SCNTMarketing via YouTube

I missed you SO SO bad.

Hey Staples Center, want some free press?

You got it! But only because you apparently put a zillion hours of talent-coaxing and editing into your music video for "Call Me Maybe," the catchy-ass Carly Rae Jepsen song that recently turned into a YouTube meme. And lucky for you, it's a meme we're not quite sick of yet. (So. Catchy.)

"STAPLES Center was Sports-ageddon May 17th - May 20th, 2012, with 6 Playoff Games in 4 Days..."

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The Brian Banks Story

10 years later, Banks wants a comeback.

Updated at the bottom: The Chargers respond.

At 16 years old, Long Beach Polytechnic High School sports star Brian Banks was on the fast track to a smashing football career. He was a starring middle linebacker on one of California's top high-school teams, and had offers flowing in from all the best colleges. USC wanted him on full ride.

Then, at 17 years old, Banks was convicted of kidnapping and raping a female classmate at Long Beach Poly and sentenced to six years in state prison.

His youth, and football career, were over. Until today...

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Stow won't be avenged just yet.

Last summer, in the painful aftermath of the Bryan Stow beating at Dodger Stadium, Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) offered a beacon of hope for baseball fans who wanted their national pastime back:

His Assembly Bill 2464, as it was originally proposed, would have created "sentencing enhancements for fighting at sporting events" and "a fund, paid into by California's major sports franchises, that would pay for rewards in certain instances."

Now, after a deja-vu Dodger Stadium beating yesterday night, we're wondering:

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Kevin Scanlon

Salon's sometimes media critic Mary Elizabeth Williams just wagged her mighty finger at the rumor mill that has become online journalism -- a system that allowed Manny Pacquiao to be misquoted as saying gay men should be "put to death" yesterday. In truth, Pacquiao's original interviewer deceptively inserted the Leviticus 20:13 quote into his article, making it look like Pacquiao himself had recited it.

Unfortunately, Williams' story on terrible reporting is quite terribly reported, so we wanted to clear some things up with a handy timeline.

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@JonSooHoo via Twitter

Bosom buddies: Magic Johnson and Frank McCourt

Updated below: Dodgers will lose millions on the parking deal, after they pay McCourt.

Magic Johnson stood up on a podium at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday and flat-out lied to Dodger fans.

Johnson, the front man for the team's new ownership group, said that ex-owner Frank McCourt was "not involved in any shape or fashion" with the team. He also said McCourt would not get any of the parking revenues.

"He doesn't get a dime from the parking," Johnson said.

False. In fact, as the Times' Bill Shaikin reported Friday night, the Dodgers will pay $14 million a year to a company half-owned by McCourt for the privilege of parking cars at the stadium.

Magic Johnson simply lied about that, as he continues to obfuscate about his partnership with the most hated man in Los Angeles.
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benchristian

When reports surfaced last night that there were a few last-minute details to be hammered out in the Guggenheim Baseball purchase of the Dodgers, we got a bad feeling.

Maybe the universally loathed Frank McCourt was pulling a dictator trick in an attempt to unravel the deal and hold on just a little longer.

Thankfully, that wasn't the case:

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Frank McCourt: Show us your easements!

The Dodgers sale is still on track to close on April 30, as a bankruptcy judge approved the sale agreement today despite last-minute objections from Major League Baseball.

According to the tandem of @EricFisherSBJ and @BillShaikin, who were both tweeting the proceedings in Delaware, the attorney for Major League Baseball said the league is "concerned about the parking lot situation."

Well, that makes two of us. MLB asked for a delay so the league can look over the parking lot agreements, but Judge Kevin Gross denied the request. Gross also denied a request from the L.A. Times to unseal the parking lot easement.

So at least for now, Frank McCourt's arrangement with the new Dodgers owners is still classified as top secret. Which reminds us: How's the parking lot boycott going?
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@JonSooHoo via Twitter

Frank McCourt makes his friends sign contracts to be nice to him.

This explains everything.

Dodgers fans and sports writers have been scratching their heads over why new team co-owner Magic Johnson has been so damn nice to seller Frank McCourt. Because come on -- nobody's nice to Frank McCourt. He's basically the one person in Los Angeles who we're all allowed to rip on indefinitely, without threat of libel. His terribleness is an undisputed fact.

But it turns out Johnson is under contract to keep his mouth shut:

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Frank McCourt: The rat in the punchbowl

​It's been a bit sad watching the new Dodger owners -- who should be reveling in their $2 billion purchase -- instead having to explain their uncomfortable partnership with Frank McCourt.

At first, their message was that McCourt had laid a "fantastic foundation" for the Dodgers. That wasn't going to fly with fans, so now they've moved on to desperately trying to minimize McCourt's stake in the Dodger parking lots.

The overall message is borderline schizophrenic: Frank McCourt is a wonderful guy who we have nothing to do with. Clearly they are concerned about anger at McCourt, which caused a fan boycott last year.

Thankfully, there is a way for fans to express both their love for the Dodgers and their loathing for McCourt: Boycott the lots.
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Malingering via Flickr

2011 was a rough year for Dodger Stadium.

News flash: Magic Johnson and his bidding team won the Dodgers for a record $2 billion last night.

And by 4:15 p.m. today, not 24 hours after the big announcement, the team's Opening Day game against the Pittsburgh Pirates is all sold out.

So yeah, if there was any doubt left in anyone's mind that Dodger Stadium seats were empty because of former owner Frank McCourt...

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Dodger Stadium

​Thousands of Dodger fans boycotted the team last year out of disgust with Frank McCourt. Now that McCourt has sold the team for $2 billion to an investor group led by Magic Johnson, those fans are celebrating.

But there's a rat in the punchbowl: Frank McCourt will partner with Johnson's group to own and develop the parking lots. He's not going away.

What should Dodger fans do, if they still want to express their disapproval of McCourt?

Easy: Boycott the lots.
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Frank McCourt's new business partner

​The headline over at the L.A. Times proclaims that the $2 billion sale of the Dodgers to a group led by Magic Johnson will end the "troubled McCourt era."

Not exactly. Frank McCourt will hang on to the Dodger Stadium parking lots through a joint venture with Johnson's investor group. That means Johnson and his backers are now business partners with McCourt. And we know how good McCourt is at working with others.

Those looking for a clean slate are bound to be disappointed. In the Dodgers press release, Johnson praised McCourt for building a "fantastic foundation" for the team.

Someone should ask him at his press conference if he actually believes that. If he does, the Dodgers are in worse trouble than you think.
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Update on next page: Bidder Joey Herrick on the importance of local owners.

But is McCourt really gone from Chavez Ravine?

Magic Johnson, beloved spots icon in Los Angeles, and his group of investors including former Atlanta Braves president Stan Kasten, essentially wrote a $2 billion check Tuesday evening to buy the Dodgers, pre-empting a final auction round that had been set for Wednesday, March 28.

According to extremely excited sports radio commentator Matt "Money" Smith, who went live on KFI moments after the news broke shortly after 8 pm Tuesday, the stunning $2 billion was justified by the "incredible" money to be made "off local TV rights." Fans of the Dodgers who hate McCourt sounded ecstatic, but Smith warned that Frank may not be gone:

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TopNews.In

Soon-Shiong and his wife, Michele B. Chan (AKA Mei Jan of television's MacGyver)

With owner Frank McCourt's April 30 deadline to sell the team rapidly approaching, and with potential suitors--like alleged con man, and L.A. Weekly cover boy, Josh Macciello--dropping like flies, bidding for the Dodgers is getting serious.

Hedge fund billionaire Steven Cohen gained a new asset in his bid to buy the ball team with the announcement today that South African-born, UCLA-educated surgeon and scientist Patrick Soon-Shiong (who also happens to be the richest man in Los Angeles) would join his cohort of investors.

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Photo by Ted Soqui

Josh Macciello

​Last week, the L.A. Weekly published a story about Josh Macciello, who attracted substantial media attention with a bogus $2.2 billion bid for the Dodgers.

As the story documented, Macciello falsely claimed in interviews to have "billions of dollars" worth of gold mines. By his own admission to us, however, Macciello has no financing and is not a bidder for the team.

In response, Macciello issued this press release, which does not even attempt to rebut the central charges in the story.

Instead, most of the release addresses two paragraphs of our story, those detailing Macciello's criminal record. Like most of what Macciello says, his response requires fact-checking.
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Pau stays.

Pau Gasol was loathing the idea of being traded away by the Lakers. Kobe Bryant even came to his defense when rumors were swirling that the lanky Spaniard would be shipped off as part of a multi-way deal.

Today the Lakers made the deal -- with longtime player Derek Fisher going to Houston and Luke Walton and Jason Kapono going to Cleveland.

Gasol was so relieved he made a YouTube video titled ...

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Danica Patrick.

Danica Patrick, who competed in NASCAR's fire-and-brimstone Daytona 500 over the weekend, is no shrinking violet, as they say.

She competes -- and wins -- in a white-knuckle sport that would make most of us pee our pants and cry for mommy. Literally. This shit is scary.

And so, despite capitalizing on her pleasant appearance (to say the least) in ads for web-hosting company Go Daddy, we think Patrick deserves a little respect:

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LA Times

Team Alvarado fights back.

Parents, students and star alumni gathered in front of Granada Hills Kennedy High this morning to protest the pending suspension of Manny Alvarado, the school's beloved (and wildly successful) baseball coach of almost a quarter-century. Alvarado "was informed last week he will be suspended for three weeks without pay for his role in an alleged hazing incident," according to the Los Angeles Times.

Cindy Kuykendall, a team mom, tells the Weekly that about 200 people staged a "positive, peaceful protest" to decry the suspension -- one that could affect not only Alvarado but "our children's future."

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Getty Images

Our sentiments exactly.

Last night's Americana showdown at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis was blaring on the TV sets of 47.8 percent of the nation's households -- Los Angeles very much included.

After all, we couldn't bear to be out of the loop on all the Super Bowl tweets and commercials and pop-culture commentary this hungover Monday! (Did y'all catch Gisele's hilarious post-game schooling of Tom Brady's teammates? And M.I.A.'s very non-world-peace-ful middle finger to the masses? Hashtag fever!)

But it was really, really hard for L.A. to care about the game itself.

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Bueller finally does the PCH.

Thank you, Honda, for bringing to life Hollywood's wildest fantasy this Superbowl season: Ferris Bueller, our favorite high-school hooligan, playing hooky in our own backyard.

Sure, we get a tired, squarish, middle-aged version of Bueller, who has morphed into a very mortal Matthew Broderick, the actor who played him as a teen. Broderick sleeps in nice Westside hotels, drives a soccer-mom minivan (most essential to Honda's cause), and his greatest ideal of freedom is winning a stuffed panda at the Santa Monica Pier. But that's pretty much the reality ...

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