{"id":131273,"date":"2025-08-09T08:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T08:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/131273\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T08:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T08:30:10","slug":"letters-to-sports-luka-or-lebron-lakers-need-both","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/131273\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters to Sports: Luka or LeBron? Lakers need both"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s good to see that Luka Doncic was rewarded with an extension<\/a> for working hard to attain a better game-playing weight. Next he must work to get better at playing defense so the Lakers will be rewarded with more victories.<\/p>\n

Mark Sherwin
Los Angeles<\/p>\n

Laker nation stop and take a deep breath. Lakers fans love, and are extremely happy, to have Luka Doncic wearing the purple and gold.<\/p>\n

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However, let\u2019s not forget LeBron James, a bona fide NBA MVP championship player on the team sporting four championship rings on his fingers and four MVPs.<\/p>\n

James\u2019 leadership on the floor in 2025-2026 is the only way the Lakers can challenge for, and be expected to win, another NBA championship. Every player on the team knows that. So do we, the fans.<\/p>\n

Donald Peppars
Pomona<\/p>\n

Move Mookie<\/p>\n

We all love Mookie Betts. But right now, he is a liability<\/a> batting in the top of the order. You have to move him down until he figures it out. Hopefully soon.<\/p>\n

R.D. McCall
Fallbrook<\/p>\n

Mookie’s loss of power is understandable what with the weight loss and other injuries. In the absence of power, he can help the team by being a patient hitter, getting on base, moving runners, etc. In time his power might come back but even if it doesn’t, he can still be a valuable offensive presence.<\/p>\n

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D.G. Artis
Woodland Hills<\/p>\n

I know that Mookie Betts has tried everything physically possible to get out of his slump. But, as a retired optometrist, I would like to recommend a complete eye examination to find his mojo again. It has worked for Max Muncy and Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez. Four eyes are always better than two eyes.<\/p>\n

Terry Feigenbaum
Los Angeles<\/p>\n

Lambs to the …<\/p>\n

The Dodgers don\u2019t have bulls in the bullpen<\/a>, just some sheep.<\/p>\n

Louis H. Abramson
Westlake Village<\/p>\n

Split MVP decision<\/p>\n

After Shohei Ohtani\u2019s pitching and hitting performance against St. Louis on Wednesday<\/a> he should be the MVP of the National League.<\/p>\n

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However, Max Muncy has shown he is the MVP of the Dodgers.<\/p>\n

Russell Hosaka
Torrance<\/p>\n

Kyren siren<\/p>\n

Regarding “Rams are full steam ahead with Kyren Williams<\/a>,” I hope this works out better than the last time they gave their premier running back an extension. Remember Todd Gurley?<\/p>\n

Mike Schaller
Temple City<\/p>\n

Child support<\/p>\n

Of course Mathew Stafford has a bad back. He has four small children!<\/p>\n

George Metalsky
Redondo Beach<\/p>\n

Conflict of interest<\/p>\n

The NFL\u2019s acquisition of an equity stake in ESPN<\/a> raises conflict-of-interest questions. Can ESPN be trusted to investigate issues like CTE in former NFL players or whether owners are engaged in collusion?<\/p>\n

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This deal might assure ESPN of playing Johnny Pearson\u2019s \u201cHeavy Action\u201d Monday Night Football theme for years to come. But anyone who takes sports journalism seriously should view it with grave concern.<\/p>\n

Stephen A. Silver
San Francisco<\/p>\n

Officially concerned<\/p>\n

Thanks for the great Sunday article by Ira Gorawara<\/a> (and photos) about the current state of affairs regarding officiating in the WNBA.<\/p>\n

What is going on with refereeing in the WNBA and why leave so much talent sitting on the bench due to injuries? Let’s support and train the refs like the NBA and let the women play basketball (Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Plum, Cameron Brink and many others).<\/p>\n

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The fans want to watch the game, not the refs. Who is controlling the whistle?<\/p>\n

Joan C. Fingon
Ventura<\/p>\n

Kudos and criticism<\/p>\n

I\u2019m nominating Eric Sondheimer<\/a> for the high school sports reporting Nobel prize.<\/p>\n

Gary Wilson
Murrieta<\/p>\n

We need more Houston Mitchell! I love his style and insight in his Dodgers Dugout newsletter. He is always a great read.<\/p>\n

Lance Oedekerk
Upland<\/p>\n

Instead of writing about parking lot rate increases and sex toys, how about more sports news.<\/p>\n

David Marshall
Santa Monica<\/p>\n

Dylan Hern\u00e1ndez: Enough with the Luka-LeBron malarkey<\/a>. Give it a rest.<\/p>\n

Brent Montgomery
Long Beach<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Times welcomes expressions of all views. Letters should be brief and become the property of The Times. They may be edited and republished in any format. Each must include a valid mailing address and telephone number. Pseudonyms will not be used.<\/p>\n

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Email: <\/b>sports@latimes.com<\/p>\n

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.<\/a><\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s good to see that Luka Doncic was rewarded with an extension for working hard to attain a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":131274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[5610,61677,8604,3363,224,3365,79795,8327,2749,1260,4712,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-131273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-kelsey-plum","9":"tag-kyren-williams","10":"tag-lakers","11":"tag-lebron-james","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-luka-doncic","14":"tag-mark-j-terrill","15":"tag-max-muncy","16":"tag-mookie-betts","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-shohei-ohtani","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114997875515881549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}