Basketball Players

As his team nursed a double-digit deficit, Kobe Bryant heard the legions of fans chanting his name. They wanted Bryant to come back into the game. They wanted him to lead a comeback victory. They also simply wanted to chant his name because they adore him. This kind of episode happens all the time at Lakers' home games at Staples Center, but the circumstances on Saturday were different. Bryant was in China as part of a weeklong tour sponsored by Nike. He participated in a celebrity charity game that also featured Chinese pop singer Jay Chou.

Which was better - the original 1992 Dream Team or the current 2012 model? It can be argued, but c'mon? The 1992 Dream Team! Look, when you can mention a player by his first name or nickname and know who he is and what he has accomplished, that's saying something. And the 1992 U.S. men's basketball team had that - Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, The Mailman, Scottie, Mully, Patrick, Clyde the Glide, The Admiral. The Dream Team of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, Chris Mullin, Patrick Ewing, Clyde Drexler, David Robinson, John Stockton and Christian Laettner set the standards by which all teams can only hope to be measured by. Eleven of them are in the Hall of Fame, they won 23 NBA championships, and 10 members of that group were named in 1996 to be among the 50 greatest players in NBA history.

LONDON - Sorry for the disturbance amid the parade of U.S. basketball royalty, but where's Anthony Davis? LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul and the endless stream of umpteen-time All-Stars were at post-game interview sessions with reporters, but Davis couldn't be tracked down. Turned out he had already wandered into the locker room, figuring nobody wanted to talk to him. Why would they? He's a footnote, an asterisk after all the bold type and exclamation points in the oft-breathless coverage by international media of the U.S. team.

LONDON -- A handful of journalists watched the U.S. win its Olympic opener in women's basketball against Croatia. It was an obvious contrast to the crammed news conference the previous day for the U.S. men's team, where reporters scurried toward Kobe Bryant and LeBron James before packing into a dense semi-circle seven or eight people deep. "This is more physical than our games," Bryant quipped as media members pushed and shoved one another. "I've seen at least two flagrant fouls.

UCLA basketball players are off to China, where they will see the Great Wall. UCLA football players are off to San Bernardino, where no one will see "over the wall. " "I would love to be in China," senior running back Johnathan Franklin said during the Pac-12 media day. "Anywhere but San Bernardino. " Franklin, laughing, said, "I hear it's going to be 105 degrees out there every day. " First-year Coach Jim Mora can only hope. If the UCLA football team has been known for anything recently, it's for being soft.

LAS VEGAS - It was a peculiar time for David Stern to open such a dialogue, but the time and place signified his seriousness. This might be it for the Dream Team concept in the Olympics. The NBA Finals were 45 minutes from tip-off last month when the league commissioner said it himself - cognizant that NBA owners fretted every four years about players being injured with the extra month of activity . . . that the players themselves began to question whether they should be paid to play for Team USA . . . and, finally, that the NBA wasn't making an abundance of money by lending its assets to the national cause of thumping (take your pick)

Audrey Young, 89, who was a singer-actress in the 1940s and donated $5 million to the UCLA Hammer Museum in Westwood to create the Billy Wilder Theater in memory of her late husband, died June 1 in Los Angeles. A cause was not given. Her death was announced by the UCLA Film & Television Archives, which calls the theater home. The Billy Wilder Theater was "the right place, the proper place" for a permanent tribute to her husband because of his longtime love of film and art, Young told The Times in 2003.

Tony Parker, last of the blue-chip high school seniors on UCLA's basketball recruiting wish list, gave three reasons Monday after announcing that he had chosen the Bruins. Shabazz Muhammad, Kyle Anderson and Jordan Adams. Parker, a 6-foot-9, 280-pound center from Lithonia, Ga., was in the spotlight alone in making his choice later than most, but the moment he signified his decision by putting on a UCLA cap, he became part of a foursome. "I thought I would go somewhere where I could really succeed with the freshmen that came in with me," Parker said.

Maybe there's a reason incoming Kentucky recruit Nerlens Noel shaved "UK" into his flat-top haircut last week instead of opting for a tattoo. Tattoos are meant to last. What lasts, these days, at Kentucky? Barely a fortnight after Kentucky won its eighth NCAA title by beating Kansas in New Orleans, the basketball team's starting lineup announced Tuesday it was skipping out early for the NBA. The exodus includes starting freshmen Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague and sophomores Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb.

Name; Pos.; Ht.; Wt.; Previous school; Comment Jordan Adams; SG; 6-5; 205; Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy; One of the top perimeter shooting prospects in the country should boost Bruins' three-point accuracy. Kyle Anderson; PG; 6-8; 215; Jersey City (N.J.) St. Anthony; A versatile talent who can play the one to the four but will probably utilize exceptional basketball IQ as starting point guard. *Larry Drew II; PG; 6-2; 180; North Carolina; Played two full seasons and part of a third for Tar Heels.