Sports

Manny Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, delivered this knee-buckling assessment for boxing fans already distraught by the failed Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. negotiations. "This could be our last fight," Roach said last week, as Pacquiao heads into the final days of training for his March 13 welterweight world title bout against Joshua Clottey at Cowboys Stadium outside Dallas. Roach's sobering speculation about boxing's biggest star is based on a chain of events that could occur.

This ebullient, stone-washed city put on a roaring grand finale Sunday night, a sparkling celebration marked with fireworks, flames and wedding-day smiles. Were they happy here? Only in a Paris-is-liberated, hats-and-heels-in-the-air sort of way. Guess they like their hockey here. So peace out, Vancouver. Sweeter than syrup, you people. Sunday's closing ceremony was a long, over-the-top farewell for a nation of people who seem incapable of booing. Maybe they were on their best behavior for the guests, but you usually can't fake this kind of stuff.

It was after midnight, a week ago, the U.S. had earlier defeated Canada in a preliminary-round Olympic hockey game, the emptying streets wet, the mood soggy. I was returning from our nightly visit to the giant four-pronged Olympic flame with my 15-year-old daughter, Mary Clare, who was wearing an American flag like a cape, and a smile like a necklace. It was one of the first times she wore something that didn't represent her high school or favorite sports team. It was one of the first moments she may have realized the pride in being an American.

It was nearly midnight Thursday, the day of triumph running into the day after, and both Kim Yuna and Brian Orser already were looking at the days ahead. The skater and her coach were in a car going from post-competition doping control to a news conference that would be aired live in South Korea, where half the country's 48 million people already had watched TV broadcasts of their national hero becoming their first Olympic figure skating champion. During the 20-minute ride, Kim and Orser could have sat back and looked at the gold medal she won three hours earlier with a performance of record-breaking, mind-boggling quality.

If the marvelous mare Zenyatta were Michael Jordan, she would have sauntered onto the track at Santa Anita wearing a sign that read: "I'M BACK!" In horse racing, it's that big. On Saturday, a star was reborn. The announcement that Zenyatta would race again, as a 6-year-old, was much less ostentatious than that. Early Saturday afternoon, word circulated that Zenyatta owners Jerry and Ann Moss were in attendance and had something to say. The parade of reporters began and, one by one, the Mosses revealed what they had decided.

Suspended boxer Antonio Margarito, former world champion at 147 pounds, will not fight in a semi-main event prior to the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey fight March 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas. Bob Arum of Top Rank, Margarito's promoter, said that Margarito would fight instead on a card May 8 in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Margarito (37-6, 27 KOs) was suspended by the California State Athletic Commission after his upset loss to Shane Mosley at Staples Center in January 2009. Mosley's trainer discovered prior to that fight that Margarito had a plaster-like substance in the hand wraps under his gloves.

Worldsnowboarding.com offered a comprehensive look at the quaint mountain resort of Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, with one seemingly minor disclaimer. The website said the resort's only disadvantage was its size and mild climate, "which means there is a risk to find too little snow at the lower runs even in January." Wait a minute. . . . Didn't we just go through this for the last two weeks, let alone the furious lead-up effort to redistribute snow to weather-challenged Cypress Mountain?

The Lakers better watch out for ... the Charlotte Bobcats? Indeed, the Bobcats have never made the playoffs in their six-year history, but they always seem to have the Lakers' number. They had won six of seven against the Lakers until a 99-97 loss last month at Staples Center, and now they play host to the Lakers tonight. The Lakers are 2-3 at Charlotte, leading to a series of shrugs and excuses when they're asked about it. It's not a stumbling block comparable to Portland, where the Lakers finally won last month after falling nine consecutive times there, but it's a strange quirk, to say the least.

Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn exited the Vancouver Olympics like two trucks skidding off an icy interstate. The star-spangled faces of the U.S. Alpine team both whiffed, in the first run, of their final two gate races: giant slalom and slalom. If you tuned in late you would have thought American racers were trained by Ghana's "Snow Leopard." Saturday's men's slalom was, basically, carnage for much of the field of 102, led by Uncle Sam's sideways slope sliders. Forty-three racers never saw the first-run finish line on a sloppy, slushy track.

City Section playoff pairings BOYS' BASKETBALL Division I First round, Friday, 7 p.m. No. 16 Lincoln at No. 1 Westchester No. 8 Fremont at No. 9 L.A. Jordan No. 12 Carson at No. 5 Fairfax No. 13 Garfield at No. 4 Washington No. 14 South Gate at No. 3 Crenshaw No. 11 Birmingham at No. 6 Palisades No. 10 Dorsey at No. 7 Cleveland No. 15 Sylmar at No. 2 Taft Division II ...

Immense hedges and thickets of azaleas surround Augusta National Golf Club, concealing its picturesque fairways from the outside world. Fans at the club's annual Masters tournament are known for their gentility -- they are referred to as "patrons" -- and media access is tightly controlled. So it makes sense that Tiger Woods would choose the Masters as a suitable place to emerge from seclusion, the troubled superstar announcing Tuesday he will resume his career in early April after months of wrestling privately with the fallout from his widely reported extramarital affairs.

Wayne Collett, a UCLA sprinter who won the silver medal in the 400 meters at the 1972 Munich Olympics but then was banished from the Games for failing to stand at attention on the medals platform, has died. He was 60. Collett died Wednesday at St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles after battling cancer, UCLA spokesman Marc Dellins said. At UCLA, where Collett competed from 1968 to 1971, he excelled at the quarter-mile, relay and intermediate hurdle events and became a favorite of longtime Bruin track coach Jim Bush.

Merlin Olsen, a Hall of Fame defensive lineman with the Los Angeles Rams who was a charter member of the team's famed Fearsome Foursome, then made a remarkably smooth transition into careers in broadcasting and acting, has died. He was 69. Olsen died early Thursday at City of Hope hospital in Duarte while surrounded by his family, his brother Orrin said. He had been diagnosed last year with mesothelioma, a form of cancer that affects the lining of the lungs. Olsen played 15 seasons in the NFL from 1962 to 1976, all with the Rams.

When Samuel Drake played minor league baseball in Macon, Ga., in 1955, he was called unspeakable, unprintable things simply because of the color of his skin. "And these are my home fans," he once said. "I'm not talking about when I would be traveling to Savannah and all these other Southern cities." Drake persevered, reached the major leagues in 1960 and became part of baseball history with his brother, Solomon Drake, as the first African American siblings to play in the majors.

The Lakers better watch out for ... the Charlotte Bobcats? Indeed, the Bobcats have never made the playoffs in their six-year history, but they always seem to have the Lakers' number. They had won six of seven against the Lakers until a 99-97 loss last month at Staples Center, and now they play host to the Lakers tonight. The Lakers are 2-3 at Charlotte, leading to a series of shrugs and excuses when they're asked about it. It's not a stumbling block comparable to Portland, where the Lakers finally won last month after falling nine consecutive times there, but it's a strange quirk, to say the least.

Clippers tonight VS. UTAH When: 7:30. Where: Staples Center. On the air: TV: Prime; Radio: 980, 1330. Records: Clippers 24-35, Jazz 38-21. Record vs. Utah: 0-2. Update: The Clippers let an 11-point third quarter lead slip away against the Jazz last month at Staples Center during a 109-99 loss. Utah has won six of its last eight games, including a 133-110 victory over Houston on Saturday. -- Ben Bolch

at UC Davis 66, UC Riverside 43 -- Mark Payne scored 19 points to lead the Aggies (12-16, 7-7 Big West Conference), who clinched a bid to the conference tournament. Kyle Austin had eight points and 10 rebounds for the Highlanders (12-16, 5-10), who did not have a player score in double digits. -- associated press

With his self-described "reality check" behind him, Howie Kendrick is looking forward to the Angels' new season, and by that he means the full season. Kendrick began 2009 with a career .306 batting average but slumped badly three months into the season. Hitting only .231 in early June, he was sent to triple-A Salt Lake. It was a loud wake-up call for Kendrick, who everyone agreed was pressing too hard. And after he was called back to the big leagues in early July, Kendrick made the most of it. The Florida native batted .351 from July 4 through the end of the season, lifting his average to .291 for the year, and hit safely in 22 of his last 27 games.

Their game, their gold, but the Olympic hockey finale between Canada and the U.S. belonged to history before the roars triggered by Sidney Crosby's overtime goal had faded by so much as a decibel Sunday. Crosby, whose silence the previous two games had led a nation to brood, took a pass from Jarome Iginla and rifled a shot through the legs of U.S. goaltender Ryan Miller 7 minutes 40 seconds into overtime, giving Canada a 3-2 victory in the last event of perhaps the last Olympic tournament that will include NHL players.

O Canada, did it ever fill the arena, everyone singing, players with their thick arms draped around one another, fans weeping into their giant red jerseys, surely one of the loudest anthems ever. You know what? Let Canada sing. It earned it. It needed it. The joy, the relief, the redemption, and, of course, the farewell. On the final day of Canada's official duties as Olympic hosts, its national sport survived America's national grit Sunday, winning the gold-medal hockey game over the United States in overtime, 3-2, in front of a bouncing sea of braying red. The winners celebrated with the game's best ice dancing, nearly two dozen men locked in a jumping, board-rattling embrace.