Athletic Facilities

In Berkeley's long-running battle over whether to save an old oak grove or build an athletic facility, one thing was clear Thursday: Despite a judge's ruling this week, the fight is far from over. UC Berkeley, which wants to build a training facility for its athletes, and Stephen Volker, an attorney for groups fighting the plan, both say the ruling by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara J. Miller gives their side a boost.

When Wu Yifu wants to play basketball with his friends, he has to travel 30 minutes by subway, pay $2, and then wait for up to two hours to get on the public court. If he tries to slip in without paying, he faces a $15 fine. Sure it's a bit of a hassle, the 15-year-old junior high student said, but it's still better than other Beijing basketball courts that charge twice as much. Wu is lucky. At least he has someplace to go.

This summer my mission was to discover the five best public places to play pickup hoops in Greater Los Angeles. I've been playing basketball most of my life. I grew up in Seattle and played guard at Seattle University, then transferred to Occidental College in Eagle Rock where I played the last two seasons on the basketball team. This fall I will be a senior. I searched all over for games.

The NBA will announce today plans for a multibillion-dollar real estate venture to design and operate a dozen multipurpose arenas in major Chinese cities for a future affiliated basketball league. The NBA is teaming with AEG, owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz, to operate arenas that will hold 17,000 spectators, with the primary funding coming from the Chinese government and Chinese banks. "We think that it's a terrific partnership," NBA Commissioner David Stern told The Times.

The NBA and the Los Angeles sports and entertainment firm AEG announced plans Tuesday to help develop a $280-million arena and recreation center for the Shanghai World Expo in 2010 -- the first of a dozen multipurpose arenas that the new joint venture hopes to build in China.

Normally, a friendly soccer match between teams ranked 112th and 180th in the world wouldn't be much occasion for excitement. But Sunday's face-off between the Jordanian and Palestinian national teams was far more than a soccer match. It was the first time the Palestinian side had played in the West Bank -- in effect its first actual home game after years of playing as the home team in Jordan and other neighboring Arab countries.

Shards of glass, bumpy grass and rocks are what Jose Serna was used to as a kid. Lights and modern turf on a baseball field were luxuries. "If the ball took a bad hop, you lose a tooth," the Roosevelt High School senior outfielder said. So now, as he watched with his teammates on the edge of the baseball infield at Evergreen Recreation Center in Boyle Heights, Serna was pleased to hear the news.

Citing environmental and seismic concerns, a judge blocked construction of a $125-million sports center at the University of California that would mean felling an old oak grove. The plan to renovate Memorial Stadium and build a training center and parking garage had been challenged by neighbors and city officials. They say the plan is environmentally flawed and too dangerous to build so close to the Hayward fault, which runs under the stadium.

Covering, as it does, 3.7 million square miles, China ought to be big enough for the Dodgers \o7and \f7the New York Yankees. Populated, as it is, by more than 1.3 billion people, the country should provide ample opportunity for more than one team to teach baseball and, perhaps, someday reap the benefit of developing a major league player.

The Los Angeles Dodgers signed seven free agents this winter, including stars Jason Schmidt and Nomar Garciaparra, but the best deals they made might be the ones that enable them to move their spring home from Florida to Arizona. The Dodgers will pay nothing to terminate their lease in Vero Beach, Fla. They will pay nothing to move into a new, two-team complex in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Ariz., in 2009.