team

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Folarin Balogun was still learning to walk the last time the U.S. won a knockout round game in a World Cup. On Wednesday, he helped lead the Americans to another with his goal in the waning seconds of the first half, sparking a 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina that sends the team on to the round of 16 of this summer’s tournament.

The other goal came from Malik Tillman in the 82nd minute. The Americans have scored multiple goals in every game of the tournament for the first time ever, also setting a national record with 10 goals overall in the tournament.

The U.S. will face Belgium in the next round Monday in Seattle. Belgium advanced with a 3-2 win over Senegal in extra time.

Balogun wasn’t around to see the finish though, drawing a straight red card for stomping on the right ankle of Bosnian center back Tarik Muharemovic in the 61st minute, a foul Brazilian referee Raphael Claus confirmed via a video review. That forced the Americans to see Wednesday’s game out with just 10 players.

“For me, never is this red card,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said. “Watching after on TV, never was [it] intention[al] to step up on the player. That was a normal action in football that happened by accident.

“That is why for me it’s never a red card.”

Claus disagreed, which could prove costly against Belgium because the card comes with a one-game suspension the U.S. cannot appeal.

“It’s just so unfortunate, honestly,” teammate Christian Pulisic said. “Looking back at it, it just seems, it seems so harsh. I just told him he’s done so much for us, and now we got his back. So that’s it.”

Balogun put the U.S. in front to stay just before the intermission. The sequence started with Bosnian defender Stjepan Radeljic sliding in front of a Tillman pass, deflecting it forward toward Muharemovic. But Muharemovic got his feet crossed, allowing the ball to carom to Balogun who did the rest, sweeping the ball into the net with his left boot from about 15 feet.

The goal was Balogun’s third of the tournament, tying him with Landon Donovan (2010) for most by an American in a single World Cup since 1930. The lead was the Americans’ first at halftime in a World Cup knockout game since 2002, when they beat Mexico in the round of 16.

Folarin Balogun and Bosnia-Herzegovina defender Amar Dedic in action during the first half.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

It looked to be a precarious lead when Muharemovic crumpled to the ground with about 30 minutes in regulation time. Claus did not show a card but after the VAR official suggested he take a look at a slow-motion replay, he came away from the monitor and reached for the red, making Balogun the first American to get a red card and score a goal in the same World Cup game.

“I think it’s a yellow card,” midfielder Tyler Adams said. “I think when you slow everything down, it’s only going to look worse.”

A few minutes after Balogun left, the game paused for the second-half hydration break, which proved to be a lucky break for the U.S. Tillman had his right foot stomped on early in the half, ripping his boot and leaving his foot bloodied. The break came him a chance to change shoes.

In the 82^nd minute, he swung that new right shoe at a free kick from the top of the box, bending it off the gloved right hand of Bosnian keeper Nikola Vasilj and in the net. That brought another first, according to OptaJack, which said Tillman was the first U.S. player to score on a direct free kick in a competitive match since Jozy Altidore in 2017 Gold Cup final.

“I’ve been dreaming about this game. I’ve been dreaming about maybe taking a free kick and scoring a free kick,” said Tillman, who practices set pieces endlessly after training sessions. “And then it actually came true.”

Until Wednesday, the U.S. hadn’t beaten a European team in 13 tries, a slump that included draws with Wales and England in the 2022 World Cup and six losses in as many games under Pochettino.

The last UEFA country it did beat? Bosnia and Herzegovina, in December 2021.

“Details decided the game,” Vasilj said.

After the red card “we started controlling the game,” he continued “and they canceled that with the second goal. We had our moments and you could feel something was coming. The only thing missing was the goal.”

Staff writer Mirjam Swanson contributed to this report.

Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White has denounced the racist hate and abuse directed at Alyssa Thomas since the Phoenix Mercury forward committed a flagrant foul against star guard Caitlin Clark.

“It’s absolutely unacceptable,” White told the media before the team’s practice on Wednesday. “I think as a league as a whole, there’s been so much more toxicity, racism, homophobia — straight-out hate nonsense. And it is absolutely unacceptable.”

White attributed most of the hateful comments to online agitators rather than true WNBA or Indiana Fever fans.

“I believe this is people who are using our league, using our players, to further divisive agendas,” White said, while acknowledging that certain criticisms and fan dynamics are part of the game. “But it’s not hard to not be a jerk. If you are one of these people that are online doing this, do not call yourself a WNBA fan.”

A former Indiana Miss Basketball honoree, White played in the WNBA from 1999 to 2003, including with the Fever, before transitioning to coaching. She was previously the head coach of the Connecticut Sun — where she coached Thomas — before being hired by the Fever.

“Our league is about inclusiveness,” she continued. “Our league is about competition. Our league is about elevating — elevating women, elevating marginalized communities, and being inclusive of all different walks of life. That is what our league has always been about from day one. That is what our league will continue to be about.”

Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White has denounced the racist abuse directed to Alyssa Thomas.

(Erik Rank / Associated Press)

Thomas was suspended for a game after the WNBA reviewed a viral moment that occurred during the Mercury’s 111-109 win over the Fever last Wednesday. Thomas and Clark were scrambling for a loose ball at around the 6:52 mark during the second quarter and Thomas’ fist pressed into Clark’s throat after she landed on her. No fouls were called at that time, and screenshots and video from the incident quickly made their rounds on social media. Upon review after the game, the WNBA assessed Thomas a Flagrant 2 foul.

The 13-year veteran and six-time All Star told reporters Tuesday that she has received death threats and racist abuse in the aftermath.

“It’s unfortunate that it’s come to this over basketball,” Thomas, who had served her suspension Saturday, said. “A lot of us, myself included, didn’t even know the play took place until after the game. Now we’re being painted as thugs. There’s death threats out on us. It’s really unacceptable. It’s something that needs to change in this league and I’m just really sick and tired of it.”

She called out the WNBA and Commissioner Cathy Engelbert for not doing more to protect players off the court.

“We’re so concerned about the safety on the court, but time and time again, we’re having people threaten our lives,” Thomas said, explaining that her main concern was not the suspension itself. “Leaking addresses out there. Putting crazy pictures that have nothing to do with basketball. At some point, the league needs to [take] a stand … Time and time again, players are going through this and the league remains silent. I’m sick and tired of it. It’s time for them to step up and have our backs.”

Engelbert released a statement Tuesday night following Thomas’ comments.

“The WNBA vehemently condemns any and all forms of hate,” the widely reported statement read. “The safety and well-being of everyone in our community is always the league’s top priority. We are aware of Alyssa Thomas’ comments, and what she and her teammates have experienced is completely unacceptable and not representative of the WNBA community. The league and our security team have been in contact with the Phoenix Mercury organization and remain committed to protecting all players.”

This is not the first time Thomas has spoken out about racist abuse she and her teammates have received following a match-up against the Fever. During the 2024 playoffs, while a member of the Sun, Thomas said that she had never experienced the sort of “racial comments” or “been called the things that [she’s] been called on social media” by so-called Fever fans. The Sun eliminated the Fever that year.

Clark’s fame and popularity have often led to various talking heads, commentators and even politicians who may not regularly follow the WNBA to share their hot takes whenever a situation involves the former college phenom. The ensuing discourse and social media chatter are often divisive.

Thomas’ flagrant foul occurred two days after the teams’ chippy June 22 matchup, which saw Thomas and Clark receive technical fouls along with three other players for their involvement in a scuffle during the final frame of the Fever’s 86-77 win.

“There’s a difference between trolling, and there’s a difference between hatred,” Thomas said Tuesday of the racist slurs she and other players have received. “The hatred that we’re experiencing over a play that, honestly, was a complete accident, no one even knew it happened. It’s just unfortunate. The league has to do better in this instance.”

LeBron leaving Lakers is a good thing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unofficially, yay!

Continue reading here

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

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

Clippers send Kawhi Leonard to Toronto

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

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

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

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World Cup: Mexico advances to Round of 16

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

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

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

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

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

Continue reading here

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

Tuesday’s World Cup results

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

Today’s World Cup TV schedule

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

World Cup round of 32 schedule, results

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

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

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

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

Round of 16 schedule

All times Pacific
All games on Fox and Telemundo

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

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

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

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

Dave Roberts gets 1,000th win as manager

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

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

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

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

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

Continue reading here

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

Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Angels lose to Mariners

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

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

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

Continue reading here

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

Angels box score

MLB standings

Serena Williams loses at Wimbledon

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

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

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

Continue reading here

This day in sports history

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

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

Group play is over and it’s knockout time at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The round of 32 is in progress, with several teams already moving on the round of 16, including tournament co-hosts Canada and Mexico. The U.S. will be looking to do the same when it faces Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday.

Here’s everything you need to know about World Cup knockout stage matches being played Wednesday, Thursday and Friday across the U.S., Mexico and Canada (all times Pacific).

Wednesday’s round of 32 matches

England vs. DR Congo

England’s Jude Bellingham celebrates with teammates after scoring against Panama on June 27.

(Steve Luciano / Associated Press)

Where: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta
Time: 9 a.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: England was unbeaten in group play, but it looked sluggish, failing to score in a goalless draw with Ghana then needing two second-half scores to beat Panama. Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham have combined for five of England’s six goals while Jordan Pickford hasn’t given up a goal since the opening half of the first game. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, playing in the World Cup for the first time since 1974, made it out of the group stage for the first time ever by beating Uzbekistan with three second-half goals.

Belgium vs. Senegal

Belgium’s Leandro Trossard celebrates after scoring against New Zealand on June 26.

(Abbie Parr / Ap Photo/abbie Parr)

Where: Lumen Field, Seattle
Time: 1 p.m.
TV: FS1, Telemundo

The buzz: Unbeaten Belgium didn’t score a goal of its own until routing New Zealand 5-1 in its group-play finale. That allowed it to finish atop of its group and advance to the knockout stages, something it failed to do four years ago. Senegal started with consecutive losses, but routed Iraq 5-0, giving it the best goal differential of all third-place teams and allowing it to advance.

U.S. vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina

U.S. forward Christian Pulisic shoots during a loss to Turkey at the World Cup on June 25.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Where: Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, Calif.
Time: 5 p.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: The U.S. won its group, winning twice in the first round for the first time since 1930. But it has won just once beyond the group stage in its history and hasn’t beaten a European team in 12 tries dating to November 2022. Bosnia-Herzegovina beat Qatar in its group-stage finale to advance to the knockout rounds for the first time. Ermin Mahmic has two of the team’s five goals.

Thursday’s round of 32 matches

Spain vs. Austria

Austria’s Marko Arnautovic celebrates after a goal against Algeria on June 27 at the World Cup.

(Reed Hoffmann / Associated Press)

Where: SoFi Stadium, Inglewood
Time: Noon
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: Spain did not allow a goal in the group stage with keeper Unai Simón making just four saves in the three shutouts. But No. 3 Spain has struggled offensively; leave out its 4-0 rout of Saudi Arabia and it scored just once. Austria needed a goal deep in stoppage time to draw Algeria and finish second in its group, advancing to the second round for the first time since 1982. Marko Arnautovic has two of the team’s six goals.

Portugal vs. Croatia

Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo attempts an overhead kick against Colombia at the World Cup on June 27.

(Robert Cianflone / Getty Images)

Where: BMO Field, Toronto
Time: 4 p.m.
TV: FS1, Telemundo

The buzz: Call this the Geritol Cup. Unbeaten Portugal finished second in its group with Cristiano Ronaldo, 41, becoming the second-oldest male to score in a World Cup and the only man to score in six consecutive tournaments while Croatia saw Luka Modric become the oldest player in history to record a World Cup assist. Croatia has reached the semifinals of the last two tournaments, but its golden generation is aging. Portugal, a quarterfinalist in 2022, is hoping to give Ronaldo the one title he’s missing.

Switzerland vs. Algeria

Switzerland’s Johan Manzambi heads the ball against Canada at the World Cup on June 24.

(Abbie Parr / Associated Press)

Where: BC Place, Vancouver
Time: 8 p.m.
TV: FS1, Telemundo

The buzz: Unbeaten Switzerland held off Canada in its last game to win its group for the first time since 2006. The Swiss have not won a knockout-round game since 1954. Midfielder Johan Manzambi, the team’s youngest player at 20, has three of Switzerland’s seven goals. Algeria drew Austria in its group-play final to advance as a third-place team. Riyad Mahrez, 35, had a brace in that game and leads Algeria with two goals.

Friday’s round of 32 matches

Australia vs. Egypt

Egypt’s Mohamed Salah celebrates after scoring against New Zealand at the World Cup on June 21.

(Alex Grimm / Getty Images)

Where: AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas
Time: 11 a.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: Australia finished second to the U.S. in its group but stumbled into the round of 32, going 195 minutes without a goal. It’s the first time since 1974 Australia has gone scoreless in consecutive World Cup games. The Socceroos are playing in the knockout stage for the third time in 20 years but have yet to win an elimination game. Unbeaten Egypt also finished second in its group, on a goal-differential tiebreaker. Its five goals have come from five different players. The Pharaohs, Africa’s oldest national team, will be playing in the second round of the World Cup for the first time.

Argentina vs. Cape Verde

Argentina’s Lionel Messi, left, and Jordan’s Noussair Mazraoui battle for the ball at the World Cup on June 27.

(Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)

Where: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Fla.
Time: 3 p.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: The last World Cup loss for Argentina came in its 2022 opener, making its nine-game unbeaten run the longest under one coach since 1986, the year it won its second championship. Speaking of streaks, when Lionel Messi came off the bench to score in the group finale, it gave him goals in a record seven consecutive World Cup games. He is tied with France’s Kylian Mbappé in the Golden Boot race, having scored six of Argentina’s eight goals. Unbeaten Cape Verde is playing in the World Cup for the first time, advancing to the knockout stages behind three straight draws, two of them clean sheets by Vozinha, the team’s 40-year-old keeper. It is the first debutant to go unbeaten in the group stage since Senegal in 2002. The smallest country ever to advance out of World Cup group play, Cape Verde had just seven shots on target in the group stage, according to FIFA.

Colombia vs. Ghana

Colombia’s Gustavo Puerta reacts during a match against Portugal at the World Cup on June 27.

(Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press)

Where: Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Mo.
Time: 6:30 p.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: Unbeaten Colombia won its group but scored just once in its final two games. It’s 59 shots are tied for third in the tournament but just four of those found the back of the net. Goalkeeper Camilo Vargas, on the other hand, has been called on to make just five saves. Ghana is back in the knockout stages for the first time since 2010, advancing as a third-place team.

Some kids grow up with video games and summer camp. Sebastian Berhalter grew up with the World Cup.

He was 13 months old when his father, Gregg, played in the tournament for the first time and 5 when his dad was called back. And four years ago, when Sebastian was already a professional in his own right, he went to Qatar to watch his father coach the U.S. to the round of 16.

Yet none of that prepared the younger Berhalter for his own World Cup debut earlier this month.

“It’s ridiculous,” Sebastian said. “Before the game, I just kept chuckling to myself, like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ Literally I couldn’t believe it. Playing for my country, it’s the best feeling in the world.

“I just can’t believe that happened.”

Nor could he believe what happened next. Because after making appearances off the bench in the team’s first two group-play games — both of which ended in U.S. victories — Berhalter started the third game. And with a goal and an assist in a loss to Turkey, he already has more World Cup goals and assists than his dad.

In fact, he’s the only American with a goal and assist in the same World Cup game in the last 96 years. Not bad for your first start in the tournament.

His father still has bragging rights in one category, however, since the 2002 team he played for is still the only American team to win a knockout game in a World Cup. Sebastian can match that Wednesday in Santa Clara when the U.S. plays Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32 of this summer’s expanded tournament.

“They’re a good team,” Sebastian said of the Bosnians. “It’s a round of 32, so do or die. I think you play every game like it’s a knockout game. For us it’s, it’s keep doing what we’ve been doing.”

If Gregg provided the inspiration and the road map that guided his son to the World Cup team, the younger Berhalter had to wait for Mauricio Pochettino before he could take his first steps on that road. That came in the spring of 2025, about 11 months after his dad had been sacked as coach, when Pochettino, the new manager, gave the younger Berhalter his first national team call-up.

He’s gone on to make 16 appearances for the U.S., including three in the World Cup. And that’s something Gregg is convinced couldn’t have happened as long as he was coach.

“I think about it all the time,” he recently told ESPN. “I never could have picked him.”

The scrutiny would have been too fierce, he feared, the whispers of nepotism too loud. Sure, Michael Bradley played more than 50 internationals games for his father Bob, including four in the 2010 World Cup. But he was already on the team when his father took over from Bruce Arena, who gave Michael his first call-up.

So, Sebastian had to wait. He had to play for three MLS teams, win an MLS Cup and three Canadian Championships and become too good to ignore in order to get his first shot with the national team — one which came from Pochettino, not his father.

Neither Berhalter has regrets.

“What I know,” Gregg, now coach and sporting director of the Chicago Fire, told ESPN, “is that everything is in the place it’s supposed to be. This is how life is. It’s his turn. It’s his time now.”

And he’s playing as if there’s no time to waste.

After making his international debut in a friendly with Switzerland last May, Sebastian played five full games in the Gold Cup last summer, then scored his first international goal in a friendly with Uruguay less than three weeks before leading the Vancouver Whitecaps into the MLS Cup against Inter Miami.

So, when the time came for Pochettino to name his World Cup roster last month, it was clear Sebastian, 25, had earned a spot.

“He’s a monster. He’s a monster, in the way of how professional he is,” the coach said. “He’s the type of player who’s going to train, going to train, going to train. I mean, sometimes I have to say [to him], ‘Go inside, no?’“

After stumbling in the group-play final, which Turkey won with a goal deep in stoppage time, the U.S. will have no room for error in its first elimination game. It’s a game in which history may — or may not — be on the Americans’ side.

On one side, the U.S. is winless in its last 13 games against European opponents. On the other, its last win over a UEFA team came in December 2021, in California, over Bosnia and Herzegovina, a team to which it has never lost.

There’s an omen in there somewhere.

“Our goal is to win the World Cup,” Sebastian said. “That’s what we want to do. It’s always been our mission and we’re still taking it one game at a time.”

There’s also the family record book to think about. One more victory and Sebastian will have more World Cup wins than his dad. Two more and he’ll be in the tournament quarterfinals, which is as far as his father went in his first World Cup.

In Qatar, Sebastian was the one in stands, cheering on his dad. In this tournament, the roles have been reversed. And Gregg told his son he couldn’t be happier about or prouder of how things have worked out.

“Four years ago, I was waiting for him to come up in the stands. Now, he was waiting for me to come up in the stands,” Sebastian said. “That was special.

“When you hear words that your dad is proud of you, that’s a cool moment.”

From Ryan Kartje: She’d been out for more than a year, her long, arduous recovery from a season-ending knee injury kept almost completely under wraps. But as JuJu Watkins took her place in front of a microphone for the first time since returning to practice this summer, the USC superstar barely could contain her gratitude.

Asked Monday what the best part about being back has been so far, a big smile crept across Watkins’ face.

“Honestly everything,” Watkins said. “Like I don’t even know, the smallest stuff just gets me excited.”

Watkins’ return is a momentous mile marker for a Trojans team that has serious national title aspirations this season. Her status remains uncertain, and reporters in attendance Monday were told not to inquire further about Watkins’ recovery timeline. But she did say she’s already been able to scrimmage during USC’s summer practice and that she’s “feeling back like myself.”

“It’s just been a long time coming,” Watkins said. “I’ve just been working out and grinding every day so that I could be in position, so to see all of that hard work pay off right now, it’s really fulfilling.”

Continue reading here

Monday’s World Cup results

Round of 32
Brazil 2, Japan 1
Paraguay 1, Germany 1 (Paraguay wins on PK’s, 4-3)
Morocco 1, Netherlands 1 (Morocco wins on PK’s, 3-2)

Today’s World Cup TV schedule

All times Pacific
10 a.m., Ivory Coast vs. Norway, Fox, Telemundo
2 p.m., France vs. Sweden, Fox, Telemundo
6 p.m., Mexico vs. Ecuador, Fox, Telemundo

World Cup round of 32 schedule, results

Canada 1, South Africa 0
Brazil 2, Japan 1
Paraguay 1, Germany 1 (Paraguay wins on PK’s, 4-3)
Morocco 1, Netherlands 1 (Morocco wins on PK’s, 3-2)

All times Pacific
Tuesday
Ivory Coast vs. Norway, 10 a.m., Fox, Telemundo
France vs. Sweden, 2 p.m., Fox, Telemundo
Mexico vs. Ecuador, 6 p.m., Fox, Telemundo

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

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

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

Round of 16 schedule

Saturday
Canada vs. Morocco, 10 a.m., Fox, Telemundo
Paraguay vs. France or Sweden, 2 p.m., Fox, Telemundo

Sunday
Brazil vs. Norway or Ivory Coast, 1 p.m., Fox, Telemundo

Dodgers defeat the Athletics

From Bill Shaikin: Teoscar Hernández was back from a hamstring injury, and a little bit humble. He was about to play his first game in a month for the Dodgers.

“I don’t think they really need me in the lineup,” he said, with a hint of a smile.

Hernández hit 58 home runs over his first two seasons with the Dodgers, each of which ended in a World Series championship, so of course they need him. But, in his absence, the Dodgers had more than doubled their National League West lead.

Hernández is back, but Will Smith and Kiké Hernández still are out. So are Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Edwin Díaz.

No matter: The Dodgers boosted their division lead to 11 games Monday with a 9-4 victory over the Athletics. Shohei Ohtani, Max Muncy and Andy Pages homered to highlight a 17-hit attack.

Continue reading here

Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Angels lose to Mariners

Cole Young hit two home runs to back eight strong innings from George Kirby as the Seattle Mariners came from behind to beat the Angels 6-2 on Monday night.

Dominic Canzone also went deep to help Seattle (43-43) get back to .500 and stay a half-game behind the first-place Texas Rangers in the American League West.

Zach Neto doubled to center field leading off the game against Kirby (7-7), and Denzer Guzman singled two pitches later for a 1-0 lead. Neto hit his 18th home run in the third — a two-out shot that made it 2-0.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB standings

Who is coming back to the Lakers?

From Broderick Turner: As LeBron James dominated the news cycle regarding his future on the eve of NBA free agency, another member of the Lakers’ starting lineup returned.

Deandre Ayton is picking up his contract option for $8.1 million, according to people not authorized to publicly discuss the decision.

The 7-foot Ayton averaged career lows in points (12.5), rebounds (8.2) and minutes per game (27.2) in his first season with the Lakers, but played a career-high 72 games and shot a career-best 67.1% from the field. He averaged 10 points and 9.6 rebounds in the playoffs.

Lakers guard Marcus Smart declined his option of $5.9 million and will become an unrestricted free agent, according to people not authorized to publicly discuss the decision.

Smart is expected to have several teams pursue him in free agency, with the Houston Rockets reportedly among them.

He was the Lakers’ best defender and averaged 9.3 points and 3.0 assists last season, also his first with the team.

As for James, he’s an unrestricted free agent who earned $52.6 million last season. Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said during his season-ending news conference in May that they would give James time with his family to decide his future.

Continue reading here

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

This day in sports history

1909 — Jack Johnson fights Tony Ross to a no decision in 6 rounds at Duquesne Gardens, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to retain his heavyweight boxing title.

1916 — Amateur Chick Evans Jr. wins the U.S. Open with a record 286 total.

1929 — Bobby Jones beats Al Espinosa by 23 strokes in a 36-hole playoff to win the U.S. Open.

1962 — Murle Lindstrom wins the U.S. Women’s Open by two strokes over Jo Anne Prentice and Ruth Jessen.

1965 — The NFL grants Atlanta a franchise. Rankin Smith Sr., an Executive Vice President of Life Insurance Company of Georgia, pays $8.5 million for the franchise. It’s the highest price paid in league history at the time.

1975 — Muhammad Ali retains world heavyweight boxing crown by beating Englishman Joe Bugner by unanimous points decision in a re-match in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

1991 — Wimbledon breaks 114 years of tradition by playing on the middle Sunday of the tournament, a move forced by a huge backlog of matches caused by rain earlier in the week.

1991 — Meg Mallon sinks a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole to break a tie with Pat Bradley and Ayako Okamoto and win the LPGA Championship.

1993 — NBA Draft: Michigan center Chris Webber first pick by Orlando Magic (traded to Golden State).

1994 — Diego Maradona is kicked out of the World Cup by FIFA for failing a drug test after Argentina’s June 25 victory over Nigeria in Foxboro, Mass.

1994 — Tonya Harding is stripped of her national title and banned for life from the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. because of her role in an attack on Nancy Kerrigan.

1996 — UEFA European Championship Final, Wembley Stadium, London, England: Oliver Bierhoff scores his second goal in extra time as Germany beat Czech Republic, 2-1.

1999 — NBA Draft: Duke power forward Elton Brand first pick by Chicago Bulls.

2002 — Ronaldo scores both goals to lead Brazil to a 2-0 victory over Germany for the team’s record fifth World Cup title.

2012 — Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan becomes the first player in a Grand Slam tournament to win every point of a set on her way to beating French Open runner-up Sara Errani 6-0, 6-4 in the third round of Wimbledon.

2013 — Inbee Park wins the U.S. Women’s Open for her third straight major this year. Babe Zaharias is the last player to win three straight majors on the calendar, but that was in 1950 when that’s all there were.

2013 — NHL Draft: Halifax Mooseheads (QMJHL) center Nathan MacKinnon #1 pick by Colorado Avalanche.

2015 — The United States defeat Germany 2-0 in semifinals at Women’s World Cup. Carli Lloyd converts a penalty kick for Team USA and a 1-0 lead. Substitute Kelley O’Hara scores in the 84th minute off a Lloyd cross to seal the U.S. team’s 2-0 victory.

2018 — FIFA World Cup: Kylian Mbappé (19) becomes only 2nd teenager (Pelé 1st 1958) to score twice in a World Cup match as France eliminate Argentina 4-3 in Kazan.

2020 — FC Barcelona’ Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi scores his 700th career goal in a 2-2 draw with Atletico Madrid.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1908 — Cy Young of the Boston Red Sox pitched the third no-hitter of his career at age 41, an 8-0 win over the New York Highlanders.

1948 — Cleveland’s Bob Lemon pitched a 2-0 no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers for the first American League no-hitter at night.

1962 — Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers struck out 13 New York Mets en route to the first of four career no-hitters, a 5-0 victory at Dodger Stadium.

1970 — Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati was dedicated, but Henry Aaron spoiled the show for the crowd of 51,050 with a first-inning homer off Jim McGlothlin to send Atlanta past the Reds 8-2.

1978 — Willie McCovey became the 12th player in major league history to hit 500 home runs. His shot off Atlanta’s Jamie Easterly wasn’t enough, with the Braves beating the visiting San Francisco Giants 10-5 in the second game of a doubleheader.

1986 — 1985 Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson makes his pro baseball debut with the Memphis Chicks of the double-A Southern League and goes 1 for 4 with two strikeouts.

1995 — Eddie Murray of the Cleveland Indians became the second switch-hitter and the 20th player in baseball history to reach 3,000 hits when he singled against the Minnesota Twins. Murray joined Pete Rose, the career hits leader with 4,256, as the only switch-hitters to get 3,000.

1997 — Bobby Witt of Texas hit the first home run by an American League pitcher in a regular-season game in almost 25 years, connecting off Ismael Valdes in the Rangers’ 3-2 interleague victory over the Dodgers.

1998 — Sammy Sosa hit his 20th home run in June, extending his major league record for most homers in a month with an eighth-inning shot for the Cubs against Arizona.

2005 — Chad Cordero earned his 15th save in June in the Washington Nationals’ 7-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. He tied a major league record set by Lee Smith in 1993 and matched by John Wetteland in 1996.

2006 — Adam Dunn hit a grand slam with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning off closer Bob Wickman to lead Cincinnati to a 9-8 victory over Cleveland.

2008 — Nick Swisher homered from both sides of the plate, hitting his second grand slam in four games and adding a solo shot to lead the Chicago White Sox past Cleveland, 9-7.

2009 — Nick Markakis hit a two-run double off Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon to complete the biggest comeback in Baltimore Orioles history for an 11-10 win. Baltimore trailed 10-1 before scoring five runs in the seventh inning and five more in the eighth.

2016 — Coastal Carolina capitalized on two errors on the same play for four unearned runs in the sixth inning, and the Chanticleers won their first national championship in any sport with a 4-3 victory over Arizona in Game 3 of the College World Series finals. The Chanticleers became the first school since Minnesota in 1956 to win the title in its first CWS appearance.

2020 — Minor League Baseball officially announces the cancellation of its season as Major League Baseball will keep a “taxi squad” of eligible players that can be added to the roster if needed.

2021 — Washington Nationals shortstop Trea Turner ties the major league record by hitting for the cycle for the third time in his career in a 15-6 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mexico players celebrate after the World Cup round of 32 win over Ecuador in Mexico City on Tuesday.

(Fernando Llano / Associated Press)

Ecuador, which finished second in the South American World Cup qualifiers, put up a strong fight, bombarding the Mexican team with crosses, albeit without much organization.

Fans roared their approval for the Mexican national team, which took a lap of honor after the match, as the crowd sang “El Rey” and other songs to express their love for their team.

Julián Quiñones scored the first goal for Mexico in the 22nd minute on a counterattack, while Raúl Jiménez added the second in the 31st minute, in a match where El Tri had numerous scoring opportunities against an Ecuador side that did not appear to be well-organized defensively despite having advanced after defeating Germany in the group stage. The victory over Germany helped Ecuador become one of the third-place finishers to advance to the knockout round.

Mexico will play one more match in Mexico City, facing the winner of the England versus the Democratic Republic of Congo match to be played Wednesday in Atlanta. Mexico’s round of 16 game is scheduled for Sunday. The team is one step away from matching its best World Cup performance — a run to the quarterfinals it achieved in 1970 and 1986 when Mexico hosted both tournaments.

El Tri is now 4-0 in World Cup matches and has yet to concede a goal, both firsts for the Mexican national team.

Tuesday night’s showdown with Ecuador was delayed by an hour because of lightning.

The Ecuadorian team complained before the match that their fans had not received the tickets required by FIFA and that Mexican fans made noise all night outside the Ecuadorian team’s hotel — a common practice in Latin America designed to prevent the opponent from getting a good night’s sleep the night before a decisive match. Finally, Ecuador’s coach, Argentine Sebastián Beccacece, complained about the logistics of the trip to Mexico, claiming it involved long journeys that were an undue burden for his team.

Frustration flared up throughout the match, with both teams briefly crowding the sideline after a hard foul.

When Ecuador could not earn shots on target and time was running out during the second half, Piero Hincapié ran toward forward Santi Giménez and covered his mouth while speaking.

The referee saw the exchange and stopped play, calling for video review. Once he confirmed Hincapié’s action, the referee issued a red card and the Ecuador player became the second player this World Cup for violating FIFA’s restriction against players covering their mouths during heated exchanges. Since Ecuador lost, Hincapié will serve his red-card suspension during the team’s next international match.

FIFA established the new rule to prevent players from trying hide use of offensive language.

Paraguay’s Miguel Almirón was the first player to get a red card for the infraction against Turkey earlier in the World Cup.

Other players have covered their mouths while speaking to opponents during the World Cup, but a red card is only issued if the conversation occurs during a confrontation or heated exchange.

Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda celebrates after the Dodgers beat the Montreal Expos to win the NL pennant in 1981.

(Associated Press)

Years as manager: 1976-1996

Record: 1,599-1,439, .526 win pct

After serving as the team’s third base coach for four seasons, Lasorda took over as manager late in the 1976 season when Alston announced his retirement. He led the Dodgers to the National League pennant in his first two full seasons, losing both times to the Yankees in the World Series. He won his first World Series in 1981, knocking off the Yankees, and rallied his team to a surprise title in 1988 in which the Dodgers beat the heavily favored Athletics. Lasorda was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997, his first year of eligibility.

A fiery and vibrant presence who spent 71 years with the Dodgers, Lasorda managed nine players who won the NL rookie of the year award. The Dodgers also opened the Japanese player pipeline on his watch. Hideo Nomo, the first Japanese big leaguer to permanently relocate to the U.S., joined the Dodgers in 1995. Three decades later, the team features Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto on its star-studded roster.

Mexican fans gathered outside Ecuador’s team hotel using loudspeakers, horns and motorcycles to disturb their rest, ahead of their round of 32 knockout match. The Ecuadorian soccer federation said it has filed a formal complaint with organizers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unofficially, yay!

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

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

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

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

They didn’t even make him an offer!

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

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

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

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

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

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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

But, goodness, he drove the Lakers crazy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Of course he did.

KATIE Price has wildly promised the England football team that they can see her NAKED if they win the next World Cup game.

On Wednesday at 5pm, England will play their next match against DR Congo – and now they’ve got a bit of incentive thanks to Katie.

Former glamour model Katie has promised the lads that if they get win the game, she will strip off and give them a real treat.

Appearing on Kiss radio this week, Katie made the bold commitment while live on air.

Host Chloe Burrows asked Katie: “If you were to storm into the changing rooms at half time and give England a bit of a talking to what would you say?”

Katie replied: “First of all I’d walk in and go, oi oi! Oi oi boys, get them legs out!”

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Chloe added: “And then anything else or just leave it at that?”

“You could take your shirts off as well,” Katie added.

Chloe then asked Katie: “Can you make us a kiss breakfast commitment and finish this phrase, ‘If England win I will…’.”

Katie said: “Oh! What would I do?

“I would do a naked shoot.

“And I’d cover my private parts with the kiss sign.”

This comes after Katie’s husband Lee Andrews, who was recently detained in the notorious Al Awir prison in the United Arab Emirates city, claimed he’d adopted all five of Katie’s children.

A representative for Peter Andre, 53 – with whom Katie shares Junior, 21, and Princess, 19 – later blasted his statement as “yet another lie”. 

In the Cameo video clip, Lee went on to confes he still wishes to adopt Katie’s eldest child Harvey, 24, whose father is ex-footballer Dwight Yorke. 

He said: “I would love to adopt Harvey.”

Lee then flashed the tattoo of Harvey’s name on his hand, which he got despite having never even met him. 

Katie and Lee got wed in a whirlwind wedding at the start of the year.

THE WORLD CUP is well underway with some of England’s top stars already breaking football records – but where do these guys get to when they aren’t kicking around a ball?

Prior to the 2026 World Cup, the England head coach told the England team to head off on their post-season holidays to either the US or Caribbean so they could get used to the time zone and heat for the World Cup.

The team jetted off to West Palm Beach in Florida and stayed at the luxury Belgrove Resort and Spa.

But each player has also been to a whole host of other spots across the globe – and you might even be surprised by some.

Harry Kane

Lapland, Finland

Over Christmas last year the England captain headed to Lapland in Finland with his family.

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His wife, Katie Goodland, shared some snaps on her Instagram showing the family enjoyed dog sledding, spotting reindeer in the snow, heading on fairy light-lit walks among the trees etc.

On one night they even saw the Northern Lights and Kane’s kids enjoyed snowmobiling as well.

In addition, while in Lapland you can head off to Santa Claus Village and send postcards home.

Alternatively, families can have a go at making gingerbread.

Flights to Rovaniemi in October from £22 per way.

Jordan Pickford 

Dubai, UAE

Back in January, Jordan Pickford and his wife were spotted flying back from Dubai.

The United Arab Emirates city is well known for its warm climate as well as its architecture such as the Burj Khalifa.

From the city you can also head out to the desert to try sand surfing or dune buggying.

You could fly from the UK to Dubai for £156 per way in July.

Jude Bellingham 

Cannes, France

Four weeks ago, Jude posted some snaps of a lavish holiday in Cannes, France, with his 20-year-old brother, Jobe Bellingham.

The duo, along with other friends, enjoyed time on yachts as well as heading to La Mome – a fine dining restaurant that is famous for its foccacia dipped in olive oil and serving up fresh, local seafood.

One of the images appears to show Hôtel Martinez, which is a five-star Art Deco hotel on the Boulevard de la Croisette.

Inside, the hotel has yacht-inspired rooms and boasts a two-star Michelin restaurant.

Rooms cost from around £1,400 a night.

Flights to Nice Côte d’Azur Airport cost from £23 in July.

Dubai, UAE

The pro footballer also recently visited Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

In the city, make sure to visit the Dubai Frame, which is a 150-metre structure with one side framing Old Dubai and the other side framing New Dubai.

You can even walk across a glass bridge on the structure.

You could fly from the UK to Dubai for £156 per way in July.

Jordan Henderson

Lapland UK

Jordan Henderson has previously visited LaplandUK, showing fans you don’t have to travel far to have a magical time.

The midfielder at Brentford enjoyed the experience alongside his family, seeing reindeer and of course visiting Santa.

LaplandUK now has two experiences in the country, with the original in Ascot and a more recently opened site in Manchester.

Tickets to the experience tend to range between £65 and £195 per person, but included in that you get to hang out with the elves and even make your own toy.

Declan Rice

Dubai, UAE

While the pro footballer often visits Dubai for warm-weather training camps, Declan Rice also heads on holiday to the popular spot.

And over the years he has visited the city on many occasions, sometimes even with other pros such as Mason Mount.

While in Dubai, make sure to head to some of the city’s beaches such as Kite Beach which is a great spot for watersports as well as beach volleyball.

Alternatively, head to Sunset Beach, which is known for having a more relaxed vibe and being the ideal stop to watch the sunset.

You could fly from the UK to Dubai for £156 per way in July.

Marcus Rashford 

Barcelona, Spain

Last year, Marcus Rashford shared a few snaps of a holiday in Barcelona.

The holiday pics make sense considering the star plays as a forward for La Liga club Barcelona.

But Barcelona is a great city to visit – you can head down the famous La Ramblas and spot human statues.

And of course, enjoy some of the local restaurants serving tapas.

The Spanish city is also home to many designs by the famous architect Antoni Gaudí, including the Sagrada Familia – the tallest church in the world, that has been built over the past century.

Flights from the UK to Barcelona cost as little as £15 one-way in July.

Bukayo Saka

Lagos, Nigeria

Saka was born in London to Nigerian parents yet often heads to Nigeria in the summer.

He has previously been seen visiting Lagos and Kwara State.

Lagos is Africa’s largest city and is home to around 24million people.

The coastal city is home to the Nike Art Gallery, which spans across five floors and is home to thousands of contemporary and traditional Nigerian artworks.

Make sure to head to the Lekki Conservation Centre too, where you will find Africa’s longest canopy walkway with wetlands home to monkeys and tropical birds.

And for a beach day, stop by Elegushi Beach where you’ll also find a number of beach clubs and oceanfront restaurants.

One-way flights to Lagos from the UK cost from £263 in July.

Ollie Watkins

Lake Como, Italy

Back in 2024, Aston Villa and England striker Ollie Watkins proposed to Ellie Alderson at the Mandarin Oriental on Lago di Como.

The five-star resort hotel can be found in the village of Blevio, which is on the eastern side of Lake Como.

Across the hotel, you will find nine villas with a total of 75 rooms and suites.

There are also two villas with balconies overlooking the lake and with views of the Alps.

The hotel also has a huge spa with an indoor pool and another infinity pool outside on the edge of the lake.

A room costs from £1,162 per night.

But there are many other nice spots to visit and stay nearby.

For example, just down the road you could stay at Casa Giulietta Caronti, which also boasts views of the lake.

The B&B even has seven new suites with hot tubs inside, costing from just £112 per night.

You’d also be just a few minutes from downtown Como and Cernobbio.

Flights to Milan cost from £15 per way in July.

Estelle Manor, The Cotswolds

Estelle Manor is a Grade II listed country estate and hotel in Oxfordshire – which Watkins recently posted a pic of himself at on Instagram.

The hotel only opened in 2023 but has become well-known for its stylish rooms and Walled Garden.

There are also four restaurants onsite, as well as a kid’s club.

Rooms at the hotel cost from £575 per night.

But if that is outside of your budget, don’t worry as the Cotswolds is home to an abundance of pretty places to stay.

For example, you could head down the road to the Artist’s Residence near South Leigh.

The pretty pub with rooms boasts a thatched roof and dates back to the 16th century.

Inside the rooms feature a whimsical vibe, with minibars and Nespresso coffee machines.

Some rooms even have vaulted ceilings and free-standing bath tubs.

And staying costs a fraction of the price compared to Estelle Manor, with rooms from £153 per night.

Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France

The Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild overlooks the Mediterranean Sea and is the very spot Watkins got married at.

Built between 1907 and 1912, the villa is home to a massive collection of art as well nine themed gardens.

The villa was even designed to mimic the deck of a cruise ship, with visitors able to see the sea whichever side of the villa they are on.

The villa is open to the public to visit adult tickets costing €18 (£15.51) and children’s tickets costing €12 (£10.34).

Flights to Nice Côte d’Azur Airport cost from £23 per way in July.

Positano, Amalfi Coast, Italy

In another Instagram post, Ollie Watkins was recently spotted in Positano on the Amalfi Coast.

The town is famous for its pastel-coloured buildings stagger across the cliffs.

When visiting you can head to a number of beach clubs as well.

Make sure to walk along the waterfront and head to the 300-metre beach to soak up the sunshine.

For a quieter spot, drop by Fornillo Beach which is a secluded pebble cove.

Flights to Naples Airport cost from £31 per way in July.

Capri, Italy

The famous footballer was also spotted staying in another luxury Italian hotel – Jumeirah Capri Palace.

Found in Anacapri on the island of Capri, the hotel boasts a unique medical spa as well as a Michelin-starred restaurant.

There are also two pools at the hotel, an outdoor terrace with panoramic views and a fancy wine cellar.

Though, it will set you back around £3,444 per night.

Instead, a short drive away you could stay at Hotel Belvedere e Tre Re, which directly looks over the beach and glistening turquoise water.

And it costs from £216 a night instead of a few grand.

It is also closer to another spot the star was spotted at as well – Da Paolino Lemontrees.

The famous restaurant is known for its tables that sit directly under hundreds of real lemon trees.

Open since the 1970s, the much-loved restaurant often attracts celebs with other notable figures that have dined there including Beyonce and Mariah Carey.

Make sure to visit the dessert room, which has an entire buffet dedicated to all things sweet including traditional Italian desserts and lemon-infused treats.

Flights to Naples Airport cost from £31 per way in July.

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

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

And those weren’t even technically free agency transactions.

Now the real fun begins.

Golden (State) reunion?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

James, he wrote on social media, instantly cried.

Rock the vote

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

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

Favorite thing I ate this week

Khinkali (Georgian soup dumplings) from Cheeseboat in Manhattan.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

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

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

In case you missed it

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time…

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

Morocco’s Ismael Saibari embraced his mother after scoring the winning penalty against Netherlands to reach the World Cup last 16. The players danced and cheered in the dressing room after the dramatic win in Monterrey, Mexico.

She’d been out for over a year, her long, arduous recovery from a season-ending knee injury kept almost completely under wraps. But as JuJu Watkins took her place in front of a microphone for the first time since returning to practice this summer, the USC superstar could barely contain her gratitude.

Asked Monday what the best part about being back has been so far, a big smile crept across Watkins’ face.

“Honestly everything,” Watkins said. “Like I don’t even know, the smallest stuff just gets me excited.”

Watkins’ return is a momentous mile marker for a team that has serious national title aspirations this season. Her status remains uncertain, and reporters in attendance Monday were told not to inquire further about Watkins’ specific recovery timeline. But Watkins did say that she’s already been able to scrimmage during USC’s summer practice and that she’s “feeling back like myself.”

“It’s just been a long time coming,” Watkins said. “I’ve just been working out and grinding every day so that I could be in position, so to see all of that hard work pay off right now, it’s really fulfilling.”

Watkins was a two-time consensus All-American and the Associated Press Player of the Year in 2025, when her knee buckled that March during a breakaway in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The injury, a torn ACL, wouldn’t just derail a possible title run for USC that season, but also upend the Trojans’ trajectory for the next one.

Facing one of the toughest schedules in the nation, USC missed Watkins dearly. The Trojans finished their frustrating campaign 18-14 before losing in the Round of 32.

As she sat out, Watkins said she struggled to keep still. Patience didn’t necessarily come naturally. She found herself leaning on others, she said, like Dallas Wings point guard Paige Bueckers, who went through her own ACL recovery.

“She was constantly checking up on me, sending me texts, encouraging me,” Watkins said of Bueckers. ‘I really appreciated that.”

Coaches suggested she pour that energy into her teammates. So she took solace in doing the little things, like arranging the locker room chairs during pre-game.

“Just to watch her take something that was so difficult and pour herself into everything that went into last year was something I’ll never forget,” coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “I really do take a lot of inspiration from it.”

The silver lining, coming out of a season without their superstar, was the emergence of freshman Jazzy Davidson, who came to USC to play alongside Watkins. Instead, she ended up winning National Freshman of the Year and becoming a rising star in her own right,

This month, Watkins and Davidson were finally able to take the floor together, just as Gottlieb had once envisioned. She’d waited quite a while for that pairing, she reminded Monday. But Davidson, she thinks, will be all the better for having survived her freshman season without Watkins.

“You just come back with a different level of confidence,” Gottlieb said. “I hope she brings with her every experience she had because who had more experience than Jazzy in terms of a freshman year where she handled so much?”

Now, with Watkins back and Davidson set to take another step forward, there won’t be so much pressure on the Trojans’ newest top recruit.

Saniyah Hall marks the third straight No. 1 overall prospect to sign with Gottlieb and USC, but she steps into a decidedly different scenario than the other two did. In addition to Watkins and Davidson, the Trojans also brought in two other top freshmen in Sitaya Fagan and Sara Okeke, as well as two priority portal adds in Ryann Bennett and Pania Davis.

“With the talent that’s on the team,” Hall said, “I think it could be something that’s very special.”

That starts with Watkins, who, in spite of a year away, apparently hasn’t skipped a beat in her return.

“I feel like she’s back like she never left,” guard Kennedy Smith said.

Reasons for the Clippers to trade Kawhi Leonard are apparent. So are reasons to keep the seven-time All-Pro forward who turned 35 on Monday.

For now, the team is engaged in discussions and entertaining offers for Leonard, who is highly regarded despite being central to a league investigation into allegations of salary-cap intervention.

Representatives for Leonard, who has one year remaining on a three-year, $152.4 million contract, have informed other teams he prefers to remain with the Clippers and would only sign an extension with the Toronto Raptors or San Antonio Spurs if the Clippers trade him, ESPN reported. Leonard helped both of those teams to NBA titles, the Raptors in 2019 and the Spurs in 2014. He was Finals MVP both years.

However, the Athletic reported that the Dallas Mavericks offered to trade power forward P.J. Washington, shooting guard Klay Thompson and draft picks for Leonard. Mavericks president Masai Ujiri held the same position with the Raptors when they won the 2019 championship.

If Leonard doesn’t agree to a contract extension with Dallas, he essentially would be a one-year rental and not worth as much in trade capital. Ujiri engineered the trade in 2018 that brought Leonard to the Raptors without the player agreeing to an extension, and the result was a championship followed by Leonard bolting to the Clippers.

Another factor in assessing Leonard’s trade value and the Clippers’ motivation to move him is the ongoing NBA investigation involving team owner Steve Ballmer, Leonard and the now-bankrupt sustainable financial technology firm Aspiration.

Triggered in October when the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast detailed a $28 million endorsement contract Leonard received from Aspiration, the NBA hired a prominent law firm to conduct the probe. Findings could be announced soon because NBA commissioner Adam Silver said June 2 that it was time to “wrap it up.”

Aspiration had a $300 million, 23-year endorsement deal with the Clippers and Ballmer personally invested $60 million into the company, whose co-founder Joseph Sanberg was convicted of two counts of wire fraud and sentenced to 14 years in federal prison. Ballmer admits introducing Leonard to Aspiration executives but has denied that he knew details of the endorsement deal that Leonard never fulfilled.

Silver has not stated that the NBA would hold up any trade involving Leonard because of the investigation. Still, the Clippers expressed at the end of the regular season that keeping the 14-year veteran was a priority.

“Our plan is to win with Kawhi,” Clippers president Lawrence Frank said.

Leonard is coming off his best season of six with the Clippers, averaging a career-high 27.9 points over 65 games. He has averaged 20.7 points a game during his career.

The Raptors are rumored to be dangling former Lakers forward Brandon Ingram and first-round draft picks

Former Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger and Thrive Capital founder Joshua Kushner have hired investment bankers and discussed making a bid for the National Basketball Assn. expansion team in Las Vegas, according to people familiar with their plans.

The bid would be for a majority investment in the team, according to the people, who asked to not be identified because the discussions are private. The NBA’s board of governors approved the exploration of a potential franchise expansion in Las Vegas and Seattle in March.

Iger and Kushner are discussing making the bid through Thrive Eternal, a company set up by Kushner’s firm to invest in iconic brands and cultural assets. The company operates as a holding company, structured to raise new capital and make investments into businesses without a set exit timeline. Iger is involved with Thrive as an advisor.

It’s unclear what the size of the bid and the valuation of the franchise would be. Representatives for Thrive Capital and Iger declined to comment.

Iger, who took over as CEO of Disney from 2005 to 2020 and then again from 2022 to March of this year, had a tenure marked by acquiring marquee entertainment franchises and expanding them, including Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox. The executive previously bought a controlling stake in Angel City Football Club, a women’s soccer team, with his wife, Willow Bay. A big basketball fan, he’s had a lot of experience with the NBA through Disney’s ESPN sports networks.

Kushner, meanwhile, has been building an investment portfolio of tech startups for decades, from investing early into OpenAI and Instagram, and working on dozens of incubations through his venture firm, Thrive Capital. The venture firm has total assets under management of more than $50 billion, according to a regulatory filing. Earlier this year, the firm raised more than $10 billion for its largest fund ever. The NBA discussions show the latest iteration in how Thrive is expanding beyond its roots of investing in technology startups, into also influencing culture through entertainment and sports.

Announced in April, Thrive Eternal, which operates a permanent capital vehicle, raised its initial capital from existing Thrive investors. “These are assets with qualities that cannot be replicated by technology,” Kushner said in a social media post. “In a world shaped by abundant intelligence where creation scales and distribution fragments, we believe they will matter even more.”

Thrive Eternal’s first investment, though not a controlling stake, was backing a Major League Baseball team, the San Francisco Giants. The capital of that deal is set to go toward the Giants’ Oracle Park and its surrounding real estate, according to a person familiar with the matter, Bloomberg previously reported.

Mascarenhas writes for Bloomberg.

Less than two hours before the Dodgers took the field in Minneapolis on Wednesday, a pair of powerful earthquakes rattled Venezuela, where the wife and two kids of Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas were visiting and where his sister lives.

The successive magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes left the country’s northern coastal state of La Guaira in ruins, collapsing more than 770 buildings and killing at least 1,450 people, local authorities said Sunday.

All of Rojas’ family members were OK, the Venezuelan native told reporters ahead of Friday’s game against the Padres in San Diego.

“Literally two blocks away from where my family was, two buildings collapsed — the whole building,” he said. “I’m lucky, to be honest with you guys. I’m really lucky to have my family still alive and with me. I’m not taking this for granted.”

Rojas’ wife and kids were in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, which is only about six miles south of the destruction along the coast. His wife was there to renew her passport, and the kids were going to try to get Venezuelan citizenship. His sister was in Los Teques, Rojas’ hometown about 17 miles south of the coastal destruction.

Rescue workers search through rubble on Saturday in Catia La Mar following the devastating double earthquakes.

(Fernando Vergara / Associated Press)

“It’s really tough to see teammates of mine and players that I played with at some point in my career to lose family members, to lose kids,” said Rojas, who had spent years playing baseball in La Guaira. “It’s really devastating. It’s been really hard for me to go to sleep at night.”

Rojas, on Friday, said he was talking daily with his family members, who were still in Venezuela. He hoped to bring them back to the United States as soon as possible. Aftershocks continued to rattle the country into Sunday morning.

As the Dodgers and Padres started their series in Petco Park on Friday, both teams wore caps with the letters “VZ” embroidered on the side to honor the people of Venezuela as the road to recovery begins.

“That means a lot because both teams will be doing it — it means a lot, because it brings awareness,” Rojas said.

“We are on one of the biggest stages in sports, and I really appreciate what the Dodgers do to support us,” he added. “It’s not just what happens now, it’s what’s going to happen in the future. It’s going to take a long time for people to recover.”

Times staff writer Maddie Lee contributed to this report.

Tehran, Iran – Iran’s national football team has once again failed to realise the dream of reaching the knockout phase of the World Cup, with the wartime 2026 tournament stirring up a wide range of emotions among Iranians inside and outside the country for different reasons.

Team Melli ended its seventh appearance in the tournament after a 1-1 draw in Seattle on Friday against Egypt left them in third place in Group G, with only three points gleaned from three draws.

The team was eliminated a day later, after a series of other match results left them just outside of the tournament’s eight third-placed teams advancing to the next stage after FIFA expanded from 32 to 48 teams.

“This was very unlikely to happen, I couldn’t believe how we got out again, with just one spot away from advancing,” Milad, a resident of Tehran who watched all matches impacting Iran’s run at the World Cup, told Al Jazeera.

The circumstances were so peculiar that, among other things, they left the head coach pondering divine intervention, and state television accusing other teams of cheating and collusion.

During the Egypt match, centre-back Shoja Khalilzadeh appeared to score a 93rd-minute winner that would have automatically sent Iran into the Round of 32, but VAR ruled it out after a few centimetres of his right foot were offside.

A member of the coaching staff had his nose broken after another staff member inadvertently headbutted him during emotional group celebrations of the goal before it was overturned.

Khalilzadeh’s goal celebration included posing with sunglasses, so Egypt – which advanced to the knockout phase – later taunted him with an Instagram picture of striker Mohamed Salah giggling while wearing sunglasses.

A disgruntled head coach Amir Ghalenoei told state television during a live post-match interview that he believed everyone enjoyed the match, but at times it seemed like “God was at odds with us” due to the lack of good luck – which also included Iran scoring three VAR-overturned goals during the competition, the highest of any team.

He also blamed tough conditions faced by the players and the entire staff during an unprecedented World Cup campaign, in which the main host country, the United States, has been at war with a participating nation, Iran, for the past four months.

The US military bombed several islands in the Strait of Hormuz in Iran’s southern waters just hours before kick-off in the Iran-Egypt match.

Football federation officials, as well as other staff and media personnel, were denied visas to travel to the US for the tournament, on grounds that included their alleged affiliation with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the force running war and politics in Iran.

The playing squad was only allowed in under unusually tight restrictions, and had to be mostly based in Mexico’s Tijuana instead of the originally designated Tucson in Arizona.

They had to enter the US within 24 hours of a match and leave on the same day, with only a slight easing allowing them to arrive two days early for the Seattle match.

‘Completely mad’

After the Egypt match, Iran needed just one of three things to go their way: Croatia had to lose to Ghana, but it won 2-1; DR Congo had to fail to beat Uzbekistan, but won 3-1; and Algeria vs Austria had to produce a winner, but the match ended 3-3.

Hours before the Algeria-Austria match, Javad Khiabani, a sports presenter infamous for decades of eccentric football commentary, released a video message in Arabic, addressed to the “Muslim brothers in Algeria”. He asked them to defeat Austria and allow Iran, a Muslim-majority country that has suffered war, to advance.

Other hosts of Iranian state television and radio channels broadcasting the match live went through an emotional rollercoaster after Algeria’s Riyad Mahrez scored deep into stoppage time, creating a 3-2 result that would have sent Iran through.

“Now, a Muslim country is doing something to keep another Muslim country in the knockout stage,” shouted another ecstatic commentator, again linking the sport with religion.

He and many Iranians watching at home were devastated moments later when Austria’s Sasa Kalajdzic used his first touch of the game to equalise with a header in the box. The result benefited both teams, because it sent both into the next round, with Austria facing Spain and Algeria facing better odds against Switzerland.

Some inside and outside Iran suggested the game was rigged, but Austria’s head coach Ralf Rangnick responded to match-fixing allegations by saying: “If Alfred Hitchcock had written such a drama, I probably would have said he was completely mad”.

Killings that scarred society

For a second consecutive World Cup, Iran’s national football team did not enjoy unified support from Iranians inside or outside the country, due to the fallout from public protests against the Islamic Republic, the theocratic establishment that has governed Iran since the 1979 Revolution.

In January 2026, thousands of Iranians, including at least 230 children, were killed during nationwide anti-establishment protests that erupted across the vast country of over 90 million. The government, as with previous protests, put all the blame on “terrorists” organised by the US and Israel, but Amnesty International called it an “unprecedented deadly crackdown” by the state that also included a total internet shutdown.

Just months after the killings that scarred parts of Iranian society, some believe football players – who have all avoided commenting on the protests, but in some cases have backed the state – are not representatives of a unified Iran.

Outside the stadiums in the US during the World Cup, some anti-Islamic Republic Iranians protested using Iran’s pre-1979 lion-and-sun flag, as opposed to the official flag which features the word “Allah” in the centre, but most diaspora Iranians ended up cheering for the team in packed stadiums.

Mohammad Khakpour, a former Team Melli captain now based in the US, wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday that the fact Iranians had contrasting emotions after Iran’s elimination from the tournament carries a social message.

“When a part of the society feels that Team Melli is no longer representative of their emotions, pains or hopes, a chasm is created,” he said. “The people may not be happy from a football loss, but they may at times be happy about the collapse of an image that they do not consider to be true”.

Farhad, a 36-year-old resident of eastern Tehran, told Al Jazeera that decades from now, people may remember Team Melli not only as representing the Islamic Republic but also for the football record it left behind.

“Personally, I preferred it if they advanced, but I’m not devastated that they didn’t,” he said.

When FIFA expanded the World Cup field from 32 to 48 teams for this summer’s tournament, the gnashing of teeth and clutching of pearls was as predictable as it was loud. The field would be watered down, the traditionalists protested. The group stage would be a series of blowouts, the sharks would devour the minnows.

In fact, none of that happened.

What we got instead was plucky Cape Verde playing No. 3 Spain to a draw and becoming the smallest nation to reach the elimination rounds. We got Austria advancing on a goal six minutes into stoppage time — eliminating unbeaten Iran, which deserved better — and Canada, Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo all winning World Cup games for the first time.

We got Lionel Messi scoring six goals and Mexico and Spain giving up none. We got South Africa, Canada, Egypt and Cape Verde advancing to the knockout rounds for the first time while South Korea and Uruguay went home.

It was one of the most surprising, exciting and compelling group stages in recent World Cup history. And on Sunday it gave way to the first game of the knockout rounds, with Canada beating South Africa 1-0 on a goal by LAFC midfielder Stephen Eustáquio in the second minute of stoppage time.

Canada’s Stephen Eustáquio reacts after a 1-0 win over South Africa at the World Cup on Sunday at SoFi Stadium.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Unlike much of the group stage, Sunday’s game was a sloppy, sleepy affair, with South Africa relying on some heroic play from its back line to keep the game even. But it ended with a bang with Eustáquio latching on to a loose ball at top of the box and blasting a right-footed volley just inside the left post.

Canada will play the winner of Monday’s Netherlands-Morocco match in the round of 16 next week. For South Africa, the World Cup is over.

For both countries, this World Cup was the most successful ever. Canada, which is sharing host duties with Mexico and the U.S., has won twice. South Africa had won games before, but it had never gotten beyond the group stage.

For South Africa, that success is part of a continental soccer resurgence. Four years ago in Qatar, Morocco became the first African nation to reach the World Cup semifinals. This summer, thanks to the expanded field, 10 African nations qualified for the tournament and nine advanced to the round of 32.

And the rise of African soccer hasn’t just boosted the fortunes of African teams. Top-ranked France, a World Cup favorite, has 21 players of African descent on its roster; at least a dozen other non-African teams, including Canada, have at least two players of African heritage.

Canada is one of the world’s most diverse countries with nearly a quarter of its population having been born somewhere else. Former coach John Herdman leaned into that diversity when he took over the men’s team in 2018; four years later, Canada made its second trip to the World Cup with a lineup that included four dual nationals.

Jesse Marsch, the U.S.-born coach who succeeded Herdman, doubled down on that. As a result, the 26 players on Canada’s roster, or their parents, come from more than 17 countries — from Iran, Croatia, Jamaica and Barbados to Haiti, Lebanon, Nigeria and the Philippines. Captain Alphonso Davies, Canada’s best player, was born to Liberian parents in a refugee camp in Ghana before being resettled in Edmonton, becoming a citizen in 2017.

Canada goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau makes a save against South Africa on Sunday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

Davies, who hasn’t played since sustained an acute hamstring injury in early May, came on in the 76th minute Sunday and had an immediate influence, threading a perfect pass to the feet of Promise David, whose right-footed shot from the top of the box drifted inches wide of the left post.

Three minutes later, Davies drew two defenders to him on the left flank, opening space for Jonathan David to slip into the box and get off a tight-angled shot near the end line that stood up South African keeper Ronwen Williams. But the winner came from Eustáquio, the son of Portuguese parents who Herdman wooed away from the Portuguese U-21 team in 2019.

He has made 60 appearances with Canada’s senior national team, none bigger than Sunday’s.

Canada’s Tani Oluwaseyi, center, gets caught between South Africa’s Khuliso Mudau (20) and Sphephelo Sithole during the first half Sunday.

(Kelvin Kuo / Los Angeles Times)

Sixteen of the 48 teams are heading home, but which of the sides left standing will survive all the way to the World Cup final at MetLife Stadium near New York City on 19 July?

The hopes of another 16 nations will bite the dust after the first knockout round, which includes England against DR Congo and holders Argentina against surprise package Cape Verde.

It was a different team who caused the biggest shock in the final set of group games, however.

While BBC Sport’s football expert Chris Sutton and AI still went for Cape Verde to lose against Saudi Arabia – from more than 50,000 users playing the BBC’s new predictor game – 39% of you correctly went for a draw and 43% even backed the African side to win.

Instead, it was Ecuador who caught almost everyone out this time.

From more than 56,000 users predictions for that game, only 597 of you correctly backed them to beat Germany.

Chris and AI were also wrong about that one but, overall, they both got 15/24 predictions right from that set of matches.

Again, the users did better, with 17/24, and they still lead the way with 72 of this World Cup’s 104 matches now completed.

Chris has been right 41 times (57%), AI has a score of 43 (60%), but you lot are doing even better with 48 (67%).

Before the tournament, Chris also picked the order he thought each of the 12 groups would finish in. He was right about seven of the winners, but only got all four teams in the correct order in three of the groups.

AI’s predictions have been generated using Microsoft Copilot Chat. We simply asked the tool to ‘predict the results of the World Cup last-32 ties’.

The new BBC predictor game allows readers to pick a winner from each knockout tie.

PLAY WORLD CUP PREDICTOR HERE

Group play is over and it’s knockout time at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The round of 32 is set, with tournament co-host Canada kicking things off Sunday when it faces South Africa at SoFi Stadium.

Here’s everything you need to know about World Cup knockout stage matches being played Sunday, Monday and Tuesday across the U.S., Mexico and Canada (all times Pacific).

Sunday’s round of 32 match

Canada vs. South Africa

Canada’s Alphonso Davies warms up before a World Cup match against Qatar on June 18.

(Abbie Parr / Associated Press)

Where: SoFi Stadium, Inglewood
Time: Noon
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: Both teams are making their first appearances in a World Cup knockout round, Canada (1-1-1) after losing its group-play final to Switzerland and South Africa (1-1-1) after upsetting South Korea. Canada, the first World Cup host to play a game outside its borders, could get a boost if Alphonso Davies, its best player, can play after missing the team’s first three games. South Africa scored just one goal of its own in the group stage; Canada got six in one game alone.

Monday’s round of 32 matches

Brazil vs. Japan

Brazil’s Matheus Cunha celebrates after scoring against Haiti at the World Cup on June 19.

(Petr David Josek / Associated Press)

Where: NRG Stadium, Houston
Time: 10 a.m.
TV: FS1, Telemundo

The buzz: Brazil won Group C, posting consecutive 3-0 wins over Haiti and Scotland to close out the first round and run goalkeeper Alisson Becker’s shutout streak to 249 minutes. Vinícius Júnior, with four goals, and Matheus Cunha, with three, have accounted for all of Brazil’s scoring. Brazil hasn’t been eliminated in the first knockout stage of a World Cup since 1990. Japan has received goals from five players in an unbeaten run through Group F, where it finished second to the Netherlands. Japan has not won a World Cup knockout-round game in four tries.

Germany vs. Paraguay

Germany’s Kai Havertz reacts during a match against Curaçao at the World Cup on June 14.

(Alexander Hassenstein / Getty Images)

Where: Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Mass.
Time: 1:30 p.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: Germany scored 10 goals in the group stage, but the four-time tournament champions lost to Ecuador and had to rely on a tiebreaker to win the group over the Ivory Coast. Deniz Undav, with three goals, and Kai Havertz, with two, are the only Germans who have scored more than once. Paraguay gutted out a scoreless draw with Australia in its final game to finish third in Group D and squeeze into the round of 32. It has just two goals in the tournament, but it is coming off back-to-back shutouts.

Netherlands vs. Morocco

Brian Brobbey celebrates after scoring for the Netherlands in a win over Sweden at the World Cup on June 20.

(Eric Gay / Associated Press)

Where: BBVA Stadium, Guadalupe, Mexico
Time: 6 p.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: Morocco, a semifinalist four years ago, did not lose in the group stage but finished second to Brazil on goal differential, setting up this challenging matchup with the Netherlands. Morocco is ranked sixth in the world by FIFA, one spot ahead of the Dutch, who matched Germany with a tournament-high 10 goals in the first round. The Netherlands haven’t lost a first-round knockout game since 2006. Brian Brobbey has three goals for the Dutch while Cody Gakpo and Crysencio Summerville have two apiece. Ismael Saibari has scored in each of Morocco’s three games.

Tuesday’s round of 32 matches

Ivory Coast vs. Norway

Norway’s Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring against Senegal at the World Cup on June 22.

(Steve Luciano / Associated Press)

Where: AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas
Time: 10 a.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: Norway rested many of its regulars in its group-play finale, a 4-1 loss to France, to settle for second in Group I. Erling Haaland, playing in his first World Cup, had braces in Norway’s first two games. Ivory Coast finished second to Germany on a tiebreaker but advanced to the knockout stages for the first time. Villarreal’s Nicolas Pépé has two of the team’s four goals.

France vs. Sweden

France’s Kylian Mbappé points during a win over Norway at the World Cup on June 26.

(Justin Setterfield / Getty Images)

Where: MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.
Time: 2 p.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: Unbeaten France, which has played in the last two World Cup finals, has designs on returning after dominating its group, winning two of its three games by three goals. Kylian Mbappé had braces in the first two games and is tied with Ousmane Dembélé for the team scoring lead for four goals. Sweden finished third in Group F, winning its first game by four goals and losing its second by the same margin. Sweden’s seven goals allowed matches Norway and Algeria for most by a round-of-32 qualifier.

Mexico vs. Ecuador

Mexico’s Luis Romo gestures during a win over Czechia at the World Cup on June 24.

(Lars Baron / Getty Images)

Where: Azteca Stadium, Mexico City
Time: 6 p.m.
TV: Fox, Telemundo

The buzz: Mexico hasn’t won a knockout-stage match since 1986, the last time the tournament was played in Mexico. El Tri didn’t allow a goal in winning its group easily. Colombian-born Julián Quiñones leads the team with two goals. Ecuador beat Germany 2-1 in its final group-play match to squeeze into the knockout stages for just the second time, advancing as a third-place team. It was shut out in its first two matches.