SF Examiner: Lakers bring electricity to town

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The long ago Pacific Coast League baseball team was called the Hollywood Stars, a name both pretentious and truthful in Southern Cal. Down there, if you’re not signing autographs, you’re asking for them. It’s an L.A. way of life.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Keith Smart enjoying life at the top

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

He remembers the spoon being tossed into the metal sink at 4:30 a.m. Keith Smart’s father had finished his coffee and was leaving for work in Baton Rouge, La. Another day had begun, and for a boy, so had an understanding of what life was all about.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Things are looking up in NorCal

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

John Cook, who won the Charles Schwab Cup Championship on Sunday at Harding Park, was saying as a kid who grew up in Southern California — or “SoCal,” as he phrased it — how much he reveled in beating people and teams from Northern California.

Read the full story here.

C0pyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Warriors Send Don Nelson Swimming

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

He was busy. "Probably swimming with the dolphins,'' was the message on Don Nelson's answering machine. He meant the real ones, off the coast of Maui.

As opposed to swimming with sharks, the figurative kind, who symbolically chewed him up.

The ones who chomped him out of pro basketball, this time apparently for good.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

SF Examiner: New ownership for Warriors a good place to start

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — Coming from the entertainment industry, where he was the poobah of National General, the late Gene Klein was used to having things his own way, which is what happens when you are successful in business. In fact, that is what makes you successful in business.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company