No, she’ll do it herself, on her own timeline, make a beeline from A past B straight to the W, where her WNBA dream job is exceeding her own lofty expectations.

The 21-year-old former Harvard-Westlake basketball star – you might also know her from her season at USC, starring alongside JuJu Watkins – is an All-Star already.

She’ll suit up for Saturday’s WNBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis along with fellow rookies Sonia Citron, Iriafen’s Mystics teammate, and Paige Bueckers, the Dallas Wings’ No. 1 overall draft pick. They’ll make it just 36 WNBA rookies to participate in a WNBA All-Star Game since it debuted in 1999, per Across the Timeline.

“It’s incredible,” said Melissa Hearlihy, Iriafen’s former Harvard-Westlake coach. “But it’s not surprising.”

No, because this is Kiki Iriafen. And not so long ago, when she decided, in eighth grade, that she wanted to go to Harvard-Westlake, she filled out all the required forms and paperwork that give grownups headaches and presented them to her mom, Yemi, completed except for her signature. “I’m a very independent person,” Kiki said. “I like to get things done.”

This is Kiki Iriafen, who completed her degree in product design and mechanical engineering at Stanford – in three years, while, of course, playing Division I basketball. Who added a master’s degree in entrepreneurship and innovation from USC while also trying to chase a championship with the Trojans.

This is Kiki Iriafen, whose fast track to professional All-Stardom – following Rookie of the Month out of the gate in May – has been so immediate, it has surprised even her: “Not even on my radar at all coming in.”

But the precocious power forward has checked in, a 6-foot-3 sponge – “She asks a lot of questions,” Trojans assistant coach Willnett Crockett told me – eager to learn and improve and, heck yes, to compete fiercely against fellow 4s, so many of whom are among the WNBA’s best players.

Iriafen is averaging nearly a double-double – 11.9 points and 8.5 rebounds on 46% shooting – for a surprisingly competitive Mystics team that is in the midst of a youth movement that’s proving more launching pad than incubator, with Citron and Iriafen, this year’s Nos. 3 and 4 picks, becoming the first pair of rookie All-Star teammates since 1999.

There’s wasting little time and wasting none; arriving early, right on time.

Because as women’s basketball is having a time here in the 2020s, Iriafen is among the game’s bright new All-Stars. Not a headliner like Caitlin and JuJu and Paige, perhaps, but she’s on the marquee.

After I heard her say this week that she found fashion and basketball gave her confidence as a tall girl growing up, I looked over my daughter’s shoulder as she flipped through August’s Vogue magazine to see Iriafen staring back at us in a Coach advertisement. Also, in April, she became the first college athlete to sign a sponsorship deal with Skechers, catch her playing in their coral-colored SKX Nexus sneakers. And hey now, she’s an All-Star.

“Kiki has a remarkable presence,” said Jamila Wideman, the Mystics’ general manager who was a popular rookie playing for the Sparks in the WNBA’s inaugural season in 1997. “She’s funny, she’s warm, she has a charisma. And if that is a part of being a star, then she has that.”

Iriafen also had the news of her transfer from Stanford to USC announced to the world via Woj bomb, an Adrian Wojnarowski social media post that landed during a Lakers playoff game: “Just in: Former Stanford F Kiki Iriafen – the potential No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft – has committed to the USC Trojans, she tells ESPN. Iriafen will return to her LA home to team with Juju Watkins on a national title contender for coach Lindsay Gottlieb.”

There were a lot of reasons for the move: a shot at a national championship, playing for Gottlieb, coming home to L.A., no place like it.

And that the change turned out to be a challenge – statistically, Iriafen took a step back, and eventual champion UConn stopped the JuJu-less Trojans in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament – turned out to be a feature.

Not that collegians these days need additional incentives to transfer, but how about this from Wideman, the rookie GM who was also once a Stanford star: “You got to see her in a couple different situations in college. Her transfer for her last year and her ability to make that transition pretty quickly, to adapt under a gigantic spotlight, I think told you something about her person and her ability to adapt … to me, it spoke something to her bravery.”

They ought to offer degrees in adaptability, because Iriafen would be working toward one of those, too – or teaching the course.

“She’s just done a tremendous job of adapting and adjusting to the pros, the size and physicality,” said Lynne Roberts, who had to game plan for Iriafen in college as Utah’s head coach and now in her first year coaching the Sparks. “Playing against her in college, she was always big and strong and athletic and explosive, and I think she’s just kind of taking that to another level.”

What that means, Iriafen said, is applying her basketball education, “just putting my head down … just being adaptable and using the things that I’ve learned [at USC] to just impact any way I can on the Mystics.”

That’s also how she played at Harvard-Westlake, where she arrived having only started hooping in middle school. But she came with undeniable physical gifts and, importantly, a dream and a drive: “She never let anything get in her way,” said Hearlihy, who retired from coaching in 2024 after 39 years and 839 victories. “The most driven kid I’ve ever coached.”

A quick trip down memory lane in the L.A. Daily News archives documents how Iriafen steadily added to her bag, starting as a head-turning 6-1 freshman who led the team in scoring to super-sophomore gaining acclaim as the sixth-ranked prospect in the country.

As a junior, she was described as a “dominating” “unstoppable” “budding superstar” with soft hands and impressive body control. A mentally tough, elite finisher who loved opening up the game for teammates on the way to a CIF Southern Section Division I crown.

And by the time she was a Stanford-bound senior, averaging 20.9 points and 15.8 rebounds, she’d “added a deadly shooting touch,” acquired “a solid package” of moves, earned recognition as a McDonald’s All-American and, twice, as the Daily News’ Player of the Year.

And this week, she was back, back again in L.A., this time having met and exceeded her initial professional goals. She was playing for the first time against the Sparks and in Crypto.com Arena, where she said she’d been so many times as a fan. A large contingent from the Trojans’ women’s basketball program was on hand Tuesday and DJ Mal-Ski, who also worked Iriafen’s USC games, played those familiar few notes of Drake’s 2018 hit “In My Feelings” – “Kiki, do you love me?” – a couple of times during the game as something of hello again.

The Sparks beat Washington, 99-80, handing the Mystics just their third loss in nine games and holding Iriafen to eight points and eight rebounds. A growth opportunity, she would probably tell you.

Afterward, at home on the road, Iriafen embraced Sparks center Cameron Brink – her former Stanford teammate – and slapped high-fives with fans, signed autographs and stopped for a few photos and selfies before disappearing into the tunnel.

Next stop: the WNBA All-Star Game.

“LeBron James hasn’t had buyout, trade discussions with Lakers, expects to be with team: Sources”

In other words, nothing to report. But that passive-aggressive statement that Rich Paul and Klutch Sports provided on LeBron’s behalf a couple of weeks ago, shortly after LeBron opted into the final year of his contract at $52.6 million, is the gift that keeps on giving.

Really, I can’t imagine that there’s anything to see here. No fire, not even any smoke … although the way things have gone in Southern California this year that might be a bad – no, make that horrible – analogy.

But all of the fevered speculation and conversation centers on a handful of things: Paul mentioned that LeBron still wants to win a championship (at least one) before he walks away, whenever that might be. Meanwhile, this is no longer undisputedly LeBron’s team, not with Luka Doncic as the younger/future face of the franchise – after a transaction, might we add, that blindsided LeBron when it was made. That in itself might have been a statement.

And this is one of the rare occasions when LeBron’s future is not totally under his control. He’s playing out the final year of his contract, and while he does have the right to veto any trade, let’s be honest: Which franchise could handle adding $52.6 million to its payroll this year and not zoom directly into the peril of the second apron?

Mirjam, is this as big a nothing-burger to you as it is to me, or am I missing something?

Mirjam Swanson: It’s summertime offseason junk food. It’s bad-calorie snacking ’cause we’re bored.

As you lay out: Trading LeBron is not impossible, but it would be difficult and almost certainly be dumb – for the Lakers and the potential trade partner … which didn’t stop folks from going nuts over a LeBron-to-Dallas rumor started by some random person on the internet and subsequently shot down by multiple insiders with actual sources giving them actual intel.

That doesn’t mean there can’t be drama. It doesn’t mean that LeBron is happy he wasn’t offered a 1+1 when he opted in this time. And it doesn’t mean he’ll want to finish his career as a Laker, even though I hope he does. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t want us to wonder whether he’ll leave for Cleveland. Or New York. Or Dallas. Or Golden State. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy being the main character in our inane offseason debates – ever the nothing-to-see-here-why-are-you-even-looking provocateur who loves lighting the internet on fire with clues and hints that might mean nothing or might mean something … or might mean something in between.

It’s just an offseason buffet of LeBron rumors, and it’s probably not especially good for our health, but it’s also not going to kill us either. We’re all going to indulge sometimes – I mean, we’re writing about it here, aren’t we?

Jim: Mainly this is grist for the Hot Take Industry, and I’m guessing the morning talkers at, for example, ESPN (aka the Worldwide Leader in Self-Importance) are yammering away at it. Guessing, because I don’t watch those morning shows. Argument television doesn’t do a lot for me.

Anyway, our friend at the other paper, Bill Plaschke, made the suggestion that LeBron should go out, when he does, the way Kobe Bryant did in his final season – announce it beforehand and allow the multitudes in cities throughout the league to wish him farewell and salute his greatness. I’m not opposed to that at all. I just think it would be really difficult for LeBron to make that commitment before or early in a season, because he seems to have so much fun keeping us all in suspense.

Meanwhile … let’s stay with hoops. You pointed out to me that The Athletic did a survey of WNBA players, and among the several questions asked was who would be the face of the league in five years. The answers: Caitlin Clark – and JuJu Watkins. This is a reminder of the treasure that we have in our midst, and also of how sad it was to see her go down with that torn ACL against Mississippi State in the NCAA Tournament. The assumption is that she’ll miss this coming season, but watch out in 2026-27.

The margin in that poll, by the way, was Clark 53.8%, JuJu 17.9% and Paige Bueckers 14.1%. Young players do have to earn their way in the WNBA, y’know. I’m also wondering how many of those who voted for Caitlin did so with eye rolls and/or gritted teeth, considering what seems to be – or at least what we’re told is – the jealousy toward Clark among her fellow players.

But consider that JuJu was the only one among the top five who is not currently in the league. That speaks pretty eloquently, doesn’t it?

Mirjam: JuJu’s a star, man.

Obviously, Caitlin is electric and she’s captured America’s attention in a way no women’s basketball player before her has. And Paige is so excellent and fun to watch, and Sabrina Ionescu’s got girls and guys everywhere wearing her signature shoes and Angel Reese is a household name as is A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart …

But in this age of more people knowing more women’s hoopers than ever, Watkins is there at the top of the marquee with Caitlin and Paige – but as a collegian! Who yes, just suffered a serious injury. I really hate that part, but also the painful twist of fate made me realize how incredibly and intensely beloved she is already, in L.A. and outside of it.

I had a friend from a past job who isn’t really a huge women’s basketball fan text me afterward to tell me he was taking a different route to work in downtown L.A. because he couldn’t bear to look at the JuJu billboards on his usual route. And I met a 75-year-old man in Spokane, Washington, wearing a handmade “Wish You Were Here JuJu” shirt to the Super Regional site there who told me he’d only recently started watching women’s basketball – but that he’d “damn near cried” when he watched Watkins get hurt.

That speaks to her game, of course, but also just her “it” factor as a performer and a personality. She’s really uniquely cool – and she’s great. And the women in the WNBA are right about her – she’s absolutely going to be the face of that league in a few years … as is Caitlin, who, yes, deserved to be 100% of the responses and not 53.8%.

As for LeBron – still the Face of the NBA – planning a goodbye tour? I can see him doing that – as well he should – when he’s ready to retire … but this man just made second-team All-NBA and finished sixth in MVP voting! That’s good for a 25-year-old! Dude’s not done! Not done trolling us, not done hooping at a high level.

Jim: OK, so what’s his next contract going to look like?

Meanwhile, for those who missed it, baseball’s All-Star Game turned out to be a pretty good show this week, not the least because the players were again allowed to wear their regular team uniforms, instead of the clown suits they’d been forced to don the last four years.

Ordinarily, I have no use for player interviews while those players are actually playing, even in what is an exhibition game. But I will admit that attaching a live microphone to Clayton Kershaw during his two-batter stint in the second inning provided some great stuff. For example, he was fielding suggestions from the broadcast booth on what pitch he should throw, and Fox’s John Smoltz suggested he throw a cutter. “I don’t have a cutter, Smoltzie,” Kershaw said, and followed that with a muttered phrase that might have put the broadcast into PG-13 rated territory.

But that wasn’t the best part. The best part was that they used a “swing-off” – basically a home run contest – to decide a winner after the American League came back to tie the game 6-6. And don’t tell me players don’t care who wins, because players from both teams were standing in front of their dugouts acting like fans as the sluggers did their stuff, with Kyle Schwarber pulling it out for the National League by hitting three homers in his three swings.

But that got me thinking about how the Home Run Derby the day before the game could be improved, or at least how it might be tweaked so the game’s biggest stars like Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge might be drawn back into it.

The current format is timed, with batting practice pitchers pumping in one pitch after another and the hitters swinging and swinging and swinging. It’s exhausting, and the stars won’t participate because that unnatural hack-after-hack-after-hack can mess up their swing for the second half of the season. (Saw it happen, too: Joc Pederson in 2015 in Cincinnati finished second to Todd Frazier, but his second half was a mess because of it.)

So my suggestion: Get rid of the timer. Give each guy 20 swings per round – or 15, if it’s really about time constraints – but make it a more normal rhythm, as the pitchers did in the postgame contest Tuesday night. (Including the Dodgers’ Dino Ebel, who might have been the night’s outstanding pitcher for serving up those batting practice meatballs to the NL hitters.)

Get rid of the timer and you’ll get that star quality back, I’d bet. (Shohei himself has suggested as much.) Right now the Home Run Derby is looking more and more like the Slam Dunk Contest at NBA All-Star weekend, the only difference being we don’t have a minor-leaguer taking home the trophy.

Any thoughts, Mirjam, on ways to improve such of these made-for-TV spectacles? Or is it, again, so much sports junk food?

Mirjam: Nah, the home run derby is absolutely fixable! I’m right there with you.

This hack-after-hack stuff is so lame – we can’t even admire the home runs as they leave the park … which is the awesome thing about a home run. Especially the spectacular bombs these guys are hitting.

So the current format not only is exhausting and unnatural and unappealing to the game’s biggest home-run hitting stars, but it defeats the purpose of marveling at a ball launched into the night’s sky back, back, back, back … anyone who watched the 1999 Home Run Derby between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa (yes, I know) will remember the thrill of that event.

I don’t know why anyone thought doing it this way – speed-home-run hitting? – was a good idea, at any point. And I hope the way the game ended compels the powers that be to reconsider and do what you’ve suggested. Slow down, let us enjoy the homers. Let the home run hitters enjoy the homers!

But now, no matter how you look at it, how you waive and stretch it, Beal is a steal – for the Clippers.

They’ve reportedly agreed to sign the three-time All-Star who has averaged 21.5 points, 4.3 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game in his career. A shooting guard who has shot 37.6% from 3-point range in 13 NBA seasons to insert in place of Norman Powell, the guard they gave up in the three-team trade that brought over power forward John Collins, who had long been on the Clippers’ wish list.

And they’ll be getting Beal – once he clears waivers – for the low-low price of two years for $11 million, or $5.35 this season, according to ESPN.

Everyone else involved in this agreement? Shall we say they’re not making out quite like those bandit Clippers.

Beal – who has made more than $318 million so far – reportedly will be giving back $13.9 million, or $2.9 million more than the Clippers will pay him. Imagine having made so much money or being so unfulfilled in a job that you would forfeit literal millions to take a new gig. Or maybe both, in Beal’s case.

And imagine wanting to rid your roster of a player and his massive deal so badly that you’d pay him $19.4 million per year for the next five years to play for another team in the same conference, as the Phoenix Suns have agreed to. What can we say? The second apron strikes again; teams will pay a fortune for flexibility.

Once again, Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank and his team of big-game bargain hunters are among this offseason’s big winners. And these days I’m not sure that doesn’t matter almost as much as being actual winners. The public seems so tuned-in to roster construction and ready to tune out for the games.

So let’s lean into it: On paper, the Clippers look formidable. The team that won 50 regular-season games last season, that’s led by Coach Tyronn Lue and his stalwart staff, that pushed the Denver Nuggets to a seventh game in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs – it’s more talented now.

On paper, the Clippers look tough. They have more ball-handling with Beal, who also provides the scoring to replace Powell’s pop. And there’s more defense around the rim with Collins and Brook Lopez – who both give the Clippers different looks and sudden depth around the basket that they haven’t had since Isaiah Hartenstein was around in 2021-22, hanging in Ivica Zubac’s shadow.

On paper, they look like they could be contenders. Starting for the Clippers: James Harden and Beal in the backcourt, plus two-time NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, Collins and Zubac. And that quintet has a quintet of proven role players to back them up: Kris Dunn, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Derrick Jones Jr., Nicolas Batum and Lopez.

On paper, the Clippers look good.

But the Clippers have scored well on paper before.

Remember 2019-20, the beginning of the 213 Era, when the Clippers were odds-on favorites to win the championship and people were talking about George and Leonard as possibly the greatest wing duo ever? Recall the coronation that was being planned for a project that never even sniffed the finish line, before the Clippers let George walk last summer in exchange for nothing but that much-coveted flexibility?

Or remember the Lakers’ lineup in 2021-22, when they built a team that was a who’s who of recognizable veterans to play alongside LeBron James, darn-near ageless, but 37 that year. Carmelo Anthony came aboard, with Dwight Howard, Trevor Ariza, DeAndre Jordan and Rajon Rondo, a bunch of guys with a whole bunch of experience – none of them with fewer than 15 seasons in the league. Plus, yes, Russell Westbrook, then in Year 13.

It was a squad strong on name power and … well, name power. And short on youth. And, eventually, on wins, finishing 33-49 and 11th in the Western Conference.

And, on paper, these Clippers look old.

At a time when youth is winning the day, the Clippers are trying it the other way. At least for now, at least until their partnership with Leonard – under contract until July 2027 – expires.

The Thunder team that just won the NBA championship went into last season as the youngest in the league, at 24.148 years of age. And the Indiana team it faced in the Finals? The Pacers set out with players whose average age was just 25.263 years.

Meanwhile, the Clippers entered last season with the NBA’s third-oldest roster, at 27.358 years old. Now, in addition to the 32-year-old Beal, they’ve brought aboard the 37-year-old Lopez to play alongside the 35-year-old Harden and 34-year-old Leonard. And they haven’t even yet added 40-year-old Chris Paul, once the leader of those star-crossed Lob City teams who is rumored to be plotting a return on a veteran minimum contract.

So, absolutely, on paper, the Clippers look promising, like they could have a puncher’s chance in what was a closely contested conference last season.

But the question that will be worth most on the final exam, kids, wasn’t whether they could make the math work on another reclamation venture in the offseason. It’s whether they’ll be able to keep Kawhi and all those old guys on the court during the basketball season?

Leonard, recall, didn’t start playing last season until Game 35 because of what the team characterized as “right knee injury recovery.” Meanwhile, over in Phoenix, Beal averaged 17 points in 53 games, but he missed many others with aches and pains in his elbow, calf, knee, hip, ankle, toe and hamstring.

Let’s say the Clippers can keep the injury bug at bay – there are more questions: Can this smartly assembled squad of seasoned veterans keep up with opponents’ spry stars so many years their junior? Can they defend them? Will they outsmart them? And, ultimately, can they give the Clippers the utmost bang for their buck?

That’s something to work out when the actual basketball begins, though.

For now, it’s summertime and the Clippers are winning.

Not talking an exceptionally high level; not the top-shelf stuff.

Just very much on their own plane, dancing to their own beat, repeating their familiar one-step-forward, two-steps-back shuffle into the All-Star Break.

On Sunday, that meant they punctuated their surprisingly competent two-games-under-.500 first half with an exclamatory thud.

As the team on the field was losing to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-1, to drop to 47-49, the team in the front office was using its No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft on a player who experts at MLB.com listed as the 18th best available prospect.

And why?

Angels scouting director Tim McIlvaine explained, they shocked even UC Santa Barbara right-hander Tyler Bremner with the pick because, well, they really, really like him.

They like his 6-foot-2 frame, his fastball, his changeup and, McIlvaine said, “you just get a feeling sometimes with a guy, that just feels right.”

They really, really like him just a smidge more than the other nine or so guys they were considering taking, he said.

“We talked about it right up until the bell, really,” McIlvaine said. “It’s a talented group this year, it really is. Probably 10 guys that we were really exhausted, going through the whole process.”

What about Bremner’s work-in-progress slider? Yep, “it’s developing,” McIlvaine said.

And those questions about his durability? “We talked to him, realized the weight he lost over the summer, he’ll be able to put that back on,” McIlvaine said.

So Bremner should come at a bargain, contract-wise, one would think? Was that the appeal? “No, I wouldn’t say that … we’re still gonna figure it all out,” McIlvaine said.

What about Bremner’s collegiate record – 5-4 in 14 starts this past season? That only made the Angels like him more! “So many guys that we take, they’ve never failed, you know?” McIlvaine said. “And then you get them in pro ball and they’re matching all their peers and it’s harder all of a sudden and some guys don’t know how to deal with it.”

Please keep in mind that it had to have been a difficult season for Bremner, whose mother, Jen Bremner, was fighting cancer, continuing to come to Gauchos games until she couldn’t anymore.

On Instagram, Bremner memorialized his mom with a heartfelt post on June 12 that read, in part: “Saying goodbye to you has been the hardest thing I have had to go through in my life. Why did this evil disease have to come into the life of such a pure hearted soul.”

On a Zoom videoconference with reporters on Sunday, he said that he knows “she’s out there watching, and in a weird way, I went to the Angels. It’s weird how life works.”

To his new employers, Bremner said: “You got a warrior here, you got the most competitive guy in the draft, and I can’t wait to start.”

There’s no reason to doubt the 21-year-old San Diego native’s fight or compete, but it’s usually hard not to doubt the Angels’ thought process.

And now they’ve set up Bremner to have to do some real prove-it pitching.

The No. 2 pick in any draft is supposed to set out to prove people right, not to prove them wrong – unless, I guess, a player is insulted he didn’t go No. 1 overall.

In the Angels’ case, their No. 2 overall pick would not have been miffed even if he hadn’t gone in the top 10.

But now he’s been put in the position of having to show the world that his new team isn’t wrong about him, that the Angels haven’t mismanaged this pick – the highest since they selected Darin Erstad at No. 1 overall in 1995.

He’ll have to prove to his own team’s fans that the Angels haven’t minimized this asset.

Taking aside how much the most highly touted available prospects would have bolstered the Angels’ famously flimsy farm system, hearing Ethan Holliday’s name, or Kade Anderson or Seth Hernandez’s would have fired up those fans who want badly to have hope in a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2014.

Fans who had been buoyed by the first half of the season, which had given them that, a bit.

The peaks and valleys almost leveled out at .500, and an average ol’ team, record-wise, was worth watching for the upside of its young core.

That was enough to buy the Angels some time with their fans, but you can only buy so much when you’re skating on thin ice.

The next day, you’re messaging your WhatsApp pickleball group warning of the raging firestorm.

And six months – or 180-some days – after that? You’re messaging your old pickleball pals and a few thousand new friends on a Discord server. It’s the virtual hub for the 5,000-member Eaton Fire Survivors Network, a community bound by the devastating wildfire that tore through Altadena in January.

But before you transport back to the nightmarish night it began, a note about pickleball: The cool thing about it – the great thing, the super-duper clutch thing, it turns out – is how many cooks there are in the kitchen.

As sports go, it’s more cocktail party than tennis sit-down, the tables turning over frequently as players spend time circulating while they wait to pop back onto the court for friendly competition against opponents who range widely in backgrounds, work, ages, etc.

And what a difference that made on Jan. 7. What a win, that there was a WhatsApp group catering to a broad cross-section of Altadenans.

It was Kathy Aicher, part of the enthusiastic pickleball contingent at Altadena Town and Country Club, who sounded the alarm via the WhatsApp group.

“At 6:15 p.m., my neighbor next door said, ‘Have you heard about the fire?’” Aicher said. “I said, ‘I heard maybe a house caught fire a few blocks away – oh, wait, do you know them?’ And she said, ‘No, Kathy. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m in your driveway. You need to come to the front door.’

“So I walk across my living room and I happen to have a big window that faces the mountains – I went, ‘Oh my God, the mountain’s already on fire.’”

As Aicher and her mother hurried to collect their things, Aicher paused, taking time to think about how to spread the word: “I remember, I sat on my bed and I thought, ‘I need to tell my friends what is going on. But I don’t have the time to individually message …’

“Oh, my God, I’ll go into the WhatsApp. That’s perfect.”

She wrote: Everyone look up there’s a vegetation fire on Canyon Close. So if you’re anywhere near Eaton Canyon, I’d evacuate. We are.

‘Saved dozens if not hundreds of lives’

Joy Chen – a pickleball player who is now one of the moderators and driving forces behind the Discord server into which the WhatsApp group evolved – said she learned about the fire first from Kathy’s message.

“I played tennis,” Chen said, “and you might have a ladies’ game that goes every week. So you have four people in that tennis group … Or if you’re a member of a softball team, you have the same 20 people year after the year, which is great. But it’s a different thing, right?

“You don’t have 50-people groups. What other sport is like that? And pickleball, you have that diversity of ages, genders, everything.”

So when Aicher rang the alarm, word traveled fast – faster than it did through official channels, or even via local media, focused as we were on the Palisades Fire and with coverage being interrupted by internet and power outages.

But Aicher’s message got through: This wasn’t a pickle, this was a full-fledged disaster, unfolding with unfathomable fury.

6:46 PM – Are they already asking you to evacuate?

6:46 PM – Kathy: No but all the neighbors are

6:46 PM – Wow! Stay safe. This is so scary.

6:47 PM – Kathy: The smoke is so thick… traffic is unbelievable

Soon, it wasn’t only Kathy communicating via the pickleball group, others began chiming in. Just like that, “the WhatsApp group completely changed,” Chen said.

6:54 PM – Hey guys – up here in Eaton Canyon … the fire is significant – if you are up here would encourage you to leave.

7:03 PM – Can anybody let us know what they’re saying on the news? We don’t have power Internet. It’s all gone down.

7:06 PM – Now saying 20 acres, evacuations on the pasadena side. Altadena and crescent is where it is burning.

7:08 PM – It’s our hillside. Just west of us. Just did the frantic 5 min evacuation it’s bad

“Kathy actually probably saved dozens if not hundreds of lives,” said Hunt Turner, another avid pickleball player who returned home the next day to fight the fire with his neighbors, saving several houses and the 1964 Porsche that’s been in the family for decades — a daring, determined feat that was covered by the Wall Street Journal.

He had to forfeit a series of pickleball games in a tournament that day, each defeat triggering an automated text message to his phone, letting him know he’d lost again and reminding him of what he’d rather be doing.

“Kathy is a natural leader when it comes to pickleball, inviting and welcoming people to join our WhatsApp group, ‘Hey, we play on Mondays,’ that whole thing,” Turner said. “She’s warm and welcoming – with a really mean lob. And she loves that human connection as much as anyone, so it’s natural she was one of the first to respond.”

7:11 PM – You may have saved our lives.

7:47 PM – Evac’d. Thanks for the heads up Kathy

7:49 PM – We are out too.

8:11 PM – FYI. We were told to evacuate. Fortunately, we had already left when the message came. Thank you, Kathy!!

Aicher swats away the suggestion she saved lives.

“No, I definitely didn’t do that,” she said. “What I did do was give people extra time if they wanted or needed it, to get more stuff out, because as we found out, within 40 hours, the looting got so bad, they locked the neighborhood down so you couldn’t get back in … I didn’t save anybody, but maybe some stuff.”

Harmony on Discord

The Eaton Fire, as you know, burned more than 14,000 acres and destroyed more than 9,400 structures – including the country club where these pickleball pals gathered so often.

About a quarter of the club’s clientele lost homes, Chen said, pickleball players included.

Those who didn’t have had other issues, many of them also needed to find temporary housing, or to deal with smoke damage and toxins, uncooperative insurance companies, with guilt.

And everyone was going to face so many of the same pressing questions at the same time.

“By Wednesday at noon,” Chen said, “the country club was burned down. The pickleball courts were inaccessible. Half of our houses were gone. It was clear that we were in this new phase of this WhatsApp group. And so I renamed it the Eaton Fire Info and Resources Hub.”

“The word got out really quick,” said Colleen Dunn Bates, a retired book publisher and tennis player who lost her home. “Joy and [co-organizer] Carina Walker pivoted very quickly… and just as an information resource, I know for me, it helped me cope with the trauma.”

Said Chen: “We had this motto, ‘Leave no neighbor behind.’ We wanted people to join. But then every time somebody joined, they were like, ‘Hi, I’m here. What did I miss?’ ‘Well, you missed everything.’”

Within a few months, the Eaton Fire Survivors Network moved to a Discord server because WhatsApp was overwhelmed by the influx of hundreds and then thousands of Altadenans desperate for up-to-date intel.

And as the mode and method of sharing information evolved, so did people’s needs.

At first, the most urgent issue was housing, as well as fending off potential looters; one WhatsApp suggestion at the time: Have Joy fire serves at their heads!

Six months later, Chen – formerly a deputy mayor of Los Angeles – is, in fact, very much on the offensive.

She’s harnessed the collective strength of the network to advocate for people fighting with their insurance carriers. She’s held news conferences like this week’s, attended by several hundred people, including State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, and she’s kept the pressure on the right people, like California insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara.

And the Discord is an active, information-rich hub, with more than 70 dedicated channels offering recourses on everything from cleanup and construction to remediation and renters, from taxes and attorneys, to taking care of kids. Anything anyone in this terrible predicament might need – much of it sourced by the experiences of others in the same crowded boat.

Bates said the network helped her figure out which hoops to jump through – in person, and not online, it turned out – to complete the “right of entry” form, needed to have debris removed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“We learned from each other’s mistakes and experiences,” she said. “You can glean good information from that.”

Typical pickleball behavior: Happy to have you, happy to have you learn.

“When people started joining the group, nobody cared,” Turner said. “If Peter or Sally or Samir needed info, it was like someone showing up to the pickleball community, ‘Nice to meet you, forehand or backhand?’

“I don’t know if it would have worked in a different community; the pickleball community in general is a very welcoming community.”

A community that, in Altadena, has migrated back to the original WhatsApp group – to schedule pickleball play.

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But I do wonder if the NBA, in its attempt to emulate the NFL as an all-year talking point, has miscalculated. Pro football has skillfully extended its calendar to almost a 365-day conversation piece: The Super Bowl leads into the combine, which leads into the draft, which leads into OTAs and minicamps and the release of the schedule, which leads into spending the month of June talking about training camps that start in July.

Maybe Adam Silver needs to take this a little more seriously. The NBA Finals end, the draft is later that week, free agency is the week after that – actually the real news is on July 1, and then team announcements of those deals six days after the fact – and boom, most of the conversation that drives interest is done three weeks in.

We have Summer League, which might or might not become known as Bronny James’ Season, but by late July all is quiet. The schedule is released in August, but we already know the Lakers and Clippers have been placed in the same group for the NBA Cup – or is it the Emirates’ NBA Cup? I’ve lost track. Whether you like that schedule gimmick or not, and I would be in the “not” category, at least it’s a “news” development.

So, Mirjam, before we begin dissecting what the Lakers and Clippers did in the last week or so, what would your suggestion be for getting the NBA into top-of-mind status in August and early September?

Mirjam Swanson: Oh man. As a recovering NBA beat writer, I hate this idea. Haha.

Give us our August and September without having to worry about putting our phones down for five minutes for fear of missing breaking NBA news. Plus, how can we, as an audience, miss the NBA if it’s never gone? Like, most of the country does have seasons, and personally I think we should embrace it.

Also, this is the WNBA’s time to shine! Let Caitlin and Angel and Phee have the floor; they’re putting on a good show.

And I’d argue football is a different animal, or you might say, the NBA isn’t the same beast. Americans have a different appetite for football – and maybe, to your point, that’s because we’re used to being fed football news 12 months a year.

But I wouldn’t trust the NBA to give us offseason fodder worth our attention. I mean, we’ve seen the mess they’ve made of the All-Star Game and that weekend, right? And I don’t know, I still haven’t managed to get myself to feel strongly, or even mildly, about the In-Season Tournament.

So I don’t think we need anything scheduled, per se, especially because around here, the Lakers are always going to be top of mind anyway.

And, speaking of … so, Jim, what have you made of the Lakers’ offseason so far?

Jim: Taking in the comments from Deandre Ayton the other day, my first thought is, “Hmm, maybe he gets it after all.” And it seems that (a) his skills fit the rim protector/lob threat vision in the Lakers’ lineup, and (b) after a situation in Portland that didn’t seem conducive to his development, being on the same court with LeBron James and Luka Doncic daily will give Ayton the best opportunity to be his best – if he takes advantage of it. Words are meaningless once the ball goes up.

Re-signing Jaxson Hayes to be the backup probably isn’t a bad call. There were times, after the Anthony Davis trade, when Hayes looked like a better-than-adequate NBA center. Problem is, with this franchise better-than-adequate isn’t nearly enough.

Now, is Jake LaRavia better than a better-than-adequate replacement for Dorian Finney-Smith? Jury’s out there. I thought DFS was a near-perfect addition to their system when he came over from Brooklyn, just from the standpoint of doing a lot of little things that contribute to winning. Then again, it’s hard to tell until you see a guy in a particular team’s system and alongside its personnel. LaRavia’s 3-point shooting ability seems to be a plus, and if he can be a true 3-and-D player this was money well spent.

These aren’t sexy acquisitions. But they fit the Lakers’ budget, as in “how do we upgrade and stay out of the second apron?”

Mirjam: I think the Lakers are in better shape than a lot of people think they are – including their own hard-to-please fans, whose sky-high expectations are part of what make the Lakers the Lakers, of course.

But whatever happened with the Finney-Smith negotiations, it worked out well for the Lakers. They essentially traded him – a good, aging player – for an up-and-coming 23-year-old 3-and-D guy with something to prove yet AND that much-needed good center – better, my friends, than should-be backups Brook Lopez and Clint Capella – with something to prove and lots of upside, if things go right.

The jury you mentioned is mixed, it seems, on Ayton, who is just 26. There was the Athletic piece that detailed all the ways he irritated people in Portland – anonymously sourced; the NBA is nothing if not petty and, more and more, teams love to throw shade as players are walking away.

But there were also accounts from reporters like Sean Highkin, who is on the ground, covering the team every day, about how admirably Ayton actually carried himself in Portland. One of several tweets defending the big man: “One thing I really respected about him this past season was how visibly/vocally he supported and helped out (fellow big man Donovan) Clingan. He could have felt a certain way about them drafting someone at his position in the top 10 but he embraced him right away and always hyped him up to us.”

And anyone who blames him for the Trail Blazers’ woes isn’t understanding what the Blazers are doing up there.

I’m not saying he’s a perfect player, but, personally, I’m going to give the guy the benefit of the doubt because the misgivings seem a bit much.

And – avert your eyes, Clippers fans – I witnessed the Valley-Oop live in Phoenix. That was an amazing play and an electric moment and I can imagine those sorts of things for him playing with Luka in purple and gold.

Jim: And as for the Clippers’ moves, they’re sounding as if John Collins is the last piece of the puzzle. I’m not sure that’s accurate – the ultimate success of this team depends on (a) Kawhi Leonard’s health and (b) James Harden’s ability to push aside the ghosts of past playoff failures. But Collins does give them a true power forward and might be a better fit, as much as I hate to see Norman Powell go.

There’s this with the Collins situation, too: According to Sports Illustrated’s Karl Rasmussen, reporting on a suggestion made by ESPN’s Tim MacMahon on a podcast hosted by fellow ESPN hoops reporter Brian Windhorst, Collins was “too damn productive” in Utah and, allegedly, hindered the Jazz’s tanking strategy.

Isn’t it amazing? One ESPN guy talks to another on a podcast and a Sports Illustrated guy reports it, and it doesn’t matter how flimsy the report might be, it’s the first thing you see when you Google “John Collins.” A reminder, then, to be careful who and what you believe. Just imagine when the AI bots start disseminating NBA “news” … if they haven’t already.

The other big move by the Clippers: bringing Brook Lopez back to SoCal as a backup for Ivica Zubac. Not a championship-securing move, but I’m OK with it, having someone who can relieve Zubac’s burden.

Mirjam: The Collins piece is a big one for the Clippers. As Lawrence Frank, the team’s president of basketball operations said this week, they’ve been trying to get him on the roster for years. Years!

But I don’t know that it’s so much even reporting as common sense to think that the hard-tanking Jazz didn’t have much use for productive players. I mean, they did get fined $100,000 last season for violating the NBA’s player participation policy for failing to make their standout power forward Lauri Markkanen available in games, even though he was healthy.

But I don’t think Collins is the last piece of the Clippers’ puzzle. For their sake, I’d hope not. Because, if the reporting on the NBA’s never-totally-dormant rumor mill is to be believed, they’ve got their sights squarely on Bradley Beal once – if? – he’s bought out in Phoenix.

We’re assuming so, because they traded away Powell and now there’s a massive void in terms of ball-handling and scoring, a hole that Beal sure would fit snugly.

So we wait to see when (if?) he’s really going to give back a brain-numbing $13 million – and his no-trade clause, by the way – in the process of accepting a buyout of the remaining two years and $110.8 million in the deal he had with the Suns.

What do the Clippers have to offer him after that? As our Janis Carr wrote this week: “They have the $5.3 non-taxpayer mid-level exception available and are expected to target a backup point guard, with reports indicating they are interested in pursuing both Bradley Beal if/when he is bought out by the Phoenix Suns and perhaps reuniting with Chris Paul, who has said the upcoming season will be his last.”

It feels, from all the reporting, that the buyout and Beal’s eventual destination are foregone conclusions, and I suppose he’ll expect to land in a better situation in L.A. that resets his value going forward – not unlike Ayton hopes to do with the Lakers. But, man, I am having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that a player would forfeit not just $1 or 2 million, but as much as $13 million.

Good for the Clippers, when (if?) it works out. They’re not winning a title this year – as the league is getting younger, they’re getting older … but believe they have big dreams for 2027. Still, we ought to applaud their dedication to putting quality teams on the court every single season. Next season won’t be any different.

Jim: I find it intriguing – fascinating, actually – that a player doesn’t work out in one organization, but another will take a shot figuring it has the key to unlock whatever remaining performance is in there. I’m curious how much of those decisions are actual assessments of the player, his situation and his potential usefulness – as opposed to organizational arrogance, as in, “We can straighten him out.”

I’ve got to think that – in all sports, not just this one – there are so many analysts and so much number-crunching in front offices that there are plenty of ways to make a rational assessment, especially with so much money involved. But I’m sure there are organizations where the people in charge let that arrogance get in the way, and I suspect more often than not they’re the ones at the bottom of the standings.

Which brings us to that other sport. There are now exactly three weeks until baseball’s trade deadline.

Forget the current Dodgers’ losing streak. Lots of fans seem to be heading for the ledge, but slumps happen during a 162-game season, and the defending champs are in the middle of a bad one. More significantly, though, while the Dodgers are 56-38 and have the second-best record in baseball even after this bad stretch, they’re 20-22 against teams over .500, including these last six straight losses to the Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers. That, plus the lengthy injured list – 11 pitchers alone at this moment – has people yelling “Do something!”

But if you’re Andrew Friedman and Brandon Gomes, do you go all in at the deadline or do you take the chance that those guys who are supposed to be part of the master plan – Blake Snell, Blake Treinen, Michael Kopech, etc. – will be ready for the stretch run?

Mirjam: I don’t think it’s a hot take to suggest that the Dodgers will be fine. Just fine.

Because, No. 1, they’re so loaded that anytime they activate one of their own players from that well-populated injured list, it’s like making a major acquisition.

And No. 2, for me, it’s a matter of trust. We know the Dodgers’ front office knows what it’s doing, so if there’s a move to be made, it’s going to be a smart one, and with a team as talented as this one, it doesn’t need to be an all-in blockbuster, either.

Because, thinking about your point above, about teams thinking they can get something out of players that other organizations could? Has there been another team as good at doing that as the Dodgers? Probably not many, if any.

Didn’t Max Muncy just about think he was done when the Oakland A’s released him back in 2017? He’s done all right as a Dodger.

Chris Taylor had a similar story, coming from the Seattle Mariners, I recall. And Evan Phillips, who they claimed off waivers after it didn’t work out for him in Philadelphia. Alex Vesia had an 18.69 ERA with the Miami Marlins in 2020 before the Dodgers fished him out of the so-called scrap heap. And on and on … I think the organization can absolutely matter. The infrastructure, the coaching, the philosophies – though, sometimes, it’s a matter of perception. Back to the Suns’ Beal, for a bit: He’s a real good player; he’s just not a five-year, $250 million god-tier player.

But, yes, in the Dodgers’ current case: I say the defending World Series champions, with that second-best record in all of the baseball, they should definitely stick with the master plan.

Jim: I’ve often wondered, not being a devotee of picking fantasy teams myself, what the lure is. Why do people invest so much time in playing general manager? Maybe it’s because there’s comparatively little risk in putting together a fantasy team, no salary caps or luxury tax thresholds, and no real world consequences – beyond being laughed at by your acquaintances – in screwing up a pick or signing the wrong guy at the wrong time. At the highest levels, enough bad decisions or risky ones that blow up in your face can cost your job. (Ask Washington Nationals GM Mike Rizzo, after he and Manager Davey Martinez both got fired the last few days, victims of a rebuild that hasn’t been fruitful.)

Which brings me to one last question/observation: If you’re the Angels, with a promising young core of players and sitting just three games out of a wild-card spot, is it too soon in those players’ development to go all-in at the deadline? The risk there: They don’t seem to have a lot of bargaining chips in a farm system that still seems to lag in player development, especially given that a number of the guys now playing key roles have been rushed through (or past) the minors to the major-league roster.

And also consider: The last time the Angels went all-in at the trade deadline, two years ago, they wound up going into a slump that took them out of the wild-card race, they wound up waiving some of those players they’d acquired to try to get under the luxury tax threshold, and their very best player wound up taking his talents up the 5 to Chavez Ravine.

Lots to think about.

Mirjam: Indeed. And so I’ll say: If I was the Angels, I wouldn’t sell this year either.

No, because what they’re selling to their fans is that they’ve got youth worth developing – which they do. I wouldn’t give any of those young (and affordable) dudes up.

Not to mention that they’re three games out of a wild-card spot right now. That’s not a layup, of course, for an Angels team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2014 … but it’s not out of the ballpark of possibility. And I think they owe it to their loyal and long-suffering fans to give it a shot if there’s any shot at playing playoff baseball.

It’s refreshing to see a film that’s come about without its subject asking for it; not that Abbott was exactly reluctant to participate in the project, he said. It’s just that, well, when he heard the idea, he figured his whole story had already been told.

But stories about his story? About Abbott’s lasting legacy, living on 26 years after he retired from Major League Baseball? Objectively, there was more there, things for even him to learn.

“I didn’t really realize how many people were watching and connecting to my play,” Abbott said by phone Tuesday, on his way to Yankee Stadium to deliver the ceremonial first pitch. “So to see that sort of play itself out, to have [the filmmakers] go and track some of these folks down and see their accounts was really touching. Really, really touching.

“You just don’t know who’s watching, you know?”

And no matter how well you think you know the story of this one-handed pitcher who starred for the Angels for several seasons, I hope you’ll be watching “Southpaw – the Life and Legacy of Jim Abbott” as it premieres on ESPN on Sunday night (6 p.m. PT).

Even Angels fans who were there for the Abbott years, who remember the Michigan kid skipping the minor leagues and finishing third in Cy Young Award voting in 1991, should glean some new perspective from this retrospective about the nimble left-hander.

Won’t tip too much of the good stuff, but there’s a depth of feeling here that’s bigger even than the one-handed no-no that enticed producer-director Mike Farrell to pursue the project in the first place.

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He frames the pitcher’s story around that no-hitter at the old Yankee Stadium on Sept. 4, 1993. Abbott, whom the Angels traded to New York, and his defense held a stacked Cleveland Indians lineup – Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton and Carlos Baerga – without a hit in a 4-0 victory.

But what really makes the moment, as former Yankees manager Buck Showalter said in the film, was that it felt like “a day when baseball and life repaid Jim for everything he had meant and the impact he had made on so many human beings.”

That’s the heart of Abbott’s story, and why his time in Anaheim was so important. Probably part of the reason he said he still feels most like an Angel.

“Through the years, they’ve been so kind to me – even though they traded me,” said Abbott, a longtime Newport Beach resident. “I still have such a connection and I think that shows through in the film. They were the first team that took a chance on me, and took a leap of faith to draft me and bring me up so early.”

It was also with the Angels that he learned to both bear and appreciate the burden of being Jim Abbott.

At the beginning, Abbott was, at times, reluctant to be a role model. In the documentary, Abbott explained: “I think of it as growing up, wanting to fit in, looking to success, playing sports as a way to get there, and then getting there and being set apart again.”

He thought people’s perception of him would change once he reached the big leagues, but of course the attention only increased. He was inundated with media requests, and often insulted by the media’s insinuations that he was, in some way, a gimmick. It could be a drag and a drain, and I imagine, a lot of pressure to perform – not only on the mound but as that capital-I Inspiration.

“I’d be up in the clubhouse where I always wanted to be with my teammates, playing cards or listening to music, and inevitably I’d get a pat on the back,” Abbott said in the documentary. “‘A team official would say, ‘Jim there’s somebody down by the clubhouse who’d like to meet you.’”

To his credit, the pitcher kept stepping up to the plate. A real angel, this guy, as limb-different children and their families came from all over, taking what were essentially pilgrimages to meet this big leaguer who was more than that, who was a real-life symbol of what was possible for them.

“In sports, there’s a lot of false hero worship,” Farrell said. “We automatically assign morality: ‘He’s a great person because he can shoot a basketball or put a hockey puck in the net.’ But Jim is who you hope he is; he’s actually that way – an incredible person. And I think I’m a better person for having gotten to know him.”

We hear how Abbott – who remains, Farrell learned, “a central icon in that [limb-different] community” – came to cherish those often-heavy meetings, how he reached the realization that there was no avoiding the fact that his major-league experience was just going to be different. And how that meant he could make impressions that transcended his sport.

That transcend the sport still, we learn in this documentary that’s so moved Abbott – despite those initial reservations.

The fortune cookie message here might be, what? Embrace what you’re reluctant to?

“To see what was so personal to me at the time, what it meant to other people, that is so gratifying and I’m so thankful for that,” Abbott said. “I hope people like it.”

Truly, I’m relieved that you impatient keyboard GMs are operating from wherever you call for shots to be called – bed, basement, front porch, it’s better than in somebody’s front office.

Especially the Lakers’.

Because I see how you guys would shop, and it gives Black Friday vibes.

Black Friday back before you did so much shopping online, back when you’d camp out for hours and rush the store at midnight and fight off fellow customers just to get in on the deal that would fill a need in your life.

The same energy you used to bring for that big TV, you’re bringing for that big man in the post. Even now, in this tempered version of NBA free agency, it’s still like first day of Christmas shopping in July.

And when all of you too-eager, would-be shoppers spotted the guy who’s worked at the store for years standing to the side empty-handed at 12:02 a.m., you couldn’t help yourselves: What are you doing! Move! Buy something! Put it on credit! Who cares about the interest! Who cares how you’re going to pay it off! Don’t kick the can down the road, that’s so lame! You need it now! You needed it two minutes ago! Oh my gosshhhh, are you a fool!?

Not to go all public defender, but the Guy Just Standing There – Rob Pelinka, the Lakers’ general manager and president of basketball operations – he would have reassured you: It’s all good, man. I’ve got a buddy who stashed my order in the back. 

And then he would have walked out with the big, coveted item he needed to keep up with teams next door (who are still wondering, by the way, how the heck he got his hands on Luka Doncic when no one was looking last February).

And Pelinka walked out having scored a steeper discount than you knew was even available.

Lucky guy, right? Just a happy coincidence that center Deandre Ayton became available as the Lakers were finding themselves with a $14 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception to spend, eh?

Sure, if you believe everything you read on the internet, where you all told each other Pelinka had committed a fireable offense by Just Standing There and letting 32-year-old wing Dorian Finney-Smith walk away for nothing when he found another team in Houston to give him a four-year, $53 million deal. (Good for Doe, though.)

Seems like maybe the guy wasn’t Just Standing There. Seems he was waiting for his buddy to emerge from the back with his prize, a previously unadvertised and heavily discounted 26-year-old starting center, who happens to share an agent with Doncic.

Losing Finney-Smith but bringing aboard Ayton and 23-year-old wing Jake LaRavia feels a little like the math that Clippers guard Norman Powell did last season after his team let Paul George walk for nothing – but not for nothing.

The way Powell saw it before his team made the playoffs as the fifth seed in the Western Conference and George’s Philadelphia 76ers got shut out in the East, the Clippers were doing “addition by subtraction.”

Except in the Lakers’ case, it isn’t a matter of bigger roles for hungrier players, it’s literally two players for the price of one – real Black Friday stuff!

They’ll have Ayton on a two-year, $16.6 million deal, so $8.2 million this season before next season’s player option. That’s an incredible bargain for the 7-foot, former No. 1 overall pick, who was bought out by Portland. The Trail Blazers now will pay him about $25 million this year to play for the Lakers – who also picked up the sharpshooter LaRavia with the other portion of their mid-level exception.

And although Pelinka drove you up the wall Just Standing There for the first two days of free agency, he’s standing here now still relatively asset-rich.

Whether it’s a first-round draft pick in 2031 or 2032, or pick swaps, or second-year wing Dalton Knecht with all his upside. Whether it’s Rui Hachimura on his $18.3 million deal or guys like Gabe Vincent, Maxi Kleber and Jordan Goodwin on their expiring contracts.

Whatever the asking price, Pelinka won’t be haggling from a place of desperation, with the whole world – fantasy GMs included – knowing he absolutely had to have a center.

The Lakers needed a center so badly you were ready to shoehorn in should-be backups like Brook Lopez and Clint Capela because, from your spot in line outside the store, that’s who it looked like the Lakers could get.

And now that they’ve gotten Ayton on a great deal, you’d like to let the manager know that you have your reservations.

The NBA has a charming habit of slinging mud at players on their way out. Fair or not, never-named sources will frame former employees as out of shape or vampiristic, seemingly whatever they think will help keep fans on their side after a breakup.

So you read an article about why the Blazers were down to part with Ayton, whose alleged crimes include that he can be “carefree and loud, often blurting out songs or offhand comments in the locker room.” Go ahead, call over the security guard.

But before you do that, consider: The Bahamian has also averaged a double-double every season of his career, with averages of 16.4 points (59% shooting) and 10.5 rebounds. That’s right, the Lakers got a guy who actually can grab a board! Who’s a lob threat and a midrange threat. Who has this next season to prove he’s worth another lucrative contract.

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking.

What is Pelinka doing? As in, what is he doing now? The Ayton news is so two news cycles ago and the Lakers have work to do!

They’ve got holes to fill defensively if they’re going to appease LeBron and impress Luka and turn a team featuring those two top-15 players into the contender it could be – should be.

So why is that guy Just Standing There?

In one of the most exclusive clubs in the world, the not-so-secret society of 3,000-strikeout hurlers.

That’s so many punchouts, so many step-right-up-and-sit-right-downs, that the Dodgers’ left-hander will be one of only 20. That’s 20 of, what, 11,000-some players who’ve pitched in the big leagues (my best guess based on Baseball Almanac’s running ledger)?

Definitively, there have been more 3,000-hit-makers than 3,000-K pitchers. More 300-game winners, more 500-base-stealers, more 500-home run-hitters.

Way more sub-10-second 100-meter dashers. More astronauts in outer space. More EGOT winners.

That’s how rare punchout artists of Kershaw’s ilk are.

The 3,000-strikeout signpost is a testament to the 37-year-old’s talent and longevity – his legacy as one of the greatest to ever do it.

A story to which longitude and latitude – location, location, location! – matter, too. Control and command and the fact that Kershaw will not only be just the fourth lefty in the club, but if he finishes his career with the Dodgers, also one of only three members who pitched for only one team. (John Smoltz notched 3,011 strikeouts with the Atlanta Braves before recording another 73 for the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals.)

As it is, it will be just Kershaw, Bob Gibson and Walter Johnson to finish where they started; Johnson, the club founder, is also its only member with a better career ERA (2.17, way, way back in 1927) than Kershaw (a career 2.51, entering Wednesday).

In Kershaw’s case, it’s pretty rad that a family man from Texas can feel like family to Angelenos who have watched him grow, to those of us who remember watching a promising babyfaced 20-year-old make his first start on May 25, 2008, striking out the first batter he faced, naturally.

From that start, L.A. loved the kid with the unconventional delivery and violent trajectory, the killer curveball and the deadlier slider. With all that compete.

It’s wild to think about all that’s happened in the 18 years since, how much all our lives have changed – from social media to Shohei Ohtani. And how much of a constant Kershaw has been.

More will power than pure power – despite pain in his big toe, knee, back, shoulder, pelvis, forearm. That famous, fanatical five-day routine, pity a fool who would dare to disrupt his all-consuming focus on game days.

Angelenos pulled so hard for Kershaw over the years they probably pulled some muscles themselves every time he got the ball in the playoffs, taking it late and long and on less rest than many aces would have been asked to – even before this current era that has suppressed pitch counts and probably also the possibility that too many more pitchers will line up to join the 3,000-strikeout club, even if they somehow stay healthy.

This big, broad city stood with Kershaw as he withstood years of physical and emotional postseason torment before his boys in blue broke through in 2020, in a bubble back in Texas.

L.A. stood for ovations when he hit 1,000 on the strikeout odometer on April 17, 2013, faster than any other Dodger pitcher, in 20 fewer innings than Sandy Koufax. Tuned in to see him cross the 2,000-strikeout threshold on June 2, 2017 – faster, by age, than all but four pitchers before, history postponed a few weeks, at the time, by a herniated disc.

I reckon people around here will be talking about this generation of graybeards for, well, for generations. Telling stories about the Lakers’ LeBron James, who became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer at 38 and who’s still fending off Father Time at 40.

And about the Rams’ Matthew Stafford – yes, we’ve heard that Kershaw and he grew up playing sports together in Dallas – who was a Super Bowl winner in 2022 and who remains one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks now at 37.

And Kershaw, who wasn’t a mid-career import, who didn’t arrive via free agency or trade, like those guys. He’s made all of his memories, reached every one of his milestones as a Dodger. Won the 2014 National League MVP award, became a three-time Cy Young Award winner, a 10-time All-Star and two-time (so far) champion, all reppin’ L.A.

And he’s still got it at 37.

Still got the stuff, at 4-0, with a 3.03 ERA through eight starts. Still got all these people in the palm of his hand, still got the compete going into game No. 450 on Wednesday.

Had to have been a large swath of L.A. watching the Dodgers’ 3-1 victory at Coors Field in Colorado on TV in the middle of the day last Thursday, when Kershaw sat down five batters in six innings for his fourth consecutive victory – working quickly, as he does, toward 3,000.

Credit Dodgers manager Dave Roberts with the save for pulling his longtime ace after 69 pitches and six innings, delaying the inevitable for a few days. Now his fans can celebrate him and with him at Dodger Stadium, where Kershaw also got his 100th win, his 200th win, his 1,000th strikeout, his only no-hitter. Where he tossed that first strikeout, and 18 eventful years later, where he’ll deal for his 3,000th.

Would you be confused? Would you wonder if your dentist was about to hawk some new anti-cavity miracle mouthwash?

Or what if your high school math teacher, in the weeks leading up to your final exam, said: “I know you’re studying and doing your homework every night. I understand that, but I value a realistic chance of passing the test.”

Would you think this teacher was speaking in code and about to slip you some answers?

Or if an NBA superstar’s agent, announcing his 40-year-old client was opting into the final, $52.6 million year of his contract, said: “He knows the Lakers are building for the future. He understands that, but he values a realistic chance of winning it all.”

I actually paused a beat mid-quote, thinking, no way. Has LeBron James restructured the deal to make it easier for the Lakers to build a championship-caliber roster in his 23rd season?

But nah, nothing so drastic.

Just LeBron being LeBron.

Cryptic, subliminal, aggressively passive aggressive till the end, which is still TBD.

A player can change numbers, but a tiger can’t change his stripes; and even if LeBron’s fastball loses a little velocity, he’ll always play hardball – as secure in the ol’ G.O.A.T. conversation for how he’s leveraged his power as for any of his on-court exploits. Historic for how boldly he and agent Rich Paul have brokered every situation throughout LeBron’s illustrious career.

You know how Luka Doncic reacted after the news broke that the Buss family had agreed to sell the majority ownership of the Lakers to Dodgers controlling owner Mark Walter and TWG Global? How the Lakers’ new superstar took to social media to let the world know he was all in? “The Lakers are an amazing organization. I’m looking forward to meeting Mark and excited about the future. I am also grateful to Jeanie and the Buss family for welcoming me to LA, and I’m happy that Jeanie will continue to be involved. I look forward to working with both of them to win championships!”

Classy stuff, sure. But LeBron would never. In fact, LeBron did not.

Instead, in comments to ESPN’s Shams Charania, Paul focused not on who will control the organization’s $10 billion purse strings going forward, but on the front-office folks with whom LeBron’s camp has had such sway for all of his stay in L.A.: “We are very appreciative of the partnership that we’ve had for eight years with Jeanie [Buss] and Rob [Pelinka] and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career.”

That partnership produced a championship in 2020 and a Western Conference finals berth in 2023. It led to the acquisition of Anthony Davis … and Russell Westbrook. The employment of four coaches and Bronny James, last season’s 55th draft pick, on a four-year, $7.9 million deal. They compensated LeBron as handsomely as they could, duh – but also, they declined to pair Davis with the true center he desired, not since that title run.

And then those partners traded Davis for Doncic last season.

Just like that, for the first time, LeBron wasn’t the most important player in his organization.

It’s weird, after almost a quarter of a century in power, to think that the King’s voice wouldn’t carry as widely as before. He’s had the ball in his court almost every season; the game’s best player contractually guaranteed usually to have the option, to have the right to decide whether to stay or go, which put a heavy onus on his employers to consistently prove themselves to him.

It was his call again this offseason, and so he made it like he always does – with his particular brand of subliminal bluster: “We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future,” Paul told ESPN. “We do want to evaluate what’s best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career. He wants to make every season he has left count, and the Lakers understand that …”

I imagine the Lakers’ brass getting word that ’Bron was opting in, as reports suggested he would, seeing Paul’s statements that accompanied the news, and then shrugging and getting back to work trying to make this season count.

Because LeBron is right, the Lakers absolutely ought to be in Win-Now mode.

They surely should be concerned with appeasing and pleasing their star player – because at this point, Doncic will be eligible to become an unrestricted free agent in 2026. And as straightforward as his signaling has seemed that he wants to stay put, that doesn’t change the fact that there is a heavy onus on the organization to prove itself to their 26-year-old superstar.

His aging, royal co-star is still going to play his game, though, whether or not he’s on the throne.