Los Angeles Athletics

The announcement was made two weeks ago that the 1991 U.S. Olympic Festival, the one awarded to Los Angeles, will open with the ice hockey competition on June 18 in St. Cloud, Minn. Twenty-four days later, and roughly 1,800 miles to the west, the official opening ceremony will be held at Dodger Stadium.

1. Kobe Bryant, Lakers: An easy No. 1 based on his Lakers reign and strength of personality. 2. Matt Barkley, USC football: Sports Illustrated cover boy poised to be the top player in America's top sport. 3. Dwight Howard, Lakers: With Steve Nash, brings the Lakers a Dream Team aura. 4. David Beckham, Galaxy: Defines star power; in most cities, he's probably No. 1. 5. Matt Kemp, Dodgers: Immense talent in a hip-hoppy package; bonus points for celebrity dating. 6. Albert Pujols, Angels: One of the greatest to ever play the game; but is he big enough for L.A.?

DAVE JOHNSON Track and Field Although he didn't participate in organized sports until his senior year in high school, Dave Johnson stayed fairly active as a teen-ager in Missoula, Mont. His favorite activities? Throwing rocks at cars, breaking into homes and running from the law. "Basic training for the decathlon," Johnson said. But after he and his family moved to Corvallis, Ore., just before his senior year, Johnson found sports more to his liking.

Shamey Cramer doesn't compare himself to Peter Ueberroth. Ueberroth, after all, is the multimillionaire entrepreneur who helped make the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles such a huge success. Cramer pays his own bills by selling beer and wine part time at the Hollywood Bowl concession stands. But, like Ueberroth, Cramer hopes one of the world's largest sports events comes to Los Angeles. Cramer is the founder and executive director of Los Angeles 2006 Inc.

As they did with the first seven cities on their itinerary, members of the U.S. Olympic Committee's Site Evaluation Team declared Los Angeles to be a can-do city with nice weather, impressive venues and many virtues that would make it a fine site for the 2012 Games. What the task force didn't say Sunday after wrapping up its four-day visit is whether Los Angeles stands above its rivals because it has proven not only that it can do the Olympics, but has done so twice with great success.

A match ending under suspicious circumstances? Indifferent explanations? Strange days on the tennis circuit have not been limited to the modern era. In 1935, spectators at the Pacific Southwest championships were left dazed and confused at the Los Angeles Tennis Club when the players left the court after the third set and never returned. Nineteen-year-old Don Budge recovered from a first-set blowout and won the second and third sets against Roderick Menzel of Czechoslovakia in their final.

Philip Anschutz owns the Kings. He built Staples Center, and he is the landlord there for the Lakers, Clippers, Sparks and Avengers. He owns four Major League Soccer teams, among them the Galaxy, and he is building the Galaxy its own stadium in Carson, the centerpiece of a sports complex that will include a tennis stadium and numerous recreational facilities. Anschutz arguably is the most powerful man on the Southern California sports scene.

Jeff Trepagnier is heading to Cleveland. Earl Watson is bound for Seattle. For everybody else, it's New Jersey or bust. At least that's the way it seemed Wednesday in the NBA draft as three players with Southern California ties--Stanford's Jason Collins, Pepperdine's Brandon Armstrong and USC's Brian Scalabrine--wound up with the Nets.

1971-72 LAKERS Defeated New York, 4-1 Jerry West finally gets that elusive NBA title he always wanted. 1979-80 LAKERS Defeated Philadelphia, 4-2 Rookie Magic Johnson leads team past 76ers. Lakers play Game 6 without Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who missed game because of a sprained ankle. 1981-82 LAKERS Defeated Philadelphia, 4-2 Remember Jamaal Wilkes and Norm Nixon? They were key players on this team.

Mixing civic pride with a dash of boosterism and the savvy gained from staging dozens of world-class events, the 16-page summary of the Los Angeles 2012 Bid Committee's application to host the Summer Olympics emphasizes the area's cultural, athletic and technological resources and organizers' know-how in an effort to persuade the U.S. Olympic Committee to select Los Angeles as a host for the third time.

A failure in the courtroom, this latest round of Raiders vs. the NFL was a rousing success as a nostalgia tour, reminding us all of what we've been missing these last half-dozen years. A flawed offense that couldn't break down the opposition defense. People in the seats losing interest, nodding off, bored to tears for weeks on end. Al Davis talking the talk, Los Angeles advising him to walk. Raiders gearing up for the big one and losing, 9-3. Funny how adjudication imitates real life.

It was the backup coach's call. He stayed with the backup power forward. Every decision, every action seems to be working for the Lakers right now. We already knew they went two-deep in the superstar category. In their 88-81 throat-slit of a victory against San Antonio in Game 2 Monday, they showed they also are deep on the sidelines and in the trenches. Phil Jackson was ejected with four minutes left in the third quarter of the Lakers' most important game to date, and it didn't matter at all. They went from Zen to Cleam and from Horace to Horry, as assistant Jim Cleamons slid over to the head coach's seat and guided the Lakers home while Robert Horry did the dirty work on defense.