The world according to Jim:
• Boy, this spring got awfully silent awfully fast around here, didn’t it? …
• We’ve already discussed the failures of the Lakers and Clippers in their first-round playoff series (and if you haven’t yet checked out The Audible online this week, where Mirjam Swanson and I discussed those series, it’s worth your time). As for the Kings? Rob Blake’s departure as general manager, which team president Luc Robitaille insisted was voluntary, comes at an ironic time.
Blake probably had his best roster-building season, atoning (sort of) for the Pierre-Luc Dubois mistake by flipping him for Darcy Kuemper, who is a Vezina Trophy finalist, and picking up Andrei Kuzmenko from Philadelphia around the deadline to give the offense a jolt.
But Blake couldn’t stop the Edmonton Oilers’ erasure of the Kings’ 2-0 series lead. That was on the coach, Jim Hiller. His unwise challenge of an Evander Kane goal in Game 3 started the deluge, and the combination of his reluctance to use the guys at the end of his bench and a prevent defense mentality certainly didn’t help as the Oilers consistently outplayed the Kings in the third period and beyond. …
• Is Hiller back next year? It will likely depend on the identity of the new GM, and if there is one plea to be made in hiring a new front office boss, it’s this: Get away from the usual suspects, the familiar names, and the people who are the buddies of current leadership. (In other words, no Marc Bergevin, and no Pat Brisson.) After four straight first-round flameouts, adding to what is now 11 seasons without a series victory, it’s time for fresh ideas. …
• Especially because the threat down the 5 has become greater. Do not sleep on the Ducks, because Joel Quenneville is the right guy behind the bench at the right time for a roster of young talent that has suffered through the growing pains and is just about ready to blossom.
“The culture here (has) been building and, you know, the foundation, I think we’ve done a good job,” said right wing Troy Terry, who is now 27 and has been a regular in the lineup for four seasons, following the Quenneville news conference Thursday. Then he added: “We’ve got a great leadership group. But when you can add that type of coach, I think it’s just huge for everyone and especially the younger players.” …
• Hard to believe, but it’s been 18 seasons since the Ducks brought California its first Stanley Cup title. And a reminder: No Canadian team has won the Cup since 1993, the year the Ducks came into existence. Will the Curse of Marty McSorley end this year? …
• Legal lunacy of the week: A fan in Georgia – who was originally anonymous but has been revealed as Eric Jackson, filed suit in a Georgia district court against the NFL seeking $100 million in damages because of the “severe distress and trauma” that ensued when Colorado quarterback Shadeur Sanders dropped like a rock in last week’s draft, finally selected by Cleveland with the 144th pick.
Jackson’s name was revealed because he is representing himself in the suit. Of course. What attorney would possibly tie himself to this? …
• When the specifics of the 2028 Olympics opening ceremony involving both the Coliseum and SoFi Stadium were revealed, the date of that ceremony was notable: July 14. In other words, 7/14/28. Perfect. …
• The ascendency of Chicago-born and raised Robert Prevost to the papacy as Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born pope, had both the Cubs and White Sox claiming his fandom. His brother, John Prevost, cleared up the mystery according to the Chicago Tribune, saying the new pontiff was “always a Sox fan.”
That’s fair. These days the Sox need all the prayers they can get. …
• FIFA’s Club World Cup tournament, a seeming test run for the 2026 World Cup, begins next month at several sites, including the Rose Bowl. You would think FIFA and its marketers would have started their promotional push by now, but no. Then again, FIFA – like CONCACAF, which runs regional competitions in North and Central America – tends to run its events in weird ways. …
• An example: LAFC will play Club América on May 31 at BMO Stadium for the last spot in the tournament, after León was ousted from the tournament because it is under the same ownership as Pachuca, a violation of the rules. The winner of the qualifying game goes into Group D, and would be playing its games in Atlanta on June 16, Nashville on June 20 and Orlando on June 24.
You would think the bright minds who run FIFA would do the math – i.e., calculate the number of tickets they can sell – and tweak the schedule as necessary to get at least one those games in Pasadena, where either team would draw a huge crowd (and the Mexican side might sell out the place). Two other MLS teams are in the field, and Miami (i.e., Leo Messi and Friends) will play two of its three games at Hard Rock Stadium, while Seattle plays all three of its games at home. …
• The WalletHub website has come out with its ranking of “Best Basketball Cities.” No. 1 on the list is Los Angeles, followed by Boston, San Francisco, Salt Lake City and Philadelphia, on a metric that combines a number of different factors (performance, fan engagement, attendance, etc.) for both NBA and Division I teams. This shouldn’t exactly be a surprise, right?
Also on the list: Long Beach at 83, Fullerton 143, Irvine 157, Riverside 161 and Malibu 208. (Evidently, Northridge was considered part of L.A. while Malibu was graded separately. …
• But consider this: There are 29 cities in which two or more Division I college programs exist. But of that entire mixture of big cities and smaller towns, there are only two where league rivals share the same turf: L.A. twice over (USC and UCLA, plus Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine if you draw in Malibu), and Philadelphia (St. Joseph and La Salle in the Atlantic 10).
By the fall of 2026 there will be a third city with an intracity conference rivalry: Riverside, (projected 2025 population of 321,385, 59th largest in the country according to World Population Review), with California Baptist joining UC Riverside in the Big West. And in case anyone was still wondering, UCR was not only OK with CBU coming on board but was quite supportive. As Athletic Director Wes Mallette noted, “Why be afraid of competition?”
Why, indeed?
jalexander@scng.com
