Good morning and welcome to The Morning Column at The Sporting Tribune. It’s the first of our weekday 6@6 series, where you can catch The Morning Column, Arash Markazi’s daily notebook, at 6 a.m. PT, and then watch and listen to The Sporting Tribune Today at 6 p.m. PT on X. The show, which is hosted by Arash Markazi and Grant Mona, will hit on the top stories of the day and will also air on KIRN 670 AM in Southern California, 98.5 The Bet in Las Vegas and The Hawaii Sports Radio Network 95.1 FM and 760 AM in Hawaii.
LOS ANGELES – Six thoughts for Thursday:
1. ESPN announced Wednesday that it is moving production of its Los Angeles-based late night SportsCenter as well as soccer programming to its headquarters in Bristol, Conn. The last Los Angeles SportsCenter will air on May 16.
The only shows that will continue to use ESPN’s LA Live studios, which opened on April 6, 2009, is ESPN's NBA shows. The studios were also used for Los Angeles-based reporters on “Around The Horn,” which will air its final episode on May 23.
It’s the end of an era for ESPN, which planted a huge flag across the street from Staples Center just before the Lakers won back-to-back NBA championships, the Kings won two Stanley Cups in three years and the Sparks won a WNBA title.
I joined ESPN in 2009 as they were building their campus at L.A. Live. It was an exciting time as they opened a first-class studio for ESPNLA 710, launched ESPNLA.com to cover the city as newspapers were downsizing, introduced Bill Simmons’ Grantland.com, welcomed the nightly SportsCenter Los Angeles, invested in X Games, which took place annually in Los Angeles, and also held events at ESPN Zone at Disneyland.
Since then, ESPN sold ESPNLA 710 to Good Karma Brands, pulled the plug on ESPNLA.com and Grantland.com, announced the cancellation of SportsCenter Los Angeles, sold the X Games to MS Sports Capital and closed all of its ESPN Zone locations.
ESPN is still the “Worldwide Leader” but they have seemingly punted on having a homebase in Los Angeles and they might not be done yet when it comes to relocating. A source inside ESPN told me their commitment to having NBA shows emanate from L.A. Live extends only through this postseason but no decision has been made yet about next season when "Inside the NBA" with Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal, will begin airing on ESPN and ABC.
TNT Sports will continue to independently produce "Inside the NBA" from its Atlanta-based studios. Multiple prominent ESPN personalities that cover the NBA also have contracts coming up before next season and part of those contract negotiations, according to the source, will revolve around ESPN not having a Los Angeles-based NBA show. Nothing has been decided yet but there is a chance ESPN completely leaves its LA Live studios and offices at the end of the year.
2. The Los Angeles Sparks announced they will retire Candace Parker’s No. 3 jersey at Crypto.com Arena at halftime of the team’s game against the Chicago Sky on June 29. Parker will become the third Spark to have her jersey retired, joining Lisa Leslie (No. 9), and Penny Toler (No. 11). The ceremony, according to the team, will “feature a halftime on-court tribute with appearances from former teammates, coaches, and special guests, along with a video montage highlighting her greatest moments in a Sparks uniform.”
It will be a special night but also reminds me that we’re still long overdue for the first Sparks statue in Star Plaza outside of Crypto.com Arena. Before the pandemic, there was talk of Lisa Leslie getting a statue but nothing has happened since then. Crypto.com Arena is the home of the Lakers, Kings and Sparks. It’s not hard to see it’s the home of the Lakers and Kings as you walk around Star Plaza and see statues for Lakers greats Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant and Chick Hearn as well as Kings greats Wayne Gretzky, Luc Robitaille, Dustin Brown and Bob Miller. But it’s long overdue for the Sparks to have some kind of representation with a statue in front of the arena as well.
3. Everyone knows the Dodgers are the heavy favorites to repeat as World Series champions but they are actually historically big favorites, according to several sportsbooks in Las Vegas. The Dodgers are hovering around +275 to win the World Series at many sportsbooks before their home opener against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday. That makes them the biggest Opening Day favorite since the 2002 New York Yankees, according to ESPN Research. The Dodgers had a preseason win total of 103, which is about 10 wins higher than any other team this year. It’s the highest total entering any season since the 1999 Yankees. For those wondering, the 2002 Yankees did win 103 games but lost to the Angels in the ALDS while the 1999 Yankees won the World Series as the Yankees won three World Series in four years from 1996 to 2000.
4. I know traffic is a nightmare around Dodger Stadium for the first homestand of the season but if you have a ticket to Opening Day in L.A. on Thursday or the ring ceremony on Friday, do yourself a favor and get their early. Josh Groban, who sang the national anthem before last year’s home opener will be back to sing the anthem and will be accompanied by two F-15C aircrafts from the 144th Fight Wing in Fresno, California and two F-35A Lightning II fighter jets from the 63rd Fighter Squadron of Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. And on Friday, my favorite anthem singer Keith Williams Jr. will take centerstage before Steve Garvey, Orel Hershiser and Manny Mota throw out the ceremonial first pitch and Jaime Jarrin returns to announce, “It’s Time for Dodger Baseball!”
5. The City of Pasadena announced Wednesday that it signed a historic agreement with the organizers of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games for the Rose Bowl Stadium to host Olympic soccer, including the semifinal and final matches for both men and women. This will mark the third time that Pasadena will play a role in the Olympic Games at the Rose Bowl Stadium. While this announcement had been expected for some time, it’s great to officially see the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the Rose Bowl Stadium officially become the only two venues to host events at three different Olympic Games (1932, 1984, 2028).
6. I might be one of the last print subscribers to notice this but it was also the end of the era at the Los Angeles Times as they got rid of the rid of the “hedcut” or hand-drawn portraits of their columnists and instead place “Voices” above columns written by their columnists. Frustrated readers upset by a column in the paper can no longer draw on the portraits of the writer, depriving those of us that still enjoy the tactile pleasure of holding the morning paper one more benefit of keeping our subscriptions.