Bill Plaschke

"So what's Dwight gonna do?" Like a bad fungus, it's a question that won't go away. Orlando suffered through repeated outbreaks during the 2011-12 NBA season, when Dwight Howard's indecision turned the Amway Center into the Waffle House. After much...

How can they fire a coach who just won a conference championship? How can they fire a leader who spent 10 years winning more than twice as many games as he lost? How can they fire a salesman who last season brought in the No. 2-ranked recruiting class...

LAS VEGAS — Despite the sudden loss of one of its best young players, the UCLA basketball team showed up here Saturday night determined not to throw in the towel. The coach's suit coat was a different matter. Angered by a charging call on...

LAS VEGAS — A UCLA basketball team that has sleepwalked through parts of the season has taken the metaphor to an entirely new level. On Thursday, the Bruins won a basketball game in their pajamas. In their 80-75 comeback victory over Arizona State...

In the summer of 2004, Laker owner Jerry Buss was faced with an extremely hard decision: Kobe Bryant or Shaquille O'Neal. The two superstars were feuding and Buss had to choose one Hall of Famer over another. Buss chose Bryant, a decision that Los...

The beloved mentor and his favorite student spent their final hours together holding hands on a hospital bed. Jerry Buss was entering the final stage of his life after a long battle with cancer, and he wanted to spend some of it with Magic Johnson. Buss...

NEW ORLEANS — Barely two months ago, Alex Smith stood alone under center as the NFL's hottest starting quarterback for one of its best teams. One concussion later, he is lost in the crowd. At the San Francisco 49ers' Super Bowl media day this...

The words, spoken by a glowing superstar at the end of a giddy tournament, formed an outline of hope. Five months later, into this same blueprint a despairing team buries its head. It was Kobe Bryant talking about Dwight Howard. It was the caretaker of...

This country's most inspirational sportsman is exposed as a cheat. Two of the greatest players in baseball history are denied entry into the Hall of Fame because they are cheats. The NFL spends the first three weeks of the season using fake referees. A...

EL PASO — A football season that once swaggered through the warmth of a No. 1 ranking has curled up and expired in a cold, remote desert, buffeted by a chilled and foreboding wind. The kid coach is bundled in a black hoodie and wearing sunglasses....

Josh Hamilton? Are you kidding me? Nobody makes a surprise splash like the Angels, but this was a flying cannonball into the middle of a Southern California pool that had been awash in Dodger blue. Nobody breaks down the door in the middle of the...

It was one of the only moments in Monday's Dodgers news conference that didn't require translation. Shortly after Hyun-Jin Ryu was introduced as the newest Dodgers pitcher, General Manager Ned Colletti fell out of his chair. Seriously, literally,...