Iran’s national soccer team set off from Turkey for their World Cup training base in Mexico on Saturday, with some members of their entourage reportedly still without U.S. visas, before three group matches in the United States later this month.
The Iranian Football Federation’s secretary-general, Hedayat Mombeini, and its vice president, Mehdi Mohammad Nabi, were among 14 staff and officials without U.S. visas before games in Los Angeles and Seattle, according to Iranian state television.
It was unclear whether the federation’s president, Mehdi Taj, had been issued a visa.
The team’s participation in the World Cup has been complicated by the Iran war. Problems with processing visas had earlier led Iran to move its training base from Tucson, Ariz., to Tijuana, Mexico, which is on the border with California.
The federation accused the U.S. of “vindictive behavior” in refusing visas for “key managerial and administrative members” of the team.
The decision had “effectively denied the Iranian national team the opportunity for a level playing field and a competition free from discrimination,” according to a statement on the federation’s website. It added that the federation would pursue the matter through world soccer authority FIFA.
The Iranian Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, meanwhile, responded to an earlier social media post from U.S. Ambassador Tom Barrack, in which he congratulated his embassy staff for processing the Iran team’s visas.
“You cannot whitewash conduct that violates FIFA regulations and breaches the United States’ host obligations merely by praising yourselves,” the Iranian post read. “This represents the worst possible form of politically biased interference in sport.”
One U.S. official earlier told the Associated Press that all players on the Iranian team were approved for visas, while a second official said visas had been issued for players, coaches, trainers and some support staff. A third official suggested that some applicants affiliated with the team had been rejected for requesting visas “under false pretenses.”
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the visas publicly.
The squad has been preparing for the World Cup at a training camp in Antalya. The team said that it has already received visas from the Mexican Embassy in Ankara.
The players, dressed in blue blazers over white T-shirts, left the luxury Mardan Palace hotel in Antalya on Saturday afternoon. They boarded a private jet at the Mediterranean city’s airport and were due to fly directly to Mexico.
Iran plays its first two games in Inglewood against New Zealand on June 15, and Belgium six days later, then heads to Seattle to face Egypt on June 26. Iran and the U.S. could meet in the round of 32 on July 3 in Arlington, Texas, if both teams come second in their groups.
In March, U.S. President Donald Trump had discouraged Iran from participating in the tournament, saying he didn’t think it was “appropriate” and raising concerns over players’ “life and safety.” A day later, Iran’s national team pushed back, saying “no one can exclude” it from playing.
Iran finalized its team on Monday, including 17 home-based players whose clubs haven’t played since February because of the war. Star forward Sardar Azmoun was dropped in March, reportedly because of a social media post that angered Iranian authorities during the war.
Change in water bottle policy
FIFA announced that it will now allow fans to bring their own water bottles to some stadiums during the World Cup, adjusting a policy that had barred spectators from bringing refillable water bottles into the tournament’s 16 stadiums across North America, including some with limited or no shade from the sun.
FIFA in a social media post said fans will be permitted to bring one soft plastic 20-ounce, factory-sealed, disposable water bottle into any match taking place in the United States or Canada.
In a video released by FIFA, Chief Operating Officer Heimo Schirgi said fans will still not be permitted to bring in hard sided, reusable water bottles “due to safety and security reasons.”
Going green
As the tournament opens on Thursday, 13 of the 16 stadiums have earned LEED certification, the world’s most widely used green building rating system, the U.S. Green Building Council said. Ten have been certified since 2024 through the rigorous process to ensure buildings meet strict sustainability standards. The council expects at least two of the three remaining stadiums to achieve certification in the coming weeks.
Together, the LEED-certified stadiums have installed over 11,500 solar panels to generate clean electricity. Because of the changes made, they will save over 100 million gallons of potable water annually and eliminate more than 5 million single use plastics annually, according to information shared by the stadiums. Four venues are reusing, recycling or composting nearly all waste, preventing it from reaching a landfill.
PARIS — Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva was already a tennis phenom at age 15.
At 19, she’s a Grand Slam champion.
The eighth-ranked Andreeva ended the run of 114th-ranked Polish qualifier Maja Chwalinska by 6-3, 6-2 in the French Open final on Saturday.
Andreeva became the youngest player to win the women’s singles title since Monica Seles, who was 18 when she landed her third straight French Open in 1992.
“You’re so young and talented. It’s so annoying,” Chwalinska told Andreeva during the awards ceremony.
When Andreeva executed a backhand cross-court winner on her first match point, she threw her racket into the air and dropped on her knees to the clay to celebrate.
Mirra Andreeva returns a shot against Maja Chwalinska during the French Open women’s final on Saturday.
(Thibault Camus / Associated Press)
During the trophy presentation, Andreeva took the unusual step of thanking herself “for believing in myself, always giving my 100%, even when it’s tough, trying every day to be better as a person and as a player, believing that I can do this, fighting so many demons inside of me.
“Only I know how tough it was for me,” Andreeva added. “How nervous I was throughout these two weeks.”
Chwalinska was attempting to become the first qualifier to capture the Roland Garros title.
Andreeva was born in Siberia and moved to Sochi and eventually France to develop her tennis career.
She drew loud applause from the crowd on Court Philippe-Chatrier when she spoke a few words of French during the trophy presentation.
“Thanks for your support today and over these past two marvelous weeks here in Paris,” Andreeva said. “It was very important for me.”
Alexander Zverev plays Flavio Cobolli in the men’s final on Sunday to conclude the wildest Grand Slam in recent memory.
Andreeva has been considered a Grand Slam contender since she burst onto the scene as a 15-year-old at the 2023 Madrid Open, where she became the third-youngest player to win a main draw match at a WTA 1000 tournament and made the quarterfinals.
Lately, Andreeva has had to contend with playing under neutral status and without her country’s flag due to the war with Ukraine.
When she beat Marta Kostyuk in the semifinals, Kostyuk refused to shake her hand, as has been the custom for Ukrainian players facing Russians ever since the war started in 2022.
Andreeva has gone a step further than her coach, Conchita Martinez, who lost the 2000 French Open final to Mary Pierce.
Pierce presented the winner’s trophy to Andreeva.
The final was played under mostly sunny skies but wind was a factor in the first Grand Slam final for both players.
Chwalinska double-faulted on the opening point of the match but she was the first player to hold serve in the fifth game for a 3-2 lead.
But then Andreeva won nine straight games to take control as she found a way to hit through the wind and answer Chwalinska’s array of spins and drop shots.
Andreeva produced 25 winners to Chwalinska’s 10 and also had fewer unforced errors: 26 to 29.
There was a strong Polish presence in the crowd.
When Chwalinska was introduced, fans held aloft red-and-white Polish flags and chanted her name: “Ma-ja, Ma-ja.”
Andreeva had little support from the crowd, although there was a shout of “Davai Mirra!” (“Go Mirra”) in Russian late in the match.
In men’s doubles, top-seeded Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos retained their title with a 6-4, 6-2 win against Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten.
Dampf writes for the Associated Press. Samuel Petrequin contributed to this report.
Reaching the summit is a dream. But staying there? That’s an altogether different challenge.
Maja Stark has a special appreciation for that now, a year after winning the U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills and feeling the hefty weight of expectation that came along with it.
For her, the aftermath of that victory brought heightened anxiety, and searing criticism from outsiders when the Swedish professional’s play took a dip.
“You get comments and stuff saying, ‘What happened? You just won a major; why do you suck all of a sudden?‘” Stark said at the Chevron Championship in April. “That does take some energy and just makes you focus on the wrong things. Then I got even more stressed and anxious.”
Maja Stark plays a shot from a bunker on the 17th hole during the third round of the Chevron Championship on April 25.
(Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
Stark said she sought professional help in the form of a mental coach, sports psychologist and therapist and now believes she’s better able to withstand the scrutiny that comes with winning at the highest tier.
That career-shaping pressure will be on display again this week when the USGA brings the U.S. Women’s Open to Riviera Country Club for the first time, merging the game’s most prestigious women’s championship with a historic venue celebrating its centennial year. The tournament takes place Thursday through Sunday.
Riviera is a theater, sitting low beneath high hillsides that almost serve as balconies. Players have described the course as a stage because it can feel as if you’re being watched even when you’re alone.
“I think there’s something very nostalgic about the facility,” said Jim Richerson, Riviera’s general manager. “The golf course has never had any major renovations or changes. The clubhouse is the exact same footprint today as it was when it was built in the 1920s.”
The U.S. Women’s Open is the oldest of the LPGA Tour’s five majors, and has long served as the standard by which women’s golf measures itself. It’s open to professionals and elite amateurs through a qualifying process, and the tournament is known for identifying the player who can withstand the most pressure under the most demanding conditions.
NBC will televise the championship and although Mike Tirico will not call the event, he knows the significance of holding it at Riviera.
“Without there being a Masters for women’s golf, that tournament really is the crown jewel of the sport,” Tirico said. “It has become the event people dream of winning. … It’s just appropriate that it’s contested at a place like Riviera that for so many generations has come to define a great championship test of golf.”
A look at some of the players to watch:
Nelly Korda
Nelly Korda celebrates after winning the Chevron Championship on April 26.
(David J. Phillip / Associated Press)
The world’s No. 1 player is a major needle mover for women’s golf and is a significant source of ratings when she’s in contention. She had a record five consecutive victories last season and seven overall. Her missing major is the U.S. Women’s Open. She finished in a runner-up spot last year and left Erin Hills firmly believing a win was within reach.
Jeeno Thitikul
Jeeno Thitikul plays a shot from the fairway during the first round of the Queen City Championship on May 14.
(Jeff Dean / Associated Press)
The former World No. 1 is still in pursuit of her first major championship. She’s a big question mark in the field.
Lydia Ko
Lydia Ko hits from the fairway during the second round of the LPGA Honda Thailand on Feb. 22.
(Kittinun Rodsupan / Associated Press)
This Hall of Fame player is the only golfer in modern Olympic history to win a complete set of medals — gold, silver and bronze — across three different Olympic Games. She’s still looking for her first U.S. Women’s Open win.
Charley Hull
Charley Hull hits off the 16th tee during the first round of the Mizuho Americas Open on May 7.
(Seth Wenig / Associated Press)
A colorful character who went viral during the 2024 Open for smoking a cigarette while signing autographs and playing. She was among a cluster who finished second in that tournament. She has three victories on the LPGA Tour but has yet to win a major.
Rose Zhang
Rose Zhang hits from the ninth tee during the final round of the Queen City Championship on May 17.
(Dylan Buell / Getty Images)
Zhang, who has been splitting time between Stanford and the LPGA, amassed a remarkable collection of victories as an amateur and three years ago, became the first player in 72 years to win an LPGA Tour event in her professional debut.
Minjee Lee
Minjee Lee prepares to putt during the third round of the Chevron Championship on April 25.
(Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
Lee, an Australian star, has won three majors including the U.S. Women’s Open in 2022. Her younger brother, Min Woo, won the 2016 U.S. Junior Amateur, making them the first brother-sister tandem to win the USGA’s junior championships.
Yuka Saso
Yuka Saso lines up a putt during the first round of the Mizuho Americas Open on May 7.
(Seth Wenig / Associated Press)
She is the anomaly of anomalies, with zero wins on the LPGA Tour with the exception of two U.S. Women’s Open victories. She won the first of those at 19 years, 11 months and seven days — astoundingly tying her for the youngest player to win the Open with Inbee Park, who was precisely that old when she won in 2008.
Lilia Vu
Lilia Vu watches her shot from the seventh tee during the third round of the Queen City Championship on May 16.
(Dylan Buell / Getty Images)
Vu grew up in Fountain Valley and was a standout at UCLA. She won two majors in 2023 but lately has been battling back problems.
Michelle Wie West
Michelle Wie West of the United States hits from the third tee during the first round of the Mizuho Americas Open on May 7.
(Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
Wie West retired three years ago after the Open at Pebble Beach, but is coming out of retirement to use her last year of exemption to play at Riviera. Her husband, Jonnie West, son of late NBA icon Jerry West, will be caddying for her.
Welcome back to The Times’ Lakers newsletter, where we’re calling in reinforcements for the home stretch of the NBA season.
The Finals begin Wednesday. All but the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs are left to reckon with their rosters from the sidelines. Some of the recently eliminated teams have major decisions that could affect the market for the Lakers, who, I’m sure you know, are facing some huge roster questions. To break down the offseason, I sent the bat signal out to some of my favorite co-workers for their thoughts.
All things Lakers, all the time.
Get all the Lakers news you need in Thuc Nhi Nguyen’s weekly newsletter.
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What say you?
Joining me at our virtual roundtable are Los Angeles Times reporters Broderick Turner and columnists Bill Plaschke and Mirjam Swanson. With an assist from our assistant editor Dan Loumena, we examine the upcoming offseason.
The biggest question facing the Lakers: Re-sign LeBron James, let him walk as a free agent or hope he retires?
Nguyen: LeBron deciding to retire would definitely make things simpler for the Lakers, but nothing about this franchise can be simple. With how the season ended and the way he played, it feels unlikely that he would walk away at this point. It’ll come down to the money. This free agency class is not very strong. A soon-to-be 42-year-old could be the best of the bunch. But if the Lakers are on the hook for something close to what James made last year, building out the rest of the roster seems untenable. At the right price, he still feels like a player who could help the Lakers.
Plaschke: There is no “right price” for the Lakers and LeBron. He’s still one of the best players in the game, and he’ll demand to be paid like it, but the Lakers aren’t going to want to pony up. Not for a third option. Not for a 42-year-old consistent injury threat. And not for a guy who, if they give him what he wants, they’ll have no chance to begin building what they want, which is a championship. Bring back LeBron James? Pass.
Swanson: There absolutely is a right price — for the Lakers. Will that be the right price for LeBron? What if a low-low price of $20 million-ish would do it? Higher than the mid-level but far less than he’s used to? I think there’s a world where the Lakers can make a $20-million to 30-million pay cut make sense for LeBron — and I think he’s waiting to see if they can do it.
LeBron is such a Rorschach test because everyone hears what he says and so many of us perceive it differently. What I heard when he spoke about his future on the recent “Mind the Game” podcast was A) not someone who’s lost his love for the game, B) someone who really enjoyed last season’s Lakers team, C) someone who’s L.A.-lifestyle-loving family is going to have a lot of sway in this latest Decision and D) someone who was letting it be known that he isn’t making the call until “late-June into August,” by which time the music will have all but stopped on the NBA’s annual musical chairs number.
I take that to mean that LeBron is going to sit back and see what the Lakers do with the money they’re going to be reallocating to other players and whether it brings them closer to contention. If they do that, I think he comes back for another hurrah for substantially less — and they should want him! He’s not only one of (if not the) best players of all time. He was still a massively productive player at 40 and 41. He led the Lakers to a playoff series victory against Houston and was their most dependable player on the court for much of the Oklahoma City series in which they were otherwise completely overmatched.
Turner: Let’s be clear first: LeBron is one of the best free agents in a market that is not strong this offseason. That, alone, puts the Lakers in a precarious situation, because they know it’s a weak market and so do James and his representatives. James’ asking price and what the Lakers are willing to pay him will be the test for both sides. It’s called negotiations and James and his people already are letting the media machine suggest James wants the same $52.3 million he earned last season again. Or if not, James, rightfully, wants to know how the Lakers will build their team if he does take a pay cut. He proved his worth again in the playoffs, leading the Lakers past the Houston Rockets with Doncic out and Reaves playing in just two of those games. The Lakers will have to pay The Man.
Austin Reaves is expected to opt out of his contract to enter unrestricted free agency. The Lakers can bring him back for up to five years and $241 million. Other teams can sign him for up to four years and $178 million. What should the Lakers do?
Austin Reaves controls the ball during the first half of Game 6 against Houston.
(Ashley Landis / AP)
Plaschke: Bring back AR. He got batted around a bit in the playoffs, but he was trying to return too soon from his oblique injury. Judge him by his entire body of work, which meshes perfectly with Luka’s body of work. Give AR what he wants. Bring him back.
Swanson: Unless the Brooklyn Nets or Atlanta Hawks or Memphis Grizzlies want to massively overpay, Austin is coming back. He loves L.A. and L.A. loves him back. But I don’t think anyone thinks Austin is going to get $240 million from the Lakers, it’s more likely going to be a five-year, $200-million deal — that extra year the Lakers can offer being the sweetener in any potential bidding war.
And the Lakers shouldn’t overpay him, because they need to make sure he’s on a tradeable contract — in case they can’t figure out how to overcome Austin’s and Luka’s redundancies as defensively suspect shot-makers. Or if his toughness doesn’t override his unfortunate susceptibility to injury. Or if uneven playoff performances in the future put a lid on the Lakers’ postseason potential. You know, just in case.
Turner: He wants to return and the Lakers want him back. At what price is the question. Reaves earned $13.9 million last season and has a player option for next season at $14.8 million. He’s going to bet on himself and decline that option for a bigger payday. At the very least, Reaves will earn $40 million or more per season. The Lakers know a few teams have their eyes on Reaves. Reaves and his representatives know they can get up to five years and $241 million from the Lakers, and that’s what they want.
If the Lakers and LeBron do not come to an agreement, what other options do they have via trade or trying to sign a star?
Nguyen: The Lakers are trying to remodel the roster to fit around Luka Doncic, which means they need shooting, defense and a perfect pick-and-roll partner. Despite lingering hamstring injuries, Denver’s Peyton Watson, who is a restricted free agent, was an intriguing name, especially with a potential homecoming for the former UCLA Bruin. Detroit’s Jalen Duren is a restricted free agent and coming off an underwhelming postseason run, which could complicate negotiations for the third-team All-NBA player. If Cleveland is willing to part with one of their big men after getting swept out of the Eastern Conference finals, maybe the Lakers could lurk around for a big trade. Come draft night, the Lakers have three first-round picks available to trade: 2026, 2031 and 2033.
Swanson: The Lakers need to target stars in their roles. Most of those guys Thuc Nhi mentioned would be good — though Duren’s playoff nosedive would make me not want him at his going price. For the Lakers, it’s: Shooters wanted, defenders wanted, ATHLETES wanted. Think the New Orleans Pelicans’ Trey Murphy or maybe Herb Jones. And bring back Rui Hachimura, a big-bodied shooter who we trust in the clutch. Build Luka a suitable army, as much as possible, with the cap space and draft picks they’ve been saving for this offseason.
Turner: Here’s the thing: The Lakers can re-sign LeBron and AR and still use the mid-level exception that will be about $15 million to sign a free agent. Denver’s Peyton Watson is a name that has been attached to the Lakers. The problem is he is a restricted free agent and the Nuggets can match any offer he receives. Also, if the Lakers make him an offer, the Nuggets have 48 hours to make a decision. During that waiting period, the Lakers would have cap space tied up and could lose out on other free agents. But word around the NBA is that the Nuggets will shed some salaries so they can pay Watson because they need young, athletic wings.
Then there’s the Deandre Ayton situation. Can the Lakers upgrade at center?
Deandre Ayton defends against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Luguentz Dort during the playoffs.
(Kyle Phillips / Associated Press)
Nguyen: It feels likely that Deandre Ayton will be back on his player option. It’ll be hard for him to get anything better on the open market. But the Lakers definitely need more out of that position. If he comes back with Luka and Austin, “run it back” is starting to give “running in circles” while Oklahoma City and San Antonio run circles around everyone else in the West.
Plaschke: DA is going to take the Lakers’ money, so this feels like a moot point. A better question is, how can they get rid of him once he’s back? His motor doesn’t run at 100% all the time, and at this level, that is inexcusable.
Swanson: Yeah, DA proved he is who we all thought he was: A great talent with wavering focus. But remember, he’s not taking very much of the Lakers’ money; dude is on an $8-million contract. Together he and [Jaxson] Hayes make close to $13 million. Considered the price tag, the Lakers actually got a lot of bang for their buck.
Now, can either of those guys stop Wemby? Of course not. Can anyone on the planet, though? Uh, no. So, sure, the Lakers could spend big to upgrade at center, but it wouldn’t make much of a difference. They’d be better served to save money in the post — and potentially on LeBron — and spend it on wing defenders and shooters, which is where they can hope to counteract the top teams.
Turner: DA underperformed most of the season and was even less impressive in the playoffs against OKC. Teams are not lining up to get him, so he’ll probably pick up his player option of $8.1 million next season. Portland center Robert Williams is an unrestricted free agent that, when healthy, is an upgrade if the Lakers look his way. He earned $13.3 million last season and the Lakers could use the mid-level exception to entice him. He’s a really good defender and the sort of lob threat that Doncic loves to have on his team.
Favorite thing I ate this week
A Vietnamese bar spread: Salt and pepper chicken (top left), salt and pepper tofu (bottom left), baby clams with shrimp chips and sesame crackers (center), Vietnamese BBQ pork skewers (top right) and mango salad (bottom right).
(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)
When I was growing up, my parents had an open door policy. Family members dropped by basically unannounced on random weekdays after work or weekend afternoons to sit around our table, share a few drinks and snack on some bites. In Vietnamese, we call it “nhậu.”
It means “to go drinking,” but just as important as the cold beer is the spread of snacks that kept my uncles and aunts drinking, laughing and hanging out for hours together.
You don’t need a reason to nhậu. You just need friends, food and beer. While my friends helped stock the fridge with drinks this week, I shared some of my Vietnamese favorites. We grazed on salt and pepper chicken, salt and pepper tofu, baby clams with shrimp chips and sesame crackers, BBQ pork skewers and mango salad. It was just like Vietnam except without the oppressive humidity.
The Rams star quarterback manipulates opposing players with his eyes. He knows what he sees.
So the reigning NFL most valuable player can easily anticipate, recognize and digest why moves — on or off the field — are made.
Which brings us to the Rams’ decision to select former Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson with the 13th pick in the NFL draft.
“I understand where the team’s coming from,” Stafford, 38, told reporters last week in his first public comments about a move that stunned many. “Listen, I’m not 25 years old and I get that, so we’re doing everything we can to be as good a football team as we can for now, for the future, for all of it.”
That doesn’t mean Stafford was thrilled about general manager Les Snead and coach Sean McVay spending a first-round pick on his heir apparent.
This, however, is not the San Francisco 49ers trading for Steve Young with Joe Montana on the roster.
But the Rams bypassed an opportunity to give Stafford and an already loaded roster another weapon such as former USC receiver Makai Lemon, who might have provided immediate impact to help them reach and win Super Bowl LXI in February at SoFi Stadium.
Because the Rams showed five years ago that going all in and winning a Super Bowl was worth it, regardless of the perceived and real costs down the road.
Regardless, the Rams are considered among the favorites to return to the Super Bowl for the first time since Stafford led them to victory in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium.
Like they did before and during that 2021 season, the Rams have done almost everything possible to ensure that owner Stan Kroenke can once again bask in the glory of winning a Super Bowl in the stadium he built.
After losing last season’s NFC championship game, the team quickly signed McVay and Snead — who were entering the final years of their contracts — to long-term extensions.
Then they improved their roster’s main weak spot by trading for All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie, and signing cornerback Jaylen Watson — both of whom played on two Super Bowl championship teams with the Kansas City Chiefs.
On May 21, they signed Stafford to a one-year, $55-million extension that could keep him with the team through 2027.
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and coach Sean McVay talk during practice on Thursday.
(Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Associated Press)
Whether the 17-year veteran and reigning NFL most valuable player plays beyond 2026 remains to be seen.
But McVay is happy that the future hall of famer will be leading the offense.
“It’s great to be able to have that taken care of,” McVay said in his first news conference with local reporters since April 24, the day after the Rams drafted Simpson.
McVay had spent the previous availability explaining the reason for his somber and dour countenance during an awkward news conference the night before. McVay said he was trying to be respectful of Stafford’s status as the team leader, and that a personal situation also had affected his demeanor.
On the night the Rams drafted Simpson, McVay said he had spoken with Stafford beforehand. When asked what he told Stafford, McVay said, “I’ll keep that between us.”
Last week, when asked about his discussion with McVay, Stafford said, “I’m not going to get in too much to what our conversation was. I appreciate him talking with me about those kinds of things. We have constant dialogue and a great relationship so I appreciate that.”
Stafford said his job as the starting quarterback was to help all players, including Simpson, prepare for the season.
“He’s a guy that asks questions,” Stafford said. “I’ve been trying to answer those as honestly and as thoroughly as I possibly can.
“He’s a smart kid. He’s got talent, obviously. He’s a high draft pick so happy to add good players to our team.”
It is too early to quantify what Simpson has brought to the team, McVay said. The offseason workout program is about “setting foundations” that will help once players are participating in full-speed settings during training camp.
Simpson is on track for a lot of reps when camp begins in late July at Loyola Marymount.
Last year, Stafford was sidelined all of training camp because of a back issue. But he returned before the opener and won his first MVP award.
So the Rams are expected to modify Stafford’s traditional training camp workload — and aim for similar results.
Offseason workouts are going well, Stafford said.
“Throwing it like I know how to throw it and for somebody my age,” he quipped. “I feel pretty good.”
Even with the extension, the Rams and Stafford will continue to talk contract on a year-to-year basis, a practice they have followed since 2024, when Stafford delayed his arrival to training camp because of an impasse.
“I can’t sit there and tell you what it’s going to look like 365 days from now,” he said. “But it’s just one of those deals where I’m doing the best I can to make sure that I can play as long as I can and make sure that my family and I are all on the same page before we embark on whatever season it may be.”
If this season plays out as expected, the Rams could give Stafford another weapon at the trade deadline.
Until then, they’ve guaranteed him plenty of cash.
Few players are driven to club soccer practice by a national team player. But then few players have two sisters who play for the U.S. women’s team.
Also Zoe Thompson is just 14, so you can’t expect her to drive herself.
But here’s the thing that truly sets Zoe Thompson apart. Although eldest sister Alyssa, 21, has already played in a World Cup and middle sister Gisele made 38 NWSL appearances and played four times for the national team before her 20th birthday, Zoe may actually be the best of the three.
“She’s better technically,” said her father Mario Thompson, who coached all three.
“I think she’s the combination between Alyssa and Gisele,” said Carlos Marroquin, owner of the pre-professional women’s team that gave Alyssa and Gisele their start.
So maybe there should be a line of coaches, teammates and family members waiting to drive her to practice or to her debut with Marroquin’s team, the Santa Clarita Blue Heat, on Saturday evening at The Master’s University.
The Santa Clarita Blue Heat coach Leonardo Neveleff, center, talks to his team before a practice at Valencia High. Zoe Thompson makes her debut with the team Saturday.
The team, which competes in USL W league, has long been a summer proving ground for elite college players and aspiring pros with alumni that includes Venezuela’s Deyna Castellanos, once a finalist for FIFA’s world player of the year award; World Cup veterans Savannah DeMelo and Ashley Sanchez; former Chelsea and Atlético Madrid star Ana Borges of Portugal; and Natalia Kuikka, a five-time Finnish player of the year.
This year’s roster includes more than two dozen Division I college players, meaning Zoe Thompson will be playing with and against women much older than her.
Did we mention she’s still in middle school?
“She’s always having to get out of her comfort zone, no matter what,” said Mario Thompson, whose job as Zoe’s father is to both nurture and protect his daughter’s talent.
Zoe has followed a different path than her sisters. Alyssa and Gisele were born less than 13 months apart and grew up playing together, practicing together and pushing each other. Zoe, born seven years later, grew up watching them, imitating them and wanting to be them.
But she had to do the work alone.
“It’s a unique dynamic where Alyssa and Gisele had each other,” their father said. “It wasn’t just Alyssa by herself. She always had a partner.”
Zoe, however, observed a lot by watching.
“I feel like their mistakes helped me,” she said. “But at the same time, there are some mistakes that I’ve made that they haven’t. I’m learning differently, but I’m more learning from them.”
Zoe Thompson hugs her father Mario Thompson after practice at Valencia High.
Still, this is uncharted territory. No family has ever had a trio of siblings play for the women’s national team, and the pressure of having to match the success her sisters have had will be inescapable, if unfair, for Zoe.
It’s a level of pressure that has the potential to be crushing.
“She kind of has this expectation that’s put upon her already that ‘oh, she’s going to be like her sister,’” Gisele said. “But it’s her own life.”
And Mario Thompson, an elementary school principal who has been intimately involved in all his daughters’ careers, is having to negotiate all this on the fly.
“Everyone sees the glam and the glitz of Alyssa and Giselle, but people don’t really understand it’s a lot of pressure,” he said of the sisters, who will both be heading to Brazil with the national team next week. “They see all the great stuff, but it’s also their job.”
Mario Thompson faced some of the same issues with Alyssa, the second-youngest U.S. woman to play in a World Cup, so he limited her media interviews and tried to let her be a teenager — albeit it an exceptionally talented one. Zoe faces the additional burden of having do all that while following in her sisters’ footsteps.
“I’m very mindful and aware of that,” he said. “She’s already in the spotlight without having to be in the spotlight. It’s that pressure. I want her to love the sport, love this journey. That’s kind of how I raised all three of them.”
Zoe Thompson during a practice session in preparation for her debut with the Santa Clarita Blue Heat soccer team.
For her part Zoe, mature well beyond her tender age, dismisses the hype with a shrug.
“There are going to be comparisons,” she said. “But we’re such different people that I think it’s unfair. At the same time, they can have those comparisons, they can have those opinions, but I’m not them. So it’s not going to be any different, how I play.”
Plus, having two accomplished sisters has its advantages. In the spring Zoe trained with the youth teams at Chelsea, where Alyssa now plays, and this summer she says she’ll train with Angel City, Gisele’s team. But the drawback of being a (much) younger sister is Alyssa and Gisele had each other to lean on growing up. Zoe has had to go it alone and that, she said, has made her stronger.
“Mentally, it is harder. But seeing my sisters and where they are, it’s kind of a motivation for me,” said Zoe, who has already been called in three times by the U-14 national team. “They were kind of at the same place I am. And it’s just very motivating to see them where they are. That’s just kind of where I want to be.”
If there’s been one constant in the girls’ soccer careers it’s been their dad, who has been intimately involved in with all three, drilling them in the backyard of their Studio City home or walking them down the street to a park, where they shared the lumpy grass with softball players and unleashed dogs.
They were often, but not always, willing participants since the family didn’t have a TV when the girls were growing up.
Zoe Thompson controls the ball during a training session in preparation for her debut with the Santa Clarita Blue Heat soccer team.
And while the hours and hours of practice certainly honed the sisters’ skills, their parents can’t explain where the girls got their immense physical gifts. Mario played football and basketball and ran track at Occidental College with modest success while his wife, Karen, an occupational therapist, played basketball and ran cross-country in high school, hardly the pedigree that could be expected to produce three world-class soccer players.
Perhaps part of the answer lies in their unique DNA, a mix of Mario’s Black and Filipino background and Karen’s Italian and Peruvian roots.
“It was never the plan, ‘Hey, let’s have some soccer players’,” Mario said.
But once the sisters decided that was their plan, the parents had to adjust. The girls had rare talent, Mario Thompson quickly realized, and it had to be developed. So Alyssa and Gisele began playing with an elite boys’ team while they were still in high school and passed up scholarships to Stanford to sign lucrative contracts with Angel City while their were teenagers.
Zoe has chosen another way, playing with Tudela FC, an all-girls team that practices near her home, and with the Blue Heat, where she’ll be facing stronger, more mature players for the first time. Mario Thompson hopes those aren’t the only differences, although he said the road his youngest daughter takes will ultimately be up to her.
“My hope is she goes through college and just goes a different pathway, different journey,” Mario Thompson said. “It’s a roller-coaster ride and so for [Zoe], I think she sees that roller-coaster ride and I don’t know if it’s a rush to let me get to that. She wants to eventually be a pro, but I don’t think it’s ‘I need to get there as soon as possible.’”
“It’s Zoe, what do you want?” he added. “It’s not like you have to be here, you have to do this. It’s none of that. It’s about, ‘Hey, Zoe, this is your journey.’ We want you to enjoy it, have fun with it, be happy with it.”
She appears to be accomplishing all three of those goals. She’s also both confident and comfortable in her abilities and believes she’s already ahead of both her sisters despite the weight of expectation.
Zoe Thompson with head coach Leonardo Neveleff at the conclusion of a training session in preparation for her debut with the Santa Clarita Blue Heat soccer team. Thompson, 14, is the younger sister of U.S. women’s soccer players Gisele and Alyssa Thompson.
But she’s also well aware of the pitfalls ahead, having seen Alyssa and Gisele occasionally stumble into them.
“Yeah, it is a lot of pressure but I feel like we just had different paths,” she said. “They didn’t really know they were going to do soccer. They didn’t know that was their sport. But I feel like that path was set for me.
“It was just like I grew faster. I kind of took the understanding of what they were doing, and then I did it a little faster.”
There are other differences as well. Gisele is a defender and Alyssa a forward, but Zoe plays in the midfield. And while it was sometimes difficult to get anything more than a giggle from Alyssa in an interview even after she turned pro, Zoe already gives complete, thoughtful answers to most questions.
Zoe’s game is also different; while Alyssa and Gisele are both exceptionally fast, Zoe relies more on her skill.
“Zoe’s more technical than her sisters at this stage,” her father said. “She’s better on the ball, she has a better understanding of the game. A lot of their game was because of speed. Hers is more thinking, hers is more of the ball on her feet.
“Technically, she’s better and understands the game at this age.”
Gisele, the sister who chauffeurs Zoe to practice in Santa Clarita, agrees. But, she adds, Zoe’s greatest strength may actually be her desire.
“She just has so many great qualities that me and Alyssa don’t have,” she said. “At her age, she wants it way more than we did. She loves soccer with a passion. Me and Alyssa didn’t love it as much as she does.”
And if that passion translates to performance, Zoe will someday join her sisters on the national team. By then she may even be in the driver’s seat.
Santa Clarita Blue Heat team owner Carlos Marroquin talks to Zoe Thompson after a training session at Valencia High.
Three weeks ago The Times published an article in which general manager Perry Minisian said the Angels are “very competitive” and “our best baseball is in front of us.” He then cited run differential and team ERA as examples. After getting swept by the Dodgers by a combined 31-3 the Angels had the worst run differential, worst won/loss record and are at or near the bottom in all pitching and hitting categories in MLB.
Since owner Arte Moreno believes that “winning is not a top priority,” he must be very pleased with both the work of his GM and the team’s performance so far this season. That the three games against the Dodgers were sold out was not because of fans’ desire to see this “very competitive” Angels team.
Rob Nelson Dana Point
The Angels’ ultimate indignity is its own hometown newspaper doesn’t regard it highly enough to staff its games with a full-time writer. The Angels are irrelevant in Southern California and the owner isn’t self aware enough to realize it.
Ron Yukelson San Luis Obispo
I just wanted to give praise to the Angels TV and radio broadcast teams. Even with the Angels having the worst record in baseball, and having suffered 10 straight losing seasons, the broadcast teams approach the games professionally and always with a positive attitude. As a lifelong Angels fan, it always reminds me of that saying “hope springs eternal.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander apparently isn’t amused by a new board game that pokes fun at the Oklahoma City Thunder star’s reputation for garnering foul calls at the hint of contact by an opposing player.
Last week, a lawyer representing the two-time reigning NBA MVP sent a cease-and-desist letter to sports prediction market and fantasy sports company Underdog that includes a demand for the destruction of all copies of the cheeky and extremely limited-edition game Unethical Hoops.
Done in the style of the children’s classic Operation, Unethical Hoops requires players to use tweezers to pull objects from tiny holes, with the slightest touch of a metal border setting off a buzzer indicating failure.
Instead of pretending to be doctors attempting to remove body parts from a patient, however, Unethical Hoops players act as members of an opposing basketball team trying to take the ball from a cartoon character who very much resembles Gilgeous-Alexander.
In this game, the buzzer represents the whistle of a foul-calling referee.
“Shai has made hoops all about foul baiting and now you’re stuck guarding him in Underdog’s new board game,” a description reads on the game’s website. “Don’t get baited. Steal the ball without getting whistled.”
In a letter dated May 22, attorney Eric Fishman of ArentFox Schiff LLP demanded that Underdog “immediately and permanently cease and desist from any and all use of Mr. Gilgeous-Alexander’s NIL in any and all media, including but not limited to your website (including the Unethical Hoops Website)… and any physical goods including but not limited to the board game advertised on the Unethical Hoops Website.”
The notice also calls for Underdog to “immediately destroy all physical goods or advertisements that use Mr. Gilgeous-Alexander’s NIL, including but not limited to the board game advertised on the Unethical Hoops Website,” as well as a promise never to use the star player’s name, image or likeness without his permission.
Fishman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Times.
According to the Unethical Hoops website, which remains active more than a week after the date on the cease-and-desist order, only 100 copies of the game were made, to be given away to Underdog users. The giveaway ended as scheduled on Friday.
Underdog declined to comment on the matter other than to point out that the company has pulled comical stunts at the expense of members of the sports world.
“We’ve poked fun at Knicks and Lakers fans, the Red Sox owners, the Mets and more,” a spokesperson said via email. “We like to have some fun with whatever is in the sports fan zeitgeist.”
Gilgeous-Alexander is a four-time All-Star who led the league in scoring last season (2,484 points) and was second in scoring this season (2,117). He led the Thunder to their first NBA title last year and has them back in the Western Conference finals this year (the decisive Game 7 against the San Antonio Spurs is Saturday in Oklahoma City).
While one of the NBA’s biggest stars, Gilgeous-Alexander is often criticized for the number of favorable foul calls he receives — he has ranked second or third in the league for number of free throw attempts per game in each of the last four seasons and is currently second among all players in the 2026 playoffs with 9.8 a game — and the lengths he appears to go to in order to receive them.
After Game 2 against the Spurs, one NBA fan account on X wrote, “Shai flopped on every single shot attempt” and posted a video that showed seven such examples (Gilgeous-Alexander actually attempted 24 shots that night). The post has been viewed 22.7 million times.
Earlier this week, prior to Game 6 of the conference finals, another fan account on X posted a video “ranking all 44 times SGA fell on the floor while shooting during the 2026 playoffs from least to most egregious.” That post has been viewed 1.3 million times.
As the cartoon likeness of Gilgeous-Alexander states in the Unethical Hoops ad, “so much as breathe on me, I’m getting the call.”
The real-life SGA was asked during a TV interview after Game 3 in San Antonio about the “flopper!” chants that rained down on him at Frost Bank Center.
“It’s part of the game,” he said. “It’s nothing. I’ve been dealing with it for a long time. I don’t really hear it. I’m focused on what’s going on on the court.”
Just one of the nine Supreme Court justices thought it was appropriate for Roger Goodell — whose primary job as NFL commissioner is to protect the league — to decide whether the NFL’s hiring practices are still racist.
And it happens to be the same justice whose close friend is an NFL owner.
In fact, the friendship between Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill dates back decades, to high school. So when President Trump nominated Kavanaugh for the highest court in the land, Bidwill used the team’s official website to advocate for his confirmation. Not sure how the “stick to sports” crowd feels about it, considering how they react when players express opinions, but it felt like an overreach to me.
Obviously when a decision related to NFL owners came before the court, Kavanaugh should have recused himself. But by now we’re used to justices ignoring their own ethics rules. What I find most disturbing in this instance is Kavanaugh’s dissent.
Here’s how the hiring discrimination case came to be: Former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick texted the wrong Brian with congratulations for getting the New York Giants’ head coaching job, according to a lawsuit filed by former Dolphins head coach and former Patriots assistant coach Brian Flores, who is Black. In the 2022 suit, Flores said the Giants interviewed him for their vacant head coaching job under disingenuous circumstances. How can we tell? Because Belichick’s congratulations came three days before Flores’ interview with the Giants. The team had apparently already decided to hire Brian Daboll, who is white.
The NFL has spent the last three-plus years attempting to settle the dispute through NFL-controlled arbitration and fought to keep it out of court. The league lifted its appeal to the Supreme Court after failing to get Goodell in position to handle it via the lower courts.
In addition to the damning text exchange, Flores also has history on his side.
During one 60-season stretch, the NFL had no Black head coaches. To address the glaring discrepancy, the league established the “Rooney rule” in 2003, requiring teams to interview at least two minority candidates for head coach and other senior management vacancies.
Prior to that, most teams interviewed only white men.
The results have been mixed.
Yes, more minority candidates get interviewed now — perhaps after a white man has quietly been chosen for the job, but still … they get interviewed.
And yes, Tony Dungy and Mike Tomlin, both of whom are Black, not only got hired but also led their franchises to Super Bowl victories after the rule was put into place.
Still, two decades into the Rooney-rule era, roughly a third of the league’s owners had never hired a minority to lead their team. This includes the century-old New York Giants, who after firing Daboll at the end of the season, hired another white man to take his place. This is the backdrop of the discrimination lawsuit filed by Flores.
And still Kavanaugh felt this case could be handled internally by the organization that allowed it to happen.
Even Clarence Thomas, a judge known for ruling againstanything that helps Black people, thought the NFL should have to defend itself in court.
Consider this: The year before Flores filed his suit, the NFL settled a different discrimination lawsuit for $1 billion. That case arose because for decades, to help determine the payout from a concussion settlement between retired players and the league, the NFL used “race norming” — a methodology that assumes Black players are less intelligent than white players, making it more difficult for Black men to prove brain damage than white men. In a league that is roughly 70% nonwhite, the racist practice saved the billionaire owners millions.
Or how about this: After the Supreme Court ruled that Duke Power Co. used a controversial cognitive test to prevent Black employees from getting higher-paying jobs back in the 1970s, the NFL began using it. The league kept it in place until 2022.
And still Kavanaugh felt the league should handle Flores’ case.
I’m not sure what factors the justice was considering before his dissent, but it could not have been league history.
The number of high school baseball and softball teams in Southern California not wanting to participate in the regional playoffs next week continues to grow. The question is: Next season, when there are state championships held in the two sports, will there be fewer opt outs?
“I would think so,” said Brian Seymour, associate executive director of the CIF.
The City Section Open Division baseball champion, Birmingham, and runner-up, El Camino Real, both passed on the regional playoffs. Three of the four Division 1 semifinalists — Norco, Harvard-Westlake and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame — also opted out. In Southern Section softball, the two Division 1 finalists, JSerra and La Mirada, are ending their seasons on Friday.
These are softball opt outs for state playoffs so far:
JSerra Catholic Cathedral City Notre Dame/Sherman Oaks Lutheran/Orange Northwood La Mirada Pacifica/Garden Grove San Clemente Warren Elsinore Kennedy ML King
Travel ball begins in June, and that’s the big roadblock for softball, with many coaches and players participating. Next season, the state championships would be held the first weekend of June, the same dates as this year’s regional finals, so solving the softball dilemma remains uncertain.
The following Southern Section baseball teams have opted out for next week’s state playoffs. Trinity Classical Academy, Harvard-Westlake, Norco, Crossroads Christian, Notre Dame/Sherman Oaks, Agoura.
“We’ve heard the comment from a number of different coaches [that] once we go to a state tournament, they were more inclined to make it work,” Seymour said. “Softball may take a little longer to come around. The power of representing your community and school is a little bit more than playing for your fifth travel team.”
But players invest thousands of dollars in club softball and coaches make good summer money in travel ball.
Seymour said multiple sites are under consideration in Southern California and Northern California to host the state championships.
He’s hopeful both will catch on like swimming did when the CIF first had state championships.
“We have everybody in swimming now, where the first year was hit and miss,” he said.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
Still a town at the time – it wasn’t granted city status until 1992 – Sunderland was a different world to the one in which Gregoire had grown up. Born in 1958 in the Toxteth area of Liverpool to Windrush Generation parents from the Caribbean island of Dominica, he was raised in Bradford, another multi-cultural city.
By contrast, according to the Census figures, barely 1% of a Sunderland population approaching 300,000 in 1981 was of African-Caribbean origin.
A fifth of the League’s 92 clubs had yet to sign a black player by 1978, the year Nottingham Forest’s Viv Anderson became the first to claim a senior England cap.
“I knew only one other black fellow in Sunderland, he was at the polytechnic,” remembers Gregoire. “Wayne Entwistle [a white striker, who signed the same day in a £30,000 deal from Bury] shared digs with me for a while and was a good guy, but it was quite a lonely time.”
Gregoire cites the club’s 1973 FA Cup-winning captain Bobby Kerr and experienced midfielder Mick Docherty as two colleagues who made him feel welcome, in a debut season where he made eight first-team appearances.
But he felt the dressing room attitude towards him change in the summer of 1978, with a couple of notable incidents on a pre-season tour of Kenya.
“After one game, all these children ran on to the pitch and went up to one of our players and gathered round him,” he says. “But when they’d gone he came to me and wiped his hands on my shirt. I thought that was disgusting.
“It was like he thought those children had disease, and wanted to wipe it on me! Why me? Because I’m black, is that why?”
Later, at a post-match reception at the home of a wealthy local white family, the team lined up to meet the hostess.
“She shook the hand of the players on my right, bypassed me, then shook the hand of everyone else,” he says.
“I didn’t waste a second. I just calmly and coolly walked out of the house and on to the team bus. I would rather be out there, with lions and hyenas, than be inside, being insulted like that.
“Not one person came to see how I was, or to offer some comfort. It was only when they’d finished eating and drinking, laughing and joking, that they came filing back on to the coach.
“I thought that was a disgrace. That woman insulted me, and by insulting me she insulted the club. There was no loyalty, no integrity – I felt abandoned.”
Mauricio Pochettino knows the joy of making a World Cup roster. But he also knows the misery of being left off one.
In the first case, you want to celebrate; in the second, you want to be left alone.
The U.S. coach said he kept both emotions in mind when informing players they had — or had not — made the roster for next month’s tournament, a roster that was formally announced Tuesday during a sun-splashed, made-for-TV rally in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, about 13 miles from where July’s World Cup final will be played.
“The most important event is to be in any single roster,” said Pochettino, who made Argentina’s team for the 2002 World Cup after being passed over four years earlier.
So when Pochettino decided which 26 men would be on his team this summer, each of them got a WhatsApp message, followed by a video, sent out at 1 p.m. Eastern Time Friday. Defender Tim Ream said he received the message as he walked to his car after training with his club team in Charlotte, N.C.
“It made me stop in my tracks and immediately call my wife to let her know,” he said. “We both had been anxious and excited for the announcement.
“I’m not overly emotional, but it was definitely a relief and there was a little bit of bit of quivering, for sure, with my family when I found out.”
Christian Pulisic was alone in Milan, where he plays in Italy’s Serie A, when his phone lit up.
“I was just relaxing. Then I saw the message pop up and got excited,” he said.
The 29 players from the provisional roster who didn’t make the cut? They each got a simple email. And no explanation.
“I know it is so painful. It was so painful for me,” Pochettino said.
“When I didn’t make the roster, I didn’t want my coach to call me,” he added. “Because we care a lot, we don’t want to say nothing to confuse the player. A player who didn’t make the roster, they don’t want to hear me say, ‘Oh [too bad].’”
Christian Pulisic holds up his U.S. jersey during a rally Tuesday in New York.
(Adam Hunger / Getty Images)
Ream and Pulisic are two of 13 players who are returning to the World Cup after making the team in Qatar four years ago, part of a list that includes midfielders Tyler Adams, Gio Reyna and Weston McKennie and defenders Sergiño Dest and Antonee Robinson. They will be joined by defenders Miles Robinson and Chris Richards, both of who missed the last World Cup because of injury, and forward Ricardo Pepi, one of the final cuts in 2022.
Richards was chosen despite tearing two ligaments in his left ankle playing for Crystal Palace earlier this month. Pochettino had no new information on the injury Tuesday but said the final World Cup roster doesn’t need to be filed with FIFA until Sunday; after that, teams can replace players up to 24 hours before their opening match in the event of injury or illness.
Reyna’s inclusion was also a minor surprise since he has played just one full 90-minute game for club or country in the last four years. In the last World Cup in Qatar, he was nearly sent home for a perceived lack of effort in training after he learned he wouldn’t be a starter in the tournament.
But Pochettino said picking him was an easy decision.
“I really trust in him,” Pochettino said. “He’s a different player. A different talent. The roster needs to have a player like him.”
There were also notable omissions, among them midfielders Diego Luna and Tanner Tessmann. Luna, who plays in MLS for Real Salt Lake, has been a regular under Pochettino, playing in 17 of the U.S. team’s 18 games in 2025. But he missed time earlier this season with a knee injury and sat out of his club team’s last two games with a muscle problem
Tessmann had been called into six training camps under Pochettino and was seen as a potential starter for the U.S. before being shut down by his French club, Lyon, at the end of the season, leaving his fitness for the World Cup in question.
Pochettino declined to talk about either player — or anyone else left off the team.
“We are not going to talk about the players that are not on the roster,” he said. “That’s disrespectful to the players who are on the roster.”
Raising questions about who should have been included, the coach said, necessarily leads to questions about who should have been left off.
“That was my decision to pick that 26,” he said
Pochettino said he didn’t settle on a roster until the day before players got the WhatsApp videos — or the simple email.
“We wanted the right balance with the right players,” he said.
Among the first-time World Cup selections are midfielder Malik Tillman, the German-born brother of LAFC midfielder Timothy Tillman; Mexican-born attacker Alejandro Zendejas, who plays for Club América in the Liga MX; and Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder Sebastian Berhalter, son of Gregg Berhalter, the U.S. coach in the last World Cup.
Berhalter said he was in Qatar four years ago, cheering on his dad’s team. This year, his dad will be cheering for him.
“If you believe in your dream and put in the work, you never know what might happen,” he said from the stage after being introduced to the crowd at Tuesday’s rally.
The team will open training camp in Atlanta on Wednesday ahead of friendlies with Senegal in Charlotte, N.C., on Sunday and against Germany on June 6 in Chicago. The team will then move to the Orange County Great Park in Irvine for final preparations for its World Cup opener against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on June 12.
ROSTER
Goalkeepers: Chris Brady (Chicago Fire), Matt Freese (New York City), Matt Turner (New England Revolution)
Defenders: Max Arfsten (Columbus Crew), Sergiño Dest (PSV), Alex Freeman (Villarreal), Mark McKenzie (Toulouse) Tim Ream (Charlotte FC), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace), Antonee Robinson (Fulham), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Auston Trusty (Celtic)
Midfielders: Tyler Adams (AFC Bournemouth), Sebastian Berhalter (Vancouver Whitecaps), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Gio Reyna (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders), Malik Tillman (Bayer Leverkusen)
Forwards: Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United),Folarin Balogun (AS Monaco), Ricardo Pepi (PSV), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan), Tim Weah (Marseille), Haji Wright (Coventry City), Alejandro Zendejas (Club América)
“The thoughts of everyone at the club go out to Victor’s loved ones at this extremely difficult time.”
Udoh joined Antwerp’s academy in 2023 and played 27 times for their ‘Young Reds’ team, scoring 12 goals, and went on to make his first team debut in the same season.
“Our thoughts are with Victor’s family, friends, and loved ones. We wish them much strength, support, and warmth during this particularly difficult time.”
The second World Cup to be played in the U.S. will kick off in less than three weeks but apparently some people can’t wait since the American team’s tournament roster was leaked to The Guardian on Saturday.
The Athletic said it had independently confirmed the 26-player list with multiple sources. U.S. Soccer is scheduled to formally release the team in a nationally televised event in Manhattan this week. Contacted by The Times for comment Saturday a U.S. Soccer spokesman said, “What I can tell you is we will make the official announcement Tuesday.”
But it’s the roster, and not the way in which it was released, that is of most importance here and among the striking omissions are midfielders Tanner Tessmann and Diego Luna. Tessmann had been called into six training camps under U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino and was seen as a potential starter for the U.S. before being shut down by his French club, Lyon, at the end of the season, leaving his fitness for the World Cup in question.
Luna, who plays in MLS for Real Salt Lake, also has been a regular under Pochettino, playing in 17 of the U.S. team’s 18 games in 2025, scoring four goals and contributing four assists. But he missed time earlier this season because of a knee injury and sat out his club team’s last two games with a muscle problem.
Thirteen of the 26 players who were selected — including midfielders Tyler Adams, Gio Reyna, Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie — were on the U.S. team in Qatar four years ago. They will be joined by defenders Miles Robinson and Chris Richards, who missed the last World Cup to injury, and forward Ricardo Pepi, one of the final cuts in 2022.
Richards was included on the roster confirmed by the Athletic despite tearing two ligaments in his left ankle in Crystal Palace’s penultimate Premier League match with Brentford last weekend. The final roster, which can include between 23 and 26 players, must be filed to FIFA by June 1. However teams can replace players up to 24 hours before their opening match in the event of injury or illness.
Reyna, one of the most gifted players in the U.S. talent pool, was named to the team despite having played just one full 90-minute game for club or country in the last four years. And in the last World Cup in Qatar, he was nearly sent home for a perceived lack of effort in training after he learned he wouldn’t be a starter in the tournament.
“No spot is guaranteed or safe,” he said of the World Cup during an interview earlier this month alongside his German club teammate Joe Scally, who also made the U.S. roster. “I want to be there. It’s a World Cup in your home country.
“It’s a dream come true.”
“It only happens every four years,” added Scally, who made the 2022 team but did not play in the tournament. “Everyone’s just super excited, especially to be in America. It’s going to be very special.”
Among the first-time World Cup selections are midfielder Malik Tillman, the German-born brother of LAFC midfielder Timothy Tillman; Mexican-born attacker Alejandro Zendejas, who plays for Club América in Liga MX; and Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder Sebastian Berhalter, son of Gregg Berhalter, the U.S. coach in the last World Cup.
The inclusion of Zendejas on the roster was a bit of a surprise since his last appearance with the national team came in September but he has played well with América this season.
After Tuesday’s roster announcement in New York, the team will fly to Atlanta for training camp ahead of friendlies with Senegal in Charlotte, N.C., on May 31 and against Germany on June 6 in Chicago. The U.S. opens World Cup play at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on June 12, facing Paraguay.
ROSTER
Goalkeepers: Chris Brady (Chicago Fire), Matt Freese (New York City), Matt Turner (New England Revolution)
Defenders: Max Arfsten (Columbus Crew), Sergiño Dest (PSV), Alex Freeman (Villarreal), Mark McKenzie (Toulouse) Tim Ream (Charlotte FC), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace), Antonee Robinson (Fulham), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Auston Trusty (Celtic)
Midfielders: Tyler Adams (AFC Bournemouth), Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United), Sebastian Berhalter (Vancouver Whitecaps), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan), Gio Reyna (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders), Malik Tillman (Bayer Leverkusen), Tim Weah (Marseille), Alejandro Zendejas (Club América)
“Survivor 50” castaway Joe Hunter has made it to the final tribal council of the grueling competition show twice, but walked away with slim to none when it came to jury votes.
On Wednesday night, four-time “Survivor” player Aubry Bracco was crowned sole survivor and won the not $1-million but $2-million prize (thanks to a twist that involved a coin toss and MrBeast), and Jonathan Young came in second. Hunter, a firefighter and fan favorite, lost on an 8-3-0 vote.
According to Hunter, jury members had made up their minds before the remaining three castaways even had a shot to sweeten their chances at the final tribal council.
“I sit down in that chair for final Tribal, right? I’m thinking alright, here we go,” Hunter told “Entertainment Weekly.” “Right away, the second before any word was said, I went, ‘Oh, that one hates me, this one hates me, hate me, hate me, hate me.’ And I thought, ‘There’s zero chance.’”
Hunter was somewhat optimistic leading up to the tribal council and said that he thought some of the jury members had come with an open mind. “I’ll give credit to Emily, Rick Devens, Christian, Dee,” he said.
“I just felt it was very transparent based on the questions and responses that, before this thing started, I think it was a wrap.”
During the series finale, “Survivor” legend Cirie Fields put Hunter on blast, saying that castaways felt like they had to babysit him and jokingly calling it the “Joetation” when it was a player’s turn to sway Hunter to vote alongside them.
Hunter chalked up the babysitting remark to his own naivete when it came to being vulnerable with other players he thought were his friends on the island. “I just put that vulnerability in the wrong hands,” he told the outlet. “That’s really what it is. And that’s part of the game.”
Hunter also spoke with “Entertainment Tonight” and admitted that yes, he’d blocked a select few “Survivor” players on social media. “So, 751 players,” Hunter said, “yeah, there’s two.
“I’ll tell you this, each one of them is not random,” he said. “Actually, there’s three. It is not random. … All of which I would love to talk to and solve it, and have tried.”
Last week, former “Survivor” players Kelley Wentworth, who’s been a castaway three times, Savannah Louie, who won Season 49 and was on the same tribe as Hunter in Season 50, and Tiffany Ervin, who competed on Seasons 46 and 50, all said they’d been blocked by Hunter.
Welcome back to The Times’ Lakers newsletter, where we’re not in Cancun just yet.
I fortunately have gotten some much-needed sleep during the week since the Lakers were eliminated, but NBA news never rests, especially during this pivotal offseason that could reshape the entire roster.
With almost half of the roster spots in flux, we’ll start with one player who we know will be back next season.
All things Lakers, all the time.
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Luka Doncic fourth in MVP voting
He led the league in scoring but Luka Doncic finished a distant fourth in the most valuable player voting, which was announced Sunday before Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
While Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won his second consecutive MVP in a landslide, Doncic didn’t receive a first-place vote. Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 939 total points and 83 first-place votes. Nikola Jokic was second (634 total points, 10 first-place votes) and Victor Wembanyama was third (569 points, five first-place votes). Doncic, who had 250 total points, only had one second-place vote, and even fifth-place finisher Cade Cunningham had two first-place votes that contributed to his 117-point total.
A global media panel of 100 voters selected the winner of the 2025-26 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player Award.
This MVP discussion was one of the most competitive in recent memory. A fourth-place finish, especially without a single first-place nod, doesn’t quite do justice to how productive Doncic’s season was. He averaged 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists and 1.6 steals per game. Despite playing without Doncic for the last month, the Lakers maintained a top-four seed in the competitive Western Conference and won 50 games for the second consecutive year. It was just the fourth time in the last 20 years that the league’s scoring champion didn’t receive a first-place MVP vote.
Some of the MVP race comes down to campaigning. Wembanyama, along with stellar play, repeatedly made his case during interviews. Doncic brushed off any chances to do the same.
Doncic preferred to let his play speak, but the message didn’t quite get through. During one of the most magical Marches in league history, Doncic dropped from second in NBA.com’s MVP ladder to fourth.
The season-ending hamstring injury on April 2 didn’t give him a chance to restate his case.
The more disappointing effect of the injury was that Doncic was not close to returning in time for the postseason, where he watched from the sideline as the Lakers got swept by the Thunder.
“It’s very frustrating,” Doncic said last week in his exit interview immediately after the season-ending loss. “I know some people wanted me back, but obviously I wasn’t close to clearing. … If I could be out there, I would be, 100%. Everybody in that room knows that. But it was very tough. Like I said, this is the best time to play basketball. I was sad not to be able to help my team.”
Doncic said he will not play for the Slovenian national team this summer while he prioritizes time with his daughters and recovering. His second daughter Olivia was born in December, and Doncic, who missed two games to be present for the birth, quietly managed a custody battle during the season after he and his former fiancee split.
The last 15 months have been tumultuous for Doncic, but he grew as a leader for the Lakers, coach JJ Redick said, specifically in his dedication to building off-court relationships with teammates after the shocking trade that brought him to L.A. left him in a daze for months.
“I don’t think we got the best version of Luka, the person, [last year],” Redick said. “He was great, but he was phenomenal this year as a teammate and a leader. And obviously, as a player, the guy had a tier one season relative to the rest of the league.”
Still first in the Lakers’ hearts
Will Marcus Smart and Deandre Ayton be back with the Lakers next season?
(Kenneth Richmond / Getty Images)
Doncic took his role as a leader so seriously last season that it started during free agency when he placed recruiting calls to Marcus Smart and Deandre Ayton. With both players facing player options to return, Doncic didn’t commit to trying to woo anyone back.
“We’ll see,” Doncic said. “Can’t tell you nothing.”
Most of the Lakers’ roster could change next season, but Doncic is still at the center of every decision. General manager Rob Pelinka said it’s an “ongoing collaborative process” with Doncic regarding any offseason moves.
Pelinka said the roster will be “retrofitted” around Doncic. It wasn’t that long ago that a superstar still in his prime fell in the franchise’s lap, which shook up every existing blueprint. The new archetype are three-and-D players and rim-running centers.
Ayton was supposed to be a solution at center when he signed last year. When asked how he is approaching his player option, Ayton said after the season-ending game that he hadn’t made a decision yet, but that he had enjoyed his time with the organization thus far.
“It’s purple and gold, that’s about it,” said Ayton, who was the No. 1 pick in the same draft in which Doncic went third. “Just being honored and happy to be on this platform. And another chance, and all of that. There’s great players I learned [from] here.”
Ayton flashed his potential. He was a force during the first-round playoff win over Houston. The Lakers needed him in that series and he delivered. But he also acknowledged that it was “a very humbling experience” being on a team that did not need him to score, instead asking him to primarily rebound and defend the rim with consistency.
Considering that Ayton is coming off career-lows in points (12.5), rebounds (eight) and minutes (27.2) per game, it might be hard for him to command a better salary than the $8.1-million option he has on the table.
Smart can opt into $5.4 million. The 32-year-old could decline the player option with hopes of securing a long-term contract, whether with the Lakers or elsewhere, after he proved he could still be an effective defensive spark plug and offensive shot-maker. Had a late-season right ankle injury not lingered so long, Smart, who played only 62 regular-season games, could have been in the conversation for an all-defensive team nod.
The Lakers need strong defensive players around Doncic and Austin Reaves if the duo reunite as the team’s backcourt of the future. The chemistry on and off the court between the guards was one of the highlights of the season and a reason to be hopeful that it could work in the future.
Doncic called playing with Reaves and LeBron James “an unbelievable experience.” Pelinka said at his end-of-season news conference that Reaves has expressed interest in returning to the Lakers. James’ future is more uncertain: Pelinka said the team will give James space to decide on his own, although he “would love” to have the NBA’s all-time leading scorer back.
Favorite thing I ate this week
Pho with rare beef and beef balls from Pho Show in Culver City.
(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)
I was playing hurt the last few days of the season. I sniffled, sneezed and hand-sanitized my way through Game 4 and the end-of-season news conference with Pelinka and Redick then scooped up the ultimate sick day dinner: pho.
The pho tai bo vien (rare beef and beef ball pho) from Culver City’s Pho Show didn’t heal me completely, but it sure helped. I basically slept for three straight days after the Lakers’ season ended. Now between the remaining playoff games across the league, I’ll be catching up on TV shows, reuniting with the friends I neglected for months and enjoying my rent.
Manchester City striker Khadija Shaw has been named WSL Football’s Player of the Season after an impressive campaign in the Women’s Super League.
The 29-year-old also won the Golden Boot for a third successive season after scoring 21 goals in 22 appearances as City claimed a first WSL title in a decade.
She won the Football Writers’ Association Women’s Footballer of the Year award earlier in May and was named City’s Player of the Season on Sunday.
Known affectionately as ‘Bunny’, she has dominated headlines after contract renewal discussions broke down with her current deal set to run out in June.
During City’s homecoming celebrations at Manchester’s Albert Hall on Sunday, fans chanted “we want Bunny to stay”.
Shaw, who arrived at City in 2021, has finished as the club’s top scorer in four of her five seasons there and holds the record for the most hat-tricks in the WSL (six).
Some of Shaw’s best performances this season included a hat-trick against Tottenham and a four-goal haul at home to Aston Villa, as well as scoring an important opener in the 3-2 win over Arsenal in October.
The Jamaica international could help City snatch a domestic double if they beat Brighton in the Women’s FA Cup final on Sunday, 31 May (15:00 BST).
Shaw beat team-mate Kerstin Casparij, Arsenal forward Alessia Russo and Aston Villa winger Kirsty Hanson to the award.
England international Russo netted 13 goals in 22 matches, playing as both a striker and a midfielder, while Hanson finished third in the goalscoring charts behind Shaw and Russo with 12 goals.
Also shortlisted for the main award were Manchester United’s Jess Park, Chelsea’s Alyssa Thompson, Tottenham’s Olivia Holdt and Everton’s Ruby Mace.
Angelina Anderson made one save for her second shutout and became the first goalkeeper to hold Portland scoreless this season as visiting Angel City played the Thorns to a 0-0 draw on Sunday.
Mackenzie Arnold made three saves for Portland (6-2-2) in her fourth shutout of the year. Angel City (3-4-1) snapped a four-game skid.
Late in second-half stoppage time, Thorns midfielder Jessie Fleming sent a shot off the post.
Portland had two players leave the game with injuries: Isabella Obaze in the 67th minute and M.A. Vignola in the 74th.
The leading scorers for each team missed the game: Portland’s Olivia Moultrie (calf) and Angel City’s Sveindis Jonsdottir (foot).
NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Aaron Rai shifted into high gear Sunday and pulled away from a world-class field with one amazing shot after another until he became the first English-born player in more than a century to capture the PGA Championship.
Rai, who dreamed of being a Formula 1 driver until he turned to golf as a boy, was three shots behind and approaching the turn at Aronimink Golf Club when he delivered a performance worthy of a major champion.
He made a 40-foot eagle putt on the par-5 ninth during a stretch when he one-putted seven straight greens to take the lead.
And on the closing holes when the contenders needed him to stumble, Rai holed a birdie putt of some 70 feet across the 17th green for the clincher.
The 31-year-old Rai, the first player of Indian heritage to win a major, closed with a 5-under 65.
Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Justin Rose, they all had their chances and until they were undone by untimely mistakes or failure to get good looks at birdie. McIlroy, who closed with a 69, played the par fives in even for the week and he chopped up the reachable par-4 13th for a bogey.
Rai, who finished at nine-under 271, is the first player from England with his name on the Wanamaker Trophy since Jim Barnes in 1919, the second edition of this major and the first after World War I.
He wound up winning by three shots over 54-hole leader Alex Smalley and Rahm, who had his best finish in a major since defecting to LIV Golf at the end of 2023. Rahm was slowed by a pair of bogeys on the front nine, and managed only one birdie on the back nine for a 68.
Aaron Rai and wife Gaurika Bishnoi hold the Wanamaker Trophy.
(Frank Franklin II / AP)
Smalley lost the lead with a messy double bogey on the sixth hole, and his best golf was too late. Rai already had his eye on the Wanamaker Trophy.
Justin Thomas made a 16-foot par putt on the final hole for a 65 and pulled him within one shot of the lead as the final group was in the second fairway. For the longest time, as Aronimink got tougher and the pressure got tighter, it looked like Thomas might have a chance.
Like everything else on this final day, Rai ended those hopes, too.
So ended a most remarkable week in the Philadelphia suburbs, where no one could separate themselves on Aronimink. The 22 players within four shots of the lead going into the final round was a PGA Championship record.
From that pack emerged the 31-year-old Rai, with one PGA Tour title, three on the European tour, and no finishes inside the top 15 at any of the majors.
He might not be well known among casual observers, but he is a star in the eyes of his peers for his humility and gracious personality.
“You won’t find one person on property who’s not happy for him,” McIlroy said.
“Super pumped for him and his team,” Schauffele said. “All-world gentleman, no doubt.”
Rory McIlroy hits from the bunker on the 16th green.
(Carolyn Kaster / AP)
He wears two gloves, a habit he started as a kid in England to battle the cold winters when he was practicing — and he was always practicing. Even more unusual for Rai is the plastic covers on each iron, a reminder of his roots.
He once said his father sacrificed to buy the nicest golf clubs and then would clean the grooves with baby oil after his son was done playing. Rai has left the iron covers on since then “to remember where I cam from and to respect what I have.”
Now he has his name on the Wanamaker Trophy and his place in history.
It’s sad and stony-hearted that the Lakers should unload LeBron James, recoup resources, unload his albatross-like salary, and build a championship contender bolstered by Luka Doncic. Yes, James is still a top-15 player, but unable to lead an ill-balanced team to the NBA Finals.
The Lakers allowed sentimentality toward Kobe Bryant to distort their vision, signing Bryant to a two-year, $48.5-million extension. Bryant missed 39% of the games while the Lakers won 38 times in the two seasons. Abysmal.
The Lakers should use James’ $52.6-million salary to sign long, athletic players who can drain threes with regularity.
James might make a great addition to a championship contending team like the Cleveland Cavaliers. Otherwise, thank him for his greatness as a Laker.
Marc D. Greenwood Opelika, Ala.
Some legendary athletes, like Jim Brown and Sandy Koufax, retired at the peak of their careers. Other greats, like Muhammad Ali, Johnny Unitas and Willie Mays, waited too long. Memo to LeBron James: Which camp will you choose?
Denny Freidenrich Laguna Beach
After reading Bill Plaschke’s article about LeBron James — which closes with the line “Anywhere but here” — I have a better idea. Keep LeBron, get rid of Bill. Let him write anywhere but here.
Tom Irish Rancho Palos Verdes
Father Time is as undefeated just as Bill Plaschke is winless with predictions. Many before Bill have buried LeBron James, only to see him rise to the occasion once again and prove them wrong.
If this is in fact LeBron’s last go-round, it’s been epic! Thanks for the memories. If not, let’s see him alongside an injury-free Luka Doncic for a full run to next year’s championship!
“It’s so intimidating to walk through here,” says an arena staffer as she scurries under the sight line of a video camera on a tall tripod. It’s a couple of hours before the Sparks’home opener against the Las Vegas Aces on Mother’s Day. None of the photographers or videographers or security guards respond. She says it again. Still they don’t react, but they’re not being rude. They’re just all laser-focused on a 6-foot-4 blond wearing a stunning white Alaïa runway set that happens to be both a perfect ab showcase and an unmistakable style gauntlet thrown.
As every WNBA fashion watcher already knows, the blond can only be Sparks forward Cameron Brink, a Vogue favorite and a staple on LeagueFits, the Instagram account that has amassed a million followers since 2018 with a curated stream of tunnel fits. How do they differ from regular off-court attire? These are highly stylized, high-stakes pregame outfits that many professional athletes wear when arriving at the stadium or arena, capitalizing on the opportunity to get seen on their own terms.
Cameron Brink wears an Alaïa top and skirt and Louboutin shoes.
The popular images share a common visual language: The players show up in outfits so expressive they raise an exhilarating middle finger to the very idea of quiet luxury. The backdrops are always drab; concrete floors and metal doors. The stark contrast between the two, and the suggestion of backstage access, make the photos irresistible to fans.
No one skips the tunnel walk. The Sparks rookies are here early, Ta’Niya Latson first, followed by Ji-Hyun Park and then Chance Gray, all arriving while the last section of sparkly black carpet is still being laid down on the literal tunnel, which is finally emblazoned with the team logo. That’s the one they’ll all walk in uniform to get onto the court. We are in the proverbial tunnel, it is the bustling back-of-house that players must traverse on their way to the locker room, which means that all around us the enormous task of staging a pro ballgame is unfolding in a practiced frenzy.
Less than a month ago, Latson went classic Hollywood at the WNBA draft with a glamour girl dress, meticulously laid spit curl and elbow gloves, but today she comes in sporty and fun, in a Puma top and jeans with a folded-down waistband. It’s her very first league game, and the moment is surreal, joyful. “It doesn’t even feel like I’m here, but I am,” she says.
A team staffer pulls a forgotten wad of blue painter’s tape off the floor. A photographer checks her light levels. Three gaffers rush by with heavy coils of electric cord slung over their shoulders. Park is next to arrive. A basketball star in Korea, she’s new to L.A. but already wearing a sweatshirt from a local brand, Madhappy, and does not seem at all intimidated by the cameras, giving them a playful pose, head cocked and leg kicked out. Not long after, Gray, in a plaid mini, is also posing at the photographers’ request, switching effortlessly between signature Gen Z stances, chin resting atop a bent hand. She, too, showed up at the draft in a flawless gown, but today all three rookies seem to have wisely cast themselves in a sort of spirited younger sibling role.
Ta’Niya Latson wears a Puma top and Louis Vuitton bag.
Jihyun Park arrives for her tunnel walk in a Madhappy sweatshirt and Nike sneakers.
Chance Gray wears a Revolve top and shoes, I.am.Gia. skirt and Ganni bag.
Word spreads that Sparks starter Kelsey Plum will be there soon and everyone straightens up. More team staffers rush by. To play basketball you need only a ball and a basket. To magic a WNBA production into existence, you need so much more. A man bearing a dozen brand new jerseys, designed as a callback to the original 1997 uniform, weaves past a line of people going the other way, carrying orange Gatorade coolers and stacks of branded blankets wrapped in thin plastic. An assistant speeds back and forth, loaded down with pallets of snacks, her long hair streaming behind her.
And then Nneka Ogwumike steps into view. After two seasons in Seattle, her return to L.A. is triumphant. As president of the Women’s National Basketball Players Assn., she helped secure a historic new agreement, signed March 24, with salary numbers that mean real money across the board. And in case there were any lingering doubts about her loyalty, she’s made a pointed clothing choice: a pair of custom tapestry pants constructed from a Lakers logo blanket, created by KA Originals designer and former player Kristine Anigwe. The message is simple. “L.A. for life,” says Ogwumike.
Nneka Ogwumike wears custom KA Originals tapestry pants constructed from a Lakers blanket.
Now the rush begins. As we’re talking to Ogwumike, Sania Feagin slips by in a multicolored knit beanie, smile unmissable, holding a bouquet of Mother’s Day flowers from one of the league’s social media managers. Then Emma Cannon embraces the holiday by pulling her son and twin daughters behind her in a wagon. As the family is photographed, several Aces members come in and pause for a brief hug and coo before ducking quickly out of frame. The energy could not be more different from a boxing weigh-in. No spotlight stealing. No antagonistic peacocking.
It is, indisputably, the home team’s turf. And Plum, next to arrive, treats it like her runway. Willy Chavarria sunglasses on, textured Ferragamo trousers glittering with each camera flash, she strides through without pausing. The look has her signature rebel edge, but the guard is working with a new stylist, Karla Welch, who’s known for transforming actors into fashion darlings — her client Greta Lee (“Past Lives”) is the face of Dior’s latest campaign.
Soon after, we get another speed strut from guard Erica Wheeler, whose giant “EW” initial chain from the GLD Shop is the iced out topper to an outfit that’s a master class in artful layering, composed with the assistance of stylist Miguel Moss. Wheeler dipped into Willy Chavarria’s Adidas collab with both her shorts and a pair of black sneakers with a metal-tooled toe in a floral pattern that the designer named after the Compton Cowboys.
WNBA LA Sparks player Emma Cannon with her three children.
Kelsey Plum wears Ferragamo top and pants, Willy Chavarria sunglasses and Jude boots.
The entire time players are walking through, music has been booming through the hallways. Gradually, it becomes clear that the game DJ and host are also getting ready, running through their playlists and patter. When Rae Burrell enters, the game announcer is rehearsing, exhorting the not-yet-arrived crowd to cheer for their team. Burrell may have worked with a shopper to procure options, but she styled herself in this cheer-worthy outfit — a gray minidress that satisfyingly contrasts with a pair of bright white Moon Boots, all pulled together the night before.
Star stylist Brittany Hampton, who has worked with Brink and Plum, says, “historically, [the players] were told to kind of put themselves in a box … to shrink themselves.” The league had very narrow standards for how women were expected to look. But now, according to Hampton, their fashion choices are a projection of power: “It’s an act of their own ownership.”
Before she headed to the locker room, Burrell thanked everyone and called out a cheerful invocation, “Successful first game!” That’s the appeal of the tunnel walk. You cannot stay suspended in pure potential. There is always a ticking clock. A game will be played. Someone will win and someone will lose. None of us know yet that the Sparks are about to get trounced by the Aces, losing by 27 points. It might seem like it would be more sensible for this ritual to take place after the game, for the victors to stage a triumphant, high-style parade and for everyone else to slink out, unnoticed. But where’s the glory in that? To be an athlete is to prove yourself constantly, to always be risking your ego and your body. Without these stakes, without the backdrop of the tunnel and the promise of the competition, it would just be a runway.
In the third quarter, as the Aces’ points keep piling up, the Jumbotron lingers on a fan wearing a simple white T-shirt, probably self-made, emblazoned with an iconic 2024 image of Kelsey Plum in black sunglasses and head-to-toe black leather. Plum is braless, her vest open to reveal a shimmery pile of silver chains, her abs on defiant display. It is a potent, and lasting, assertion of self. The fan in the T-shirt smiles as their image, and Plum’s, looms over the arena.
Dearica Hamby poses with her daughter, Amaya, and wears an Ottolinger set, Steve Madden shoes and Balenciaga.
Rae Burrell wears Prada sunglasses and Diesel bag.
Ariel Atkins wears Zara pants, Charles Keith top, Bape shoes and Ganni bag.
Sania Feagin wears Mnml pants and jacket and Supreme beanie.
Head coach Lynne Roberts.
Jade Chang is the author of the novel “What a Time to Be Alive.”
It’s early in the morning, and Birmingham baseball coach Matt Mowry is at the supermarket looking through the flowers section before classes begin. He’s engaged in an unseen, often undervalued duty as a coach — providing comfort to players and their families.
One of his players, 16-year-old sophomore outfielder JJ Rodriguez, lost his father, Anthony, 53, on a Saturday morning last month when he died in his sleep at home. Mowry is looking for a bouquet of flowers to present to JJ’s mother, Nancy, before his first game back.
There are no easy answers how to help a family dealing with grief. Mowry went through his own tragedy in 2022 when his wife, Amy, died of cancer. He prays for her before each game, looking up to the sky while grasping his wife’s necklace, then kissing a ring that has her fingerprint tattooed on it.
The message Mowry told JJ: “Times are going to be tough There’s moments you’re going to break down. It’s OK. You don’t have to hide it.”
The reason No. 1-seeded Birmingham doesn’t open the City Section Open Division baseball playoffs until Thursday is because Anthony’s funeral is Wednesday, and players and coaches will be there to provide support.
Anthony Rodriguez, the father of Birmingham baseball player JJ Rodriguez, died last month.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles)
JJ missed a couple days of school and one game after his father’s death. He wanted to be alone and was skeptical about coming back any time soon.
“He would message me and tell me coming here and being around my teammates would make me more comfortable and get my mind off things,” JJ said of Mowry. “I wanted to be alone a little bit because my mind was not in the right place. But the day I came back, I learned these guys are my family.”
JJ has become an important part of his team, starting in left field while batting No. 9 in the order. The Patriots won their first West Valley League title in 20 years and are trying to win their sixth City title under Mowry.
JJ and his mother have appreciated the emotional support, allowing them to try to heal from their sorrow.
His mother told him, “Be strong for everyone else. Your dad will always be proud of you.”
There’s a candle in the room where his father was found.
“I sometimes go there and be alone at night and talk to myself,” he said.
Before games, JJ says a prayer and thinks of his father.
“Every game,” he said. “It’s for you, Dad.”
On May 23, the City final will take place at Dodger Stadium.
Imagine the thrill for players of the two teams who reach the final. They’ll get to walk the infield, put some grass in their pockets, look up into the stands, hang out in the dugout of the two-time defending world champions.
For JJ, his father won’t be able to watch him. Or maybe he will. Every day is a step forward to healing. It’s hard, but he’s got a coach watching over him.
“I talked to him about what my son went through in the same situation,” Mowry said. “I had him get back out with the guys and be there whether he practiced or played.”
