but I can give you some fun stuff.

“I did speak to Taylor and I spoke to Travis, but look, on a wedding you know the bride and groom are very busy, so imagine that, but the bride and groom are Taylor and Travis.”

Greg continued: “They were just having a great time, they both looked amazing, they were on the dance floor, it was great.”

When quizzed over what food was served inside the reception, Greg admitted he didn’t want to give too much away, but confirmed it wasn’t a traditional sit-down meal.

“It wasn’t a sit-down dinner, I’ll say that. There were multiple cakes, there were a thousand people, there were loads of cakes,” said Greg of the food.

And it was a free bar, too, as he laughed: “Great food, unlimited food and drinks. The first 10,000 drinks were free.”

Greg then revealed that there was a stage at the reception that guests were encouraged to dance on top of.

He said: “There was an open invitation to get up on the stage and dance while the DJ was on, and I did. All the songs.”

Greg also divulged that he was sitting with Hugh Grant to watch the ceremony part of the day.

Following the wedding, Greg admitted he was suffering from quite the hangover as he took to Instagram to confirm his attendance.

During the press run for her latest album Life of a Showgirl, Taylor stopped in for a chat with Greg, who has interviewed her a few times before.

At the end of their segment together, Greg joked that he would love to meet NFL star Travis.

Taylor then made the executive decision to jokingly invite him to their wedding – but it turned out to be legitimate as he got the invite months later.

At 7:30pm last Friday, legendary music venue MSQ was lit up by a colossal sign which read: “JUST&T MARRIED!” to confirm that Taylor and Travis had tied the knot.

Graham Norton, Ed Sheeran, Beyonce, Jay z, and Dua Lipa were also amongst the celeb guests.

As well as Hollywood’s biggest stars, nearly every NFL player made an appearance at the wedding.

Call Me by Your Name fans need to watch this “sexy” upcoming Netflix drama.

A “magnificent and sexy” Netflix drama is poised to star two Hollywood icons.

Book and film fans were captivated by Andre Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name, and now another of his bestselling novels is being transformed for television.

Aciman’s 2017 work Enigma Variations centres on “Paul, a man remade by the lovers who ignite and undo him across six transformative years”.

Netflix further describes it as an “intimate yet sweeping portrait of masculinity, sexuality and modern love.

“And in a world of endless choices, it asks the question: will we know when we’ve found the one?”

Taking the lead role as Paul is none other than Aaron Taylor-Johnson, renowned for 28 Years Later, Kicka**, Nosferatu and Nocturnal Animals.

Taylor-Johnson has also remained consistently amongst the bookmakers’ top picks to be cast as the next James Bond, alongside other contenders such as Callum Turner and Jacob Elordi.

He’ll be appearing opposite Alicia Vikander, celebrated for The Danish Girl and Tomb Raider, who plays Claire, one of Paul’s principal love interests throughout this period.

An official launch date hasn’t been revealed yet, but the Netflix adaptation is anticipated to mirror the books by being set across multiple locations including Italy, New York and New England.

Enigma Variations was hailed as a “magnificent living thing” by The New York Times Book Review, which added that “Aciman writes arousal so beautifully”.

The book has also garnered enormous praise from readers, with one commenting on Good Reads: “This book is staggeringly beautiful. Powerfully emotional, haunting, frank in its sexuality and its romanticism, this is a book about love, infatuation, longing, and lust.”

Another agreed that the “book blew me away”, while a third added: “Evocative, poetic and hopelessly romantic, Andre Aciman has written a cerebral narrative of love undefined.”

Enigma Variations is arriving on Netflix

I will miss watching the greatest maestro and savant in the history of basketball, LeBron James. He is to basketball what Van Gogh was to painting, Coltrane to music, Hemingway to literature. He came from poverty and rose to a global hero and gave back. His after-game interviews were always intelligent and sometimes humorous. To all his detractors and haters? Eat your hearts out, he is a happy man.

Dell Franklin
Cayucos

I have always been in awe of LeBron’s athleticism and basketball IQ. And I greatly admire his dedication to maintaining his physical abilities throughout the years and his philanthropic pursuits.

But, as a lifelong Lakers fan, I will not miss LeBron. He was never a true Laker. He made it clear when he announced that he was taking his talents to South Beach that he cared only about LeBron, not the team.

So, as he closes out his career elsewhere, I will enjoy watching his superior playing prowess from afar. But I will be grateful that I can now cheer for my Lakers without the drama LeBron brings to every team he’s been on.

Linda Salzman
Rancho Palos Verdes

I agree that it was probably time to move on from LeBron simply in the interest to pursue a long-term player versus one more year from the King. But Bill Plaschke’s argument that he was tired of the mind games LeBron supposedly was playing is a terrible take. Losing 27-7-7 is not replaceable overnight, if ever.

George Metalsky
Redondo Beach

While acknowledging LeBron James as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, it never really felt as if he was selflessly committed to the Purple and Gold team concept like so many of the legendary players that preceded him.

During his eight years as a Laker there seemed to be countless occasions when Lakers brass capitulated to his “demands.” Year after year we endured a mishmash roster with his hand-picked players, just to appease LeBron.

During the Lakers’ dynasty we had championship teams. With LeBron we had a king shaping his fiefdom to first and foremost best serve him.

He’s a great player but a horrible GM. The Lakers will be a better team without him.

David Griffin
Westwood

I only have one question regarding LeBron James: What happens to Bronny now?

David Waldowski
Laguna Woods

LeBron leaving Lakers is a good thing

From Bill Plaschke: Of all the calculated maneuvers by LeBron James during his eight years with the Lakers, he saved his smartest for last.

He left before the door could hit him in the butt.

He knew the Lakers didn’t want him back, so he skipped out before they had a chance to say goodbye.

He leaked the news alone, before the Lakers could publicly confirm, because he wanted to sell that this was his decision, when it absolutely was not.

This was not his idea. This was not his call. This was the Lakers saying, enough is enough. This was the Lakers saying, we want our team back.

This was arguably the greatest player in basketball getting the message and getting out before they threw him out

Officially, on Tuesday, James informed the Lakers that he’s going to leave them as a free agent and finish his career elsewhere.

Unofficially, yay!

Continue reading here

LeBron James and Lakers share gratitude as he leaves team, look ahead to what’s next

Luke Kennard leaves Lakers for two-year deal with Phoenix Suns

Clippers send Kawhi Leonard to Toronto

From Joaquin Ruiz: The Kawhi Leonard era is over in Los Angeles.

A deal to send the seven-time NBA All-Star forward back to Toronto, where he won his second NBA title, has been finalized, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The trade — which will net the Clippers All-Star forward Brandon Ingram, shooting guard Gradey Dick, two first-round draft picks, a pick swap and two second-round picks — marks the end of another promising-but-empty chapter in the franchise’s ringless history.

Continue reading here

World Cup: Mexico advances to Round of 16

From Eduard Cauich: Mexico once again enjoyed a night of celebration with its fans, this time after defeating an old nemesis — the knockout stage of the World Cup.

El Tri won its first knockout match at a World Cup since 1986, beating Ecuador 2-0 on Tuesday night at the majestic Azteca Stadium packed with 80,824 fans.

From 1994 to 2018, Mexico failed to win a World Cup knockout game and, in 2022, failed to advance past the group stage — its worst showing at a World Cup since 1978.

“Bringing joy to the fans is the best thing that can happen to us,” Mexico coach Javier Aguirre said after the win. “Our duty is to give it our all on the field. Our duty is to defend our crest and represent our country with dignity.”

Thanks to an expanded 48-team World Cup format with a knockout round of 32 teams and a formidable home-field advantage, Mexico achieved a goal that had seemed impossible.

Continue reading here

For Sebastian Berhalter, a shot with the U.S. national team was well worth the wait

Tuesday’s World Cup results

Round of 32
Norway 2, Ivory Coast 1
France 3, Sweden 0
Mexico 2, Ecuador 0

Today’s World Cup TV schedule

All times Pacific
9 a.m., England vs. DR Congo, Fox, Telemundo
1 p.m., Belgium vs. Senegal, FS1, Telemundo
5 p.m., U.S. vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Fox, Telemundo

World Cup round of 32 schedule, results

Round of 32 results
Canada 1, South Africa 0
Brazil 2, Japan 1
Paraguay 1, Germany 1 (Paraguay wins on PK’s, 4-3)
Morocco 1, Netherlands 1 (Morocco wins on PK’s, 3-2)
Norway 2, Ivory Coast 1
France 3, Sweden 0
Mexico 2, Ecuador 0

All times Pacific
Wednesday
England vs. Congo DR, 9 a.m., Fox, Telemundo
Belgium vs. Senegal, 1 p.m., FS1, Telemundo
U.S. vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina, 5 p.m., Fox, Telemundo

Thursday
Spain vs. Austria, noon, Fox, Telemundo
Portugal vs. Croatia, 4 p.m., Fox, Telemundo
Switzerland vs. Algeria, 8 p.m., FS1, Telemundo

Friday
Australia vs. Egypt, 11 a.m., Fox, Telemundo
Argentina vs. Cape Verde, 3 p.m., Fox, Telemundo
Colombia vs. Ghana, 6:30 p.m., Fox, Telemundo

Round of 16 schedule

All times Pacific
All games on Fox and Telemundo

Saturday
Canada vs. Morocco, 10 a.m.
Paraguay vs. France, 2 p.m.

Sunday
Brazil vs. Norway, 1 p.m.,
Mexico vs. England or DR Congo, 5 p.m.

Monday
Portugal or Croatia vs. Spain or Austria, noon
U.S. or Bosnia-Herzegovina vs. Belgium or Senegal, 5 p.m.

Tuesday, July 7
Argentina or Cape Verde vs. Australia or Egypt, 9 a.m.
Switzerland or Algeria vs. Colombia or Ghana, 1 p.m.

Dave Roberts gets 1,000th win as manager

From Bill Shaikin: For Dave Roberts, it’s 1,000 down and Cooperstown to go.

Victory No. 1: 15-0 over the San Diego Padres in 2016, with vintage Clayton Kershaw on the mound and Adrián González in the cleanup spot. Amid the postgame handshakes, González showered Roberts with bubble gum.

“There was no stress,” Roberts said. “It was such a nice soft landing.”

Victory No. 1,000: 9-3 over the Athletics in Sacramento on Tuesday with home runs from Tommy Edman and Miguel Rojas, and with Justin Wrobleski striking out a career-high 11 to become the Dodgers’ first 10-game winner.

Pretty soft landing too, and well worth a celebration. Roberts doffed his cap in gratitude for a spirited postgame ovation from the fans here, almost all of them Dodgers fans. Inside the clubhouse, Rojas and Freddie Freeman led a champagne and tequila toast.

Continue reading here

Walter Alston, Dave Roberts and everyone in between: The 10 managers in L.A. Dodgers history

Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Angels lose to Mariners

Julio Rodriguez had three hits and scored twice, Bryan Woo took a shutout into the seventh inning and the Seattle Mariners put together a five-run sixth Tuesday night to beat the Angels 8-3.

Rodriguez and Colt Emerson both had three of Seattle’s 13 hits. Randy Arozarena and Cole Young scored two runs apiece.

Woo (7-6) gave up just four hits and struck out five in 6 1/3 innings. The Angels’ first two runs in their three-run seventh were charged to him after he gave way to reliever Eduard Bazardo. That ended Woo’s streak of home shutout innings at 32 1/3, which stretched over a span of five games dating to May 6 against Atlanta.

Continue reading here

‘He’s a friendly killer.’ How Angels’ José Soriano balances competitive fire, mentorship

Angels box score

MLB standings

Serena Williams loses at Wimbledon

From Chuck Schilken: Experience took on youth Tuesday morning at Wimbledon’s Centre Court as 44-year-old tennis legend Serena Williams played her first singles match in nearly four years, against 20-year-old Australian Maya Joint.

Advantage: youth, as Joint pulled out a 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 win over the 23-time Grand Slam champion, and advances to play 29-seed Alexandra Eala of the Philippines — a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Renata Zarazúa of Mexico — on Thursday.

“She has such an aura. She’s such a legend,” Joint said of Williams during an on-court interview after her first-ever Wimbledon win. “And this court has so many huge names that have played on it. I’ve been dreaming about this moment since I was a little kid, so this is pretty crazy.”

Continue reading here

This day in sports history

1903 — Maurice Garin wins the first stage of the first Tour de France bicycle race. Garin finishes 55 seconds ahead of Emile Pagie. The first stage, from Paris to Lyon, is 467 kilometers long, and takes 17 hours and 45 minutes, riding both day and night. Only 37 riders of 60 are able to complete the day’s race.

1920 — Suzanne Lenglen of France becomes the first player to win three Wimbledon titles in one year, taking the singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

1932 — Helen Moody wins her fifth women’s singles title in six years at Wimbledon, defeating Helen Jacobs 6-3, 6-1.

1938 — Don Budge defeats Henry Austin 6-1, 6-0, 6-3 to win the men’s singles title and sweep the singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles at Wimbledon for the second straight year.

1947 — Basketball Assn. of America (BAA), which later became the National Basketball Assn. (NBA), holds its inaugural college player draft.

1951 — Beverly Hanson wins the Eastern Open by three strokes over Babe Zaharias in her first start on the LPGA Tour. Hanson is the only golfer to win a tournament in her first pro start.

1961 — Mickey Wright beats defending champion Betsy Rawls by six strokes to win the U.S. Women’s Open.

1977 — Britain’s Virginia Wade wins the singles title on the 100th anniversary of Wimbledon, defeating Betty Stove 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.

1990 — Cathy Johnston completes a wire-to-wire performance, beating Patty Sheehan by two strokes to win the LPGA du Maurier Classic.

1995 — The NBA locks out its players at 12:01 a.m., the first work stoppage in league history.

1997 — Nevada Athletic Commission suspends Mike Tyson indefinitely and withholds $20-million purse for biting Evander Holyfield’s ear during their heavyweight title fight on June 28.

2007 — Cristie Kerr wins the U.S. Women’s Open by making only two bogeys over her final 45 holes. Kerr finishes at 5-under 279 for her 10th career victory.

2011 — The NBA locks out its players, a long-expected move putting the 2011-12 season in jeopardy.

2012 — Spain wins its third straight major soccer title, beating Italy 4-0 in the European Championship final in Kiev, Ukraine. The Spanish, who won the Euro 2008 title and World Cup title in 2010, posts the largest score in a Euro final.

2012 — Tiger Woods wins the AT&T National at Congressional in Bethesda, Md. for the 74th win of his career. That moves him past Jack Nicklaus into second place on the tour list, eight short of Sam Snead.

2018 — NBA superstar LeBron James agrees to a 4-year, $154-million deal with the Lakers, moving from Cleveland Cavaliers.

2018 — Park Sung-hyun wins the PGA Women’s Championship at Kemper Lakes Golf Course in a playoff with Nasa Hataoka and Ryu So-yeon.

2018 — David Toms wins the Men’ US Senior Open at Broadmoor Golf Course by one stroke over Miguel Angel Jimenez, Jerry Kelly and Tim Petrovic.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1910 — Comiskey Park — then known as White Sox Park — held its first major league game, with the St. Louis Browns beating Chicago 2-0.

1917 — Fred Toney of the Cincinnati Reds pitched complete-game victories in a doubleheader against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Toney threw a three-hitter in each game for 4-1 and 5-1 wins, setting a record for the fewest hits given up in a doubleheader by a pitcher.

1920 — Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators defeated the Boston Red Sox 1-0 at Fenway Park with the season’s only no-hitter.

1925 — Hack Wilson of the New York Giants hit two home runs in the third inning of a 16-7 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in the second game of a doubleheader. Wilson also doubled twice during the game.

1941 — Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees singled off Boston’s Jack Wilson in the fourth inning, tying Willie Keeler’s hitting streak of 44 games.

1951 — Bob Feller of the Indians pitched his third career no-hitter, beating the Detroit Tigers 2-1 in the first game of a doubleheader at Cleveland.

1990 — Andy Hawkins of the New York Yankees pitched the sixth no-hitter in the majors this season and the third in less than 48 hours, but lost 4-0 to the Chicago White Sox on two outfield errors in the eighth inning.

1997 — Detroit’s Bobby Higginson homered in the first inning against the New York Mets, tying a major league record by homering in four consecutive at-bats over two games. Higginson, who struck out looking in his next at-bat, became the 23rd player since 1900 to accomplish the feat and the fourth Tiger.

2009 — One run was enough for a victory for three National League teams, the first time in 33 years there were three 1-0 games in one league on the same day. The Mets, Dodgers and Reds came away with 1-0 victories. The last time there were three 1-0 games in one league was Sept. 1, 1976, in the NL.

2009 — Hanley Ramirez extended his RBI streak to 10 games in the Florida Marlins’ 5-3 victory over the Washington Nationals. Ramirez hit a two-run double in the third inning to become the first shortstop in NL history with an RBI streak of double-digit games.

2013 — Andy Pettitte passes Whitey Ford for the most strikeouts in New York Yankees history when he records his 1,957th in the Yankees’ 10-4 win over the Twins. The win goes to reliever Joba Chamberlain, his first of the year, as he benefits from a three-run outburst off reliever Jared Burton in the 8th. The Yankees then add four runs in the top of the 9th as they end a five-game losing streak.

2014 — The Cleveland Indians executed an unorthodox triple play in the fourth inning against the Dodgers that required two video replay reviews to sort out. With runners on first and third, Adrián González lifted a fly ball to left fielder Michael Brantley, who threw out Dee Gordon at the plate. Catcher Yan Gomes then fired to second baseman Jason Kipnis for the tag on Yasiel Puig as he slid headfirst. Cleveland manager Terry Francona challenged the original safe call at second and got the play overturned after a replay delay that lasted 1 minute, 29 seconds. Dodgers skipper Don Mattingly then challenged the call at the plate, but that call stood after another wait of 1 minute, 34 seconds. Cleveland went on to a 10-3 win.

2015 — Carlos Carrasco came within one strike of throwing the Cleveland Indians’ first no-hitter since 1981, giving up an RBI single to Joey Butler over leaping second baseman Jason Kipnis’ glove in an 8-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

2019 — Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs is found dead in his hotel room a few hour before the team’s scheduled game with the Texas Rangers. Police confirm that no foul play is suspected.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Of all the calculated maneuvers by LeBron James during his eight years with the Lakers, he saved his smartest for last.

He left before the door could hit him in the butt.

He knew the Lakers didn’t want him back, so he skipped out before they had a chance to say goodbye.

He leaked the news alone, before the Lakers could publicly confirm, because he wanted to sell that this was his decision, when it absolutely was not.

This was not his idea. This was not his call. This was the Lakers saying, enough is enough. This was the Lakers saying, we want our team back.

This was arguably the greatest player in basketball getting the message and getting out before they threw him out.

Officially, on Tuesday, James informed the Lakers that he’s going to leave them as a free agent and finish his career elsewhere.

Unofficially, yay!

LeBron is gone, and he left without a fight, and the Lakers couldn’t be luckier.

LeBron is history, and it didn’t cost the Lakers a penny, and now they can breath again.

“LeBron James is one of the greatest athletes in history,” Lakers governor Jeanie Buss said on social media after the news dropped Tuesday morning. “We will always be thankful for his eight years with the Lakers — including the title he led us to in 2020 under the toughest imaginable circumstances and the countless records he broke in purple and gold. We wish him all the best in the future, both on the court and off. He will always be a cherished part of the Lakers family.”

Cherished, but gone, and thank goodness somebody over there had the conviction to let history walk.

Kudos to the new Lakers ownership for resisting every business impulse in their body to keep him while summoning the strength to stare down the most famous basketball player in the world and tell him to hit the road.

Lakers forward LeBron James looks to pass while being defended by Kings guard Daeqwon Plowden during a game in March.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

They could have been suckered into signing him just to throw him a grand farewell tour. They weren’t.

They could have been fooled by the 15-2 success he enjoyed when playing with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves during that glorious month this spring. They weren’t.

They could have, as with past Laker regimes, simply been bullied by Rich Paul and his cronies. They weren’t.

They didn’t even make him an offer!

In losing LeBron, the Lakers reclaimed a bit of their soul. In letting LeBron leave, they sent a clear message to everyone who stayed.

This team belongs to Luka. This team belongs to the future. This team again belongs to the Lakers.

“Truly a honor to wear the (purple and gold),” James posted on social media. “Hope I made a few proud during my stint.”

He made many proud. He made the Lakers proud. He led them to their only championship in the last 16 years, he became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, and, in his 23rd season, he set all sorts of records for longevity.

Lakers forward LeBron James (23) and his son Bronny (9) on the court together during a playoff game against the Rockets in April.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

In his final glorious act this spring, at age 41, he dragged a shorthanded Lakers team into the second round of the playoffs. His widely acclaimed effort against the Houston Rockets proved he could still play. He was still among the top 20 players in the league.

But, goodness, he drove the Lakers crazy.

His eight-year tenure was filled with quiet demands for roster changes amid veiled threats to leave. The Lakers were so afraid of losing him or displeasing Paul and all of his other star clients that they constantly, sometimes embarrassingly, bowed to the King.

In doing everything from acquiring Russell Westbrook to drafting James’ son, Bronny, the Lakers contorted themselves to please their leader.

And for what? Outside of that bubble title in 2020, James never led the Lakers to much of anything. Despite setting some of his records in front of them, he never connected with Lakers fans, perhaps because of the continuous passive-aggressive mind games he played with management.

Here’s guessing he wanted to stay in Los Angeles, and would have eventually accepted a massive pay cut from last year’s $52.6 million. Here’s guessing he would have chosen to remain in the town that contains one of his family homes and many of his businesses for a chance to end his career in a Laker uniform with a farewell celebration that matched the royal ones given the likes of Kobe Bryant and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

But the Lakers never gave him that choice. As it turns out, even 43,440 points were not enough to endear him to an organization that still prefers to call itself the Lakers and not the LeBrons. While he seemed invincible, LeBron was not indisposable, and now he can take his act to Golden State or Cleveland or somewhere else willing to kiss the ring.

Give him credit, though, for pulling one last move.

LeBron leaked his announcement one day after son Bronny’s $2.3 million contract became fully guaranteed.

Of course he did.

LeBron James is continuing his record-setting NBA career, but he won’t do it with the Lakers.

The 41-year-old superstar has informed the Lakers he intends to sign with a different team as an unrestricted free agent, The Times confirmed Tuesday. After eight seasons, James felt it was best to part ways with the Lakers, according to people familiar with the situation not authorized to discuss it publicly.

James’ tenure with the Lakers was his longest continuous stint with any franchise during his illustrious career. He led the team to its 17th NBA championship in 2020, broke the NBA’s all-time scoring record while wearing the purple and gold and set the league record for seasons played, reaching 23 unprecedented years.

His record-extending 24th season will now be elsewhere.

The Golden State Warriors were reported as a potential option after Draymond Green opted out of his contract Monday, potentially freeing enough cap space to add James. He made $52.6 million last season but could sign for a pay cut to join fellow superstar Stephen Curry.

“LeBron James is one of the greatest athletes in history,” Lakers governor Jeanie Buss said in a statement posted on social media. “We will always be thankful for his eight years with the Lakers — including the title he led us to in 2020 under the toughest imaginable circumstances and the countless records he broke in purple and gold. We wish him all the best in the future, both on the court and off. He will always be a cherished part of the Lakers family.”

James averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game last season for the Lakers while claiming a slew of NBA records, including marks for games played, all-time wins and field goals made. Despite his age James was still considered one of the top free agents in a relatively pedestrian class.

James earned his record 22nd All-Star appearance last season, maintained his streak of averaging more than 20 points per game every season of his career and willed a shorthanded Lakers team past the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs last season.

But he also gave up ground in his decades-long bout with Father Time.

James missed the first 14 games of the season while dealing with a right sciatic nerve problem, marking the first time in his career that he wasn’t ready to suit up for the season opener. His 15.3 field goal attempts per game was a career low, and he was ineligible for end-of-season awards because he missed 22 regular-season games, ending his streak of 21 years with All-NBA honors.

The Lakers needed James to reach the second round of the Western Conference playoffs last season — when the team was without star Luka Doncic for the entire postseason — but the NBA’s all-time leading scorer was set to take a supporting role within the franchise.

Doncic, 27, remains the top priority for the Lakers. Doncic signed a three-year, $165-million contract extension last summer. The Lakers also agreed to a four-year, $185-million max deal to keep Austin Reaves, who opted out of his contract to become a free agent.

Lakers stars LeBron James and Luka Doncic high-five after Doncic scored on a crucial three-point shot in overtime against the Knicks at Crypto.com Arena in March.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

With eight players from last year’s roster entering unrestricted free agency or holding player options, the Lakers were in position to completely remake their roster around Doncic two offseasons after the Slovenian superstar landed in the Lakers’ laps in a mind-blowing trade with the Dallas Mavericks for Anthony Davis.

President of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka said after the season that the roster would be “retrofitted” around Doncic, meaning the Lakers wanted to target athletic, defensive-minded wings, knock-down shooters and a rim-running center.

Welcome back to The Times’ Lakers newsletter, where we’re buckling up for what will surely be a bumpy free agency period.

Free agency negotiations can officially begin today at 3 p.m. PDT, but there have already been several eyebrow-raising moves. Blockbuster trades between Milwaukee and Miami, Charlotte and Minnesota, and Memphis and Portland are three massive shots during the offseason transaction salvo.

And those weren’t even technically free agency transactions.

Now the real fun begins.

Golden (State) reunion?

They already won an Olympic gold medal together. The mere concept of LeBron James and Stephen Curry playing together for an NBA championship is the stuff of ticket-selling, TV-viewership legend.

With James being what many consider the best free agent in this class, the superstar will be at the center of nearly every phone call through the Lakers’ El Segundo facility this summer. Between retirement, returning and relocating, James has plenty of choices for his future. Teams are starting to line up with their offers.

Signaling what will be a frenetic week, Draymond Green opted out of his contract, ESPN reported Monday morning, sending alarm bells across the league that the Warriors could be cooking up cap magic to potentially lure James to the Bay Area.

The idea was that with a restructured deal with Green, Golden State could offer the $15 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception to James. They could then try to pull off a trade to bring Anthony Davis for a “Big 4.” Eyeball emojis were wide open on the platform formerly known as Twitter.

But in this fast-paced league, that strategy barely survived the day after a Kristaps Porzingis extension reported Monday afternoon made the mid-level exception math not impossible, but certainly more complicated.

One NBA executive told my colleague Broderick Turner that James could play for the Lakers on a one-year, $30-million deal if the team wants to offer that much. It would still be a significant pay cut from the $52.6 million James made last year.

The 41-year-old is already the first active NBA player to reach billionaire status, according to Forbes. How much will a few million dollars matter to him?

During his twilight NBA years, James, according to the now-infamous statement to ESPN from his agent Rich Paul last year, wants to prioritize winning. There’s no guarantee that staying with the Lakers would make them the top team to overtake the San Antonio Spurs or Oklahoma City Thunder, but there is some proof of concept. Raise a mental banner for that 16-2, Luka-Austin-LeBron stretch.

In the West, at least, the top teams are trending young. The Thunder were the youngest team ever to win a title in 2025. The Spurs figure to be a championship contender for a long time behind Victor Wembanyama, 22, Stephon Castle, 21, and Dylan Harper, 20. The Timberwolves’ controversial trade for LaMelo Ball in exchange for fan favorite Naz Reid to Charlotte also netted Minnesota one of the league’s biggest young stars.

James, Davis, Curry and Green would be a star-studded zag toward experience when the rest of the league is zigging toward youth. The Warriors already flirted with “The Expendables” ensemble strategy with Curry, Green, Al Horford and Jimmy Butler last year.

Sequels are rarely better than the original, and in this case, the original wasn’t even that good.

By already agreeing to a four-year, $185-million deal with Austin Reaves, the Lakers are getting close to running back their own roster. As expected, Deandre Ayton opted into his $8.1 million player option.

After the 27-year-old’s up-and-down play last year, simply getting Ayton back will not stop questions regarding the Lakers’ center position.

While watching a thrilling NBA Finals and the highly anticipated Western Conference finals showdown between the Spurs and Thunder, the league saw the importance of shooting. Free-agent sharpshooters Rui Hachimura and Luke Kennard are on the market, and defensive stopper Marcus Smart will leave a hole in the Lakers’ roster after opting out. The 32-year-old guard greatly outplayed his $5.9-million option and is deserving of a multi-year deal.

When it came to his own future, James was vague at the end of the season. James’ on-court influence could persist for years, whether in L.A. or somewhere else. But his decisions won’t necessarily be his own.

James mentioned conversations with his family as important steps in the offseason process. Maybe just as important as the opportunity to chase a fifth championship is the chance for the father of three to fulfill his family responsibilities.

This month, James was celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Cavaliers’ championship with teammates, a trip that overlapped with Father’s Day. When he returned, his daughter Zhuri handed him a handwritten golf-themed card: “You are the best by par” she wrote inside.

“When you retire,” the page-long note James posted on Instagram read, “I can’t wait for you to be at all of my games like I was at yours.”

James, he wrote on social media, instantly cried.

Rock the vote

Setting the LeBron James of it all aside, which unrestricted free agent would you most want to return to the Lakers next season? Slide into my inbox at thucnhi.nguyen@latimes.com with your answer!

• Rui Hachimura
• Marcus Smart
• Luke Kennard
• Jaxson Hayes

Favorite thing I ate this week

Khinkali (Georgian soup dumplings) from Cheeseboat in Manhattan.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

I’ve recently seen social media posts of people trying to eat food from as many countries as possible without leaving a single major city. I may adopt this as a new NBA road trip side quest, and we can now add Georgia to the travel menu.

While in New York City for the draft, I stopped at Cheeseboat, a family-run Georgian restaurant in the Hell’s Kitchen area of Manhattan. It’s named after Georgia’s traditional khachapuri bread that is shaped like an open boat and filled with delicious melted cheese, but my favorite dish we had was the khinkali soup dumplings filled with ground beef, spices and herbs. I just love dumplings, and because you use your hands to eat them — picking them up by the little dough handle is advised — they’re a little less fussy than the Chinese xiao long bao.

In case you missed it

Former Lakers Malik Beasley and Ed Davis accused of illegal gambling, wire fraud and money laundering

Who will sign with the Lakers? Updates on Deandre Ayton, Marcus Smart, LeBron James and more

Swanson: You’re up, Rob Pelinka. To avoid Ned Colletti’s fate, the Lakers’ GM has to deliver this offseason

Cameron Carr on Lakers acquiring him draft night: ‘It didn’t feel real’

Plaschke: Lakers’ Austin Reaves needs to do more to earn his money

Lakers’ Austin Reaves agrees to four-year, $185-million contract

Until next time…

As always, pass along your thoughts to me at thucnhi.nguyen@latimes.com, and please consider subscribing if you like our work!

For 45 years, in his novels, short stories and essays, James Ellroy has been creating the definitive under-history of his Los Angeles hometown, mapping in his work the subterranean currents of power, corruption, sex and lies that have shaped the polity of the city. Ellroy’s latest is another compelling entry in his ongoing project.

“Red Sheet” is a multilayered American epic that blurs fact and fiction, a deep dive into anti-Communist paranoia, from the corridors of City Hall to the dank precincts of the LAPD. The novel also marks the return of Fred Otash, a real-life Hollywood fixer whom the author has featured in previous novels, including his last book, “The Enchanters.” I recently talked to Ellroy about Otash, L.A. in the ‘60s and L.A. today.

✍️ Author Chat

Freddie Otash has been something of a twisted muse for you. In “Red Sheet,” Otash is an LAPD detective trying to smoke out Communist sleeper cells in Kennedy-era L.A. He was, in fact, a real person, a notorious Hollywood fixer. How did you first become aware of him?

I had seen a documentary about his specious role in the cover-up caper surrounding Marilyn Monroe’s death. I’d been hearing about him for years, and then I created the Jack Vincennes character who worked for scandal magazines in my book “L.A. Confidential,” played by the scurrilous Kevin Spacey in the vastly overrated movie of the same name.

Did you ever meet him?

Years ago I met a producer named James B. Harris, who produced all the old Stanley Kubrick movies and had optioned one of my early books called “Blood on the Moon.” I asked him if he knew Freddie Otash, and he said everyone in Hollywood knew Freddie Otash. I was planning my novel “American Tabloid” and so I arranged to meet him. He was unpleasant and charmless and way past his prime. I spent some time with him in Miami, where he was living in a place called the Jockey Club, and I had to listen to him talk about his many conquests of the world’s most beautiful and desirable women. I didn’t believe a word of it.

But he did have useful stories, I’m assuming.

Otash I used for the character Pete Bondurant in “American Tabloid.” We entered into a deal whereby I would pay him 10% of what Knopf was paying me in exchange for him keeping his mouth shut. He has become that valuable literary artifact: the great detective.

“Red Sheet: A Novel” by James Ellroy

(Knopf)

Your book deals with a piece of legislation called the Rumford Act that would tear down the city’s racist racial housing covenants in 1963, but the act in ’62 had enemies in high places, namely Mayor Sam Yorty and his power base. You were 14 in L.A. in 1962. Did you feel this racial tension?

I remember vividly how the world was changing. I knew there was de facto segregation in housing. I remember Nixon’s pathetic campaign for governor in 1962. But I remember racial barriers breaking down, particularly in school. Just talking with Black kids in school, because why wouldn’t you? And I had been this dumb, bigoted kid.

What’s interesting about the characters in your book is that their ideological alliances are quite fluid, depending on the circumstances. Communists are married to John Birchers, who may be, in fact, red-diaper babies, and so on.

People are endlessly complex. Going back to Freddie Otash again. He knew Tom Bradley in the ‘40s, when Bradley was a cop. And Freddie becomes a bag man for the civil rights movement, and the Rumford Act in particular. He’s about the most unlikely guy you would expect to support civil rights. I wanted to show [how] complex human beings and their beliefs can be, and this book is a primer on that.

You are so closely associated with Los Angeles, and you lived here for most of your life. Why do you live in Denver now?

Helen Knode is my all-time life partner, who is also my second ex-wife. Ten years ago, we decided to get back together, but she was living in Colorado. She came up with the idea of me getting a loft in her building, and we would have the keys to each other’s places, and that’s why I did it. I like it in Denver, though it’s quite hot at the moment.

Do you miss L.A? What are you feeling about the city now?

I was just there on my book tour. I feel like it’s a complete dump. It’s just totally run-down. When I got off the airplane, I noticed a smog layer, so smog is back. I saw many young, odd-looking, overly adorned young people. I don’t know. … It’s a kid’s town now, to a certain extent.

This Q&A was edited for length and clarity.

📰 The Week(s) in Books

Country music performer Kenny Chesney sat down with Holly Gleason, the co-author of his new memoir, to talk about writing the book.

(Jill Trunnell)

Greg Sarris is the chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria in Sonoma County. He’s also an acclaimed novelist whose his first book in 28 years, “The Last Human Bear,” is loosely based on the life and teachings of Pomo spiritual leader Mabel McKay, a constant lodestar for Sarris. “An American Indian woman is as richly complicated as anybody else. I wanted to show this rich and complicated character who’s negotiated a history that she’s showing you,” Sarris tells Maddie Connors.

In “Daughters of the Sun and Moon,” author Lisa See excavates the events surrounding the Chinese Massacre of 1871. In doing so, she also digs into her own Chinese heritage in L.A. “My great-grandfather’s fourth wife was 16 when he brought her here, and she was never let out,” See tells Emily St. Martin. “My mom used to say these women would all get together, and she used to describe it as birds twittering together, because they actually had this opportunity to be with each other, but on really very rare occasions.”

Fear not, literary Cassandras: Authors can still generate online heat, thanks to BookTok and other social media outlets. So much so that more books are being adapted into streaming content than ever before. “With the advent of BookTok, it allows you to have so much social chatter around these authors,” producer Bryan Unkeless tells Gary Goldstein. “They’re becoming new rock stars, in a way.”

Finally, Kenny Chesney sat down with Holly Gleason to discuss their collaboration on “Heart Life Music,” Chesney’s new memoir. “I didn’t know if there was a story there,” the country megastar tells Gleason. “Over time you wore me down, to make me pause and … reflect.”

📖 Bookstore Faves

The interior of Counterpoint Records & Books.

(David Jones)

In a city that has so often seen its old-school retail businesses turned into nail salons and real estate offices, Counterpoint Records & Books remains an outlier. Originally established in 1979 by John and Susan Polifronio, the store on Franklin Avenue has remained, even as many of its nearby store-mates have shuttered, offering a well-curated selection of secondhand books and records from every conceivable genre. I chatted with David Jones, who is one of the owners of the Franklin Avenue store, about Counterpoint’s enduring success.

Counterpoint is an Eastside institution, but businesses along your strip on Franklin have gone under while you have survived. What is the secret to your longevity?

Firstly, we are lucky enough to own the building we do business in, which has given us a lot of freedom to be able to pursue doing business our way. That didn’t happen until we were in business for almost 20 years, but now in our 47th year we feel lucky to be able to continue to provide a physical, in-person shopping experience. I think our success is tied to this. People are looking for an experience away from their screens, and I think we provide that without being anachronistic or nostalgic by keeping up with and stocking contemporary music, digital media and all types of books.

Is your clientele mostly local? I’m guessing it’s a multigenerational clientele, given the store’s long history.

We definitely have a younger demographic these days, but we have a very intergenerational staff, and I think that attracts an all ages clientele. We meet folks daily from all over the world as a destination that people return to and tell their friends about. I think word-of-mouth is our greatest form of outreach. People say we feel special to them, as if they’ve stumbled onto a secret by shopping here. It’s something I love and am very proud of.

How have books maintained their staying power despite the countless distractions of daily life?

I think of it as one of life’s greatest luxuries. To be honest, I never thought too much about the staying power of books until the pandemic. During that time, people would come in and thank us for being open and a place they could come to escape what was happening. It was a real turning point for me. I started to think more about the importance of what we do and how much of an effect it has on people. I never took what we do for granted, but it gave me a sense of urgency that I didn’t quite have before.

Counterpoint Records & Books is at 5911 Franklin Ave. in Hollywood.

(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)

England manager Thomas Tuchel has defended his full-back selection policy after confirming Reece James will miss Saturday’s World Cup match against Panama.

As revealed by BBC Sport this week, James was assessed by England medics following Tuesday’s goalless draw against Ghana after complaining of a hamstring issue.

Tuchel has since confirmed that the Chelsea right-back has not travelled to New Jersey from their Kansas City base for their final Group L game against Panama on Saturday (22:00 BST). But he insists James has a chance of playing in England’s possible last-32 match next week.

However, BBC Sport understands that James is a significant doubt for the start of the knockout stages, should England qualify.

James’ injury – and the calf issue that caused Tino Livramento to return home from the United States – has thrown into question Tuchel’s decision to bring just three recognised full-backs to the World Cup.

Djed Spence, James and Livramento were the only genuine full-backs selected.

Nico O’Reilly, who played at left-back for Manchester City last season, is also in the squad – but he came through the ranks at Etihad Stadium as a midfielder. Dan Burn has also played at left-back but is recognised as a centre-back.

Spence and central defenders Jarell Quansah and Ezri Konsa are Tuchel’s alternative options at right-back.

Nevertheless, Tuchel said: “Yes, I am [happy with my options at right-back]. I selected the team, so I’m very happy with everything with the characteristic of the players and strengths that they give us.

“We would love to have every single key player, we would love to have them available, it’s not available – we find solutions, it’s what we do. It’s a tournament, we move on.”

James and Livramento, in particular, have a chequered injury history and Tuchel’s decision to take both to the World Cup is likely to be called into question.

Tuchel, though, is confident James will play again in the World Cup should England progress.

“It’s a minor hamstring issue, he’s not been able to train the last two days,” confirmed Tuchel.

“He’s now on an accelerated rehabilitation program and we take it game by game, but we strongly believe that he will be available [during the tournament].”

There was better news with regards to the availability of Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson, who Tuchel said would all be available to face Panama.

Rice (calf) and Anderson (glute) missed training on Thursday – but returned on Friday.

Tuchel confirmed Saka is ready to start after coming off the bench in the opening two matches because of a long-term Achilles tendinitis complaint.

Unlike the movies, where directors get the glory, TV directors sit lower in the hierarchy, below creators, producers and actors. In most series, which might employ several over a season, they are interchangeable — which isn’t to say they aren’t valuable, transforming words on a page into a four-dimensional living thing. But a director hired to helm a pilot, as James Burrows, who died Friday at 85, was again and again — almost as a lucky charm — helps set the tone for the series. Jake Kasdan’s input was crucial to the feel (and philosophy) of “Freaks and Geeks,” as Hiro Murai’s was to “Atlanta” (and most recently “Widow’s Bay”). In some cases a director is a co-creator in all but title and union affiliation. A show might subsequently pass to later hands, but they’ll be honoring its established look and feel.

But Burrows was more than a little well known. If you sat through the opening credits of “Taxi,” whose pilot he directed along with 74 other episodes — and why wouldn’t you, with its pleasing Bob James theme and Checker Cab crossing the Queensboro Bridge — you would have seen his name for weeks on end. You might have noticed it on “Cheers,” which he co-created and for which he directed 236 episodes, or on “Will & Grace” (246 episodes), or “Frasier,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “3rd Rock From the Sun,” “Caroline in the City,” “Two and a Half Men,” “2 Broke Girls,” “The Neighborhood” or, just last year, “Mid-Century Modern” — all series whose pilots he directed. You might have caught it on episodes of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Phyllis,” “Rhoda” or “Laverne & Shirley,” until you began to think that maybe there was nobody else directing network multi-camera situation comedies, the most human of television formats and a specialty from which he rarely strayed.

And you might have seen him as himself this year in the third season of Lisa Kudrow’s “The Comeback,” as the man she enlists to save a television pilot from hacky AI jokes. “Surprising only comes from a group of writers huddled in a corner, beating themselves up to beat out a better joke,” he says.

“As director, I am there to help create the ensemble, to do everything I can to foster a community among the company, and to train a new set of actors to behave as a group and respect one another,” he wrote in his 2022 memoir, “Directed by James Burrows.” He famously took the cast of “Friends” to Las Vegas before the show premiered in order to foster bonds in a soon-to-be-impossible state of anonymity. “I guess I have a gift for creating families,” he told the New York Times in 2023.

But if “Friends” refers to the characters and the people who play them, it includes the audience too. Burrows’ talent was to midwife a real relationship between the viewer and the viewed, “You want to go where everybody knows your name,” runs the “Cheers” theme, and where you know everyone’s name. The families he excelled at creating were yours as well, and one watched knowing that these things happened in real time in real space, and that you could be in the room, if you made the effort. Tickets were available.

The son of Abe Burrows, who wrote or co-wrote the books for “Guys and Dolls,” “Can-Can” and “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” and co-created the radio comedy “Duffy’s Tavern” — set, like “Cheers,” in a bar, though the younger Burrows denied any influence — he’d been directing dinner theater when he had the idea to write to Mary Tyler Moore, whom he’d met on the set of a never-opened “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” musical. His stage experience (and his Yale School of Drama degree, presumably) proved eminently transferable to the proscenium reality of multi-camera situation comedy.

What Burrows shows share — the ones we remember, at least, out of many we don’t — is that they’re fundamentally joyful. They lack cynicism. They’re expressive of their times without being showily edgy. They walk a line between freshness and familiarity, which makes one want to return week after week. They may push an envelope — “Friends” was something new, after all — but subtly. We can assume, given his reputation and the fact that he could have retired on “Cheers” alone, that he liked what he did and did what he liked, and regard his choice of projects as a form of personal expression in itself, the basis of a body of work that has and will live on.

Comedy director James Burrows, the 11-time Emmy-winning director who co-created “Cheers” and helped turn such long-running sitcoms as “Taxi,” “Friends,” “Will & Grace” and “The Big Bang Theory” into fan favorites, has died, his family confirmed to People. He was 85.

“We celebrate the extraordinary life and enduring legacy of James ‘Jimmy’ Burrows, who passed away peacefully today surrounded by his loving family,” his family said in a statement to People. “For more than five decades, Burrows was one of the most influential and beloved directors in television history. As a legendary director, mentor, and creative force, he helped shape generations of comedy and brought immeasurable joy to audiences around the world.”

A master of the multi-camera sitcom, Burrows started his career shooting episodes of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in 1974 and “The Bob Newhart Show” in 1975. He soon joined the quality-oriented production company, MTM, which counted James L. Brooks, Steven Bochco and Gary David Goldberg among its alumni.

“They were smart enough to know that it’s better to have a director who can talk to actors rather than a director who can move cameras. You can’t really learn how to make something funny, but you can learn to move the cameras,” Burrows said in a 1995 interview with The Times.

Burrows was born in Los Angeles and later moved to New York with his family where he attended the High School of Music & Art. He graduated from Oberlin College and completed a graduate program at the Yale School of Drama. He worked years as a stage manager with his father, a playwright and director, assisting on shows such as “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” starring Moore and Richard Chamberlain.

He solidified his name in television with “Cheers,” co-creating the lively Boston travern “where everybody knows your name” with Glen and Les Charles. Over its 11 seasons on the air, Burrows directed 237 of its 275 episodes, emerging as a behind-the-scenes comedy legend.

“You bring ‘em in, you sit ‘em down and they talk. That’s all ‘Cheers’ was,” Burrows told The Times. “The word is more important than the goofiness. It was all about the words — which is how I was trained, how my father was trained, how anybody who reads books is trained. It’s the word.”

His father, Abe Burrows, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, screenwriter and director who performed in radio comedies and co-wrote the books for the Broadway musicals “Guys and Dolls” and “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” The younger Burrows said that growing up on radio comedies helped him hone his ear for humor.

“I know what’s funny, and I probably know the best way to deliver the joke. Whether it’s walking out of a room, facing that way, facing this way,” Burrows said in a 2010 interview with The Times. “I just have a sense of that.”

Another skill he learned from his dad? was working on his feet.

“He’d run the scenes over and over. He created this wonderful camaraderie, which I always try to do. I love to do ensemble shows because that’s where you get the camaraderie.”

Burrows, often considered a fatherly manager, tried to bridge the gap between actors and writers and notably took the cast of “Friends” on a trip to Las Vegas before directing 15 episodes of the blockbuster comedy. He also threw a party for the “Mike & Molly” cast to build rapport because he believed when everyone liked each other, it showed onscreen.

Actors would know when a joke landed when they would hear Burrows giggle as the scene unfolded.

“I’m the guy that wants you to walk the comic plank for me,” he said. “Take it as far out as you want to take it and I’ll bring it back. Sometimes I’ll take it further. But trust me.”

With his slate of hits — he’s credited for directing several shows in NBC’s primetime “Must See TV” lineup of the 1990s — Burrows amassed sizable wealth and, from an early age, was in constant demand by those seeking his magic touch for their show. However, he also saw his fair share of flops: Henry Winkler’s “Monty, “Cafe Americain” with Valerie Bertinelli and a slew of promising pilots that never got off the ground. He also felt that ABC’s “The Associates” and “The Class” on CBS were canceled too soon.

From 1998 to 2006, Burrows helmed every episode of “Will & Grace,” the Emmy-nominated sitcom about a woman and her gay best friend that aired on NBC for eight seasons during its original run. To Burrows, it was the funniest show he ever worked on. He was also behind the camera for the comedy’s 2017 revival, which brought the envelope-pushing antics of Will, Grace, Jack and Karen back for three more seasons.

“It was a fairytale literally and figuratively,” he said in a 2016 Hypable interview. “It was not of the real world in a strange kind of way. These were exaggerated characters. Although they were grounded with Will and Grace, there was this exaggeration that made the stuff you could do and get away with on that show so extraordinary.”

He won his 11th Emmy Award serving as an executive producer on 2019’s all-star re-staging of “Live in front of a Studio Audience: ‘All in the Family’ and ‘Good Times.’” A year earlier, he was nominated for directing the “‘All in the Family’ and ‘The Jeffersons’” TV special.

James Burrows behind the scenes.

(Chris Pizzello / Invision / Associated Press)

Throughout his career Burrows had a penchant for directing pilots because it meant “you’re better than an episodic director” and could create something new in the writer-driven medium of television. He was also drawn to “more uptown, the more urbane, the more sophisticated” comedies. He tried doing cinema once — 1981’s “Partners” with Ryan O’Neal and John Hurt — and said the result confirmed his belief that he was built for television.

“I’m not a cinematic guy. I’m a theater guy. For what I do, I need a live audience,” he said in a 2016 interview with the Television Academy.

Among his favorite TV moments were the pilots for “Frasier” and “Third Rock From the Sun,” the long-awaited kiss between Sam (Ted Danson) and Diane (Shelley Long) and Woody’s (Woody Harrelson) wedding on “Cheers,” Rev. Jim (Christopher Lloyd) taking his driving test in “Taxi,” Ross (David Schwimmer) being attacked by a cat in “Friends” and Will, Grace, Jack and Karen getting in the shower together on “Will & Grace.”

Late into his career, Burrows continued to work in the multi-camera sitcom format, which is shot in a studio, usually before a live audience. In 2013, he was honored by the Television Academy, and, in 2016, he celebrated directing his 1,000th episode of television programming, crossing the milestone with an episode of “Crowded.” NBC marked the milestone with “Must See TV: An All-Star Tribute” special. According to critics, the show — billed by several outlets as the elusive “Friends” reunion and came off as a living eulogy to Burrows — fell short and did not do the legendary director justice.

In all, Burrows was nominated for 45 Emmy Awards and 17 Directors Guild of America Awards.

Vesuvius views on the Sorrentine coast

The Hotel Villa Garden, Sant’Agnello is a ravishing but small, friendly, family-run hotel about 25 minutes walk from the centre of Sorrento. The view from the cliff-edge dining terrace over to Vesuvius is breathtaking and the stylish pool is a delight. The decor is crisp and sunny. It’s the kind of place where they bring you a free glass of rosé while you wait for your taxi to the airport. Very Billy Wilder. Very Avanti.
Jan Colley

An idyllic island stay on the French Atlantic

We loved our stay at L’Hôtel La Jetée on Île de Ré (doubles from €85 B&B), which is perched on the corner of the Vauban fortified port of Saint Martin de Ré. An attractive courtyard garden filled with designer furniture is surrounded by floral balconies leading to light, airy and tasteful coastal-themed rooms. Breakfast was a real pleasure, taken in the courtyard or in the salon. The hotel’s front aspect overlooks the charming harbour with seafood restaurants and renowned ice-cream vendor La Martinière. Bike hire is available a couple of doors down for exploring the island (try a tandem) and the catamaran trip that leaves from the harbour is an elegant way to dabble in yacht life without the price tag.
Anna Kennett

Beachfront bolthole in Galicia, Spain

Forty miles south of Santiago de Compostela, Hotel Nanin (doubles from about €100 B&B) has a great location right on the beach. We had a stunning view from our room, overlooking the pool and the bay. We came across this spa hotel on a road trip around the Portuguese and Spanish coast, and we’ve returned to it since. It is about a 30-minute walk into the town of Sanxenxo, where there are more beaches, loads of restaurants and a lively promenade.
Louise

Five-star Italian luxury on the Adriatic

The abundance of hotels in the Italian resort of Rimini keeps prices competitive – I even found a good deal at the five-star Grand Hotel. If you ask for a room in the annex (doubles from €120 B&B), you can still enjoy the hotel’s facilities and services, including the open-air pool and palm-filled gardens. The wood-panelled library has fascinating photos of old movie stars and huge chandeliers. Fresh fruit in the generous breakfasts is brought in from Rimini’s daily market, and sunloungers on the nearby beach are reserved for guests. The whole hotel has an atmosphere of faded 1960s charm – I could have imagined Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni strolling in, champagne glasses in hand.
Penelope

A Biarritz time machine, France

The hotel Eduardo VII (doubles from about €104 B&B) in Biarritz is in a three-storey wooden building that feels more like a private guesthouse than a hotel. It’s like a time machine that takes guests back to when Biarritz was the height of fashion and elegance. The charming building has kept many of its original features, including wood panelling, creaky wooden floors and ornate mirrors. Bedrooms are small but cosy. Having breakfast on the sea-facing terrace was a great start to our days there – making my husband and I feel like movie stars, ready to go out and shoot a scene in a Jean Luc Goddard film by strolling along the long sandy beach.
April

Art deco vibes in Corsica

Just outside the little town of Piana, an hour’s drive up the Corsican coast from Ajaccio, is the wonderful Hotel les Roches Rouges (doubles from about €170 B&B). Built in 1912, it has a glamorous art deco vibe (and plenty of old photos on the walls). But it’s all about the view over the sea from the terrace, where the sun sets over the pink granite coastline, and you could sit all day and evening watching the colours flame and change. And the restaurant is wonderful, so you needn’t leave at all.
Laura

An oasis in southern Tenerife

Southern Tenerife is associated with boilerplate package holiday hotels. But the 1920s time capsule Hotel Reverón Plaza (doubles from £181 B&B in September) is an art deco oasis, only steps away from the beach. Step inside from the street to sip champagne amid vintage wrought-iron furniture and antique switchboards. Skip the lift and take the stairs to see them glowing under century-old stained-glass windows. On the rooftop, an unpretentious pool serves up stunning 360-degree views of the sea and surrounding hills. At around £130 a night – complete with a fantastic Spanish breakfast – it’s an absolute steal.
Erin

Faded grandeur on a car-free Greek island

On Kastellorizo, a tiny car-free island in the Dodecanese, the Megisti hotel (doubles in September from about £250 B&B a night) feels like a step back in time to the 1960s. You are immersed in aged, elegant glamour and half expect James Bond to appear in a white tuxedo and order a martini. Megisti’s spectacular setting and crystal-clear waters offers great views of loggerhead sea turtles that are often seen here as you walk around the gorgeous natural harbour.
Karen Stewart

Beachside glamour in Norway

On the island of Stokkøya in central Norway, Stokkøya Strandhotell sits beside a sweeping white-sand beach that looks more Caribbean than Nordic. The stylish timber cabins (from around £160 a night), some built partly into the dunes, offer a design-hotel feel without luxury-resort prices. Days are spent swimming, hiking coastal trails or warming up in the beach sauna after a dip in the sea. Evenings mean local seafood and a drink at the laid-back Strandbar (beach bar). It feels wonderfully remote and glamorous in a distinctly Scandinavian way, yet remains surprisingly affordable for Norway.
Sabine

Winning tip: spa bargain on a volcanic Italian island

As a lifelong backpacker, it takes a real bargain for me to entertain a spa hotel. Lo and behold I found myself on the island of Ischia, off Naples, where thermal waters are abundant and spa hotels are wildly affordable. The art deco Hotel Hermitage was a short walk from the ferry port, with views of the Aragonese castle, and comes complete with four thermal pools. For £50 a night [at the time, website rate now from around £90] I had my own large single room, balcony, delicious buffet breakfast and full access to the spa. The closest my backpack and I will ever come to true Italian glamour.
Clare