Sports
Letters to Sports: It's a long haul for DeShaun Foster and UCLA
DeShaun Foster was a good running backs coach, but he has no experience in play-calling and will give UCLA the least experienced head coach as the Bruins transition to the Big Ten. This sounds like just another money-saving move by both Martin Jarmond and Chancellor Gene Block.
Connie Giguere
Rolling Hills Estates
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UCLA is in deep doo doo. And, it’s not because DeShaun Foster is the new coach. It’s because they’re in the wrong league. The same could be said for Nebraska when it moved to the Big Ten. The once-mighty Cornhuskers are now a mediocre football team at best. Run for your coaching life DeShaun! The head coaching job at UCLA isn’t worth it.
Mark Walker
Yorba Linda
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I received my doctorate from UCLA and am a long-standing Bruins fan; I will add that I love Deshaun Foster, truly one of the greatest Bruins to ever don the gold and blue. But I have a question for all of you: Is there another university in the country that would hire someone as their head coach, whose coaching career climaxed at being a running backs coach for nearly a decade? Maybe if the interim title was added, but offering that coach a five-year, $20-million contract?
Jaime Goldfarb
Seal Beach
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Congratulations on your promotion, DeShaun Foster. Seeing and hearing of the players enthusiastic support and love was refreshing and encouraging, as was your wholehearted embrace of the challenges that lie ahead.
They say that you are too young and inexperienced. A few years back they said the same thing about the youngest person ever to be hired as a head coach in the NFL, Sean McVay. His first hire was to bring in a proven old veteran, a respected guru, Wade Phillips, as his defensive coordinator to steady the ship while Sean got his sea legs. Perhaps you take a cue from McVay. You need an offensive coordinator and it just so happens that a few miles south, down the 5 freeway in San Diego, is a proven old veteran, a Super Bowl-winning offensive guru by the name of Mike Martz. I understand that he is bored.
Charles Crawford
San Diego
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Bill Plaschke mentioned Terry Donahue’s hiring in 1976 with no previous head coaching experience. No room in his column to mention the four straight losses to USC and the heavy heat it brought. Patience was significantly running out. Wait! Eight straight against Troy! The bowl victory string! Winningest coach in conference history! Weather that storm, DeShaun. It’s coming.
Hendrik Van Leuven
Wilmington, N.C.
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Bill Plaschke and Ben Bolch don’t report the news, they create the news. They disingenuously characterize Chip Kelly’s resignation as an act of betrayal. They constantly mentioned “hot seat” in all articles for three years and thus sabotaged recruiting and retention of assistant coaches and caused hemorrhaging to the transfer portal. How can any coach be successful after such sabotage. Plaschke and Bolch obviously believe recruits and assistant coaches can’t read. It is a wonder how Kelly managed to match USC’s record last year without a Heisman winner.
Woodrow Harano
Los Angeles
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I can honestly say I have never once in my 67 years rooted for UCLA to win a football game. However, I have admired the fight in Chip Kelly’s teams, they never stop pushing, the camaraderie and the class the team shows. The game changed to big money and all Chip wants to do is call plays and coach football. Just because he won’t be what you want is no reason to dislike the man.
Flora Perry
Los Angeles
Sports
2025-26 NBA Title Odds: Thunder, Spurs Favored; East Up For Grabs
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It’s NBA playoff time.
Let’s take a look at the latest NBA title futures at DraftKings Sportsbook as of May 2.
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NBA Finals winner 2025-26 season
Oklahoma City Thunder: -145 (bet $10 to win $16.90 total)
San Antonio Spurs: +370 (bet $10 to win $47 total)
New York Knicks: +900 (bet $10 to win $100 total)
Cleveland Cavaliers: +1800 (bet $10 to win $190 total)
Detroit Pistons: +2000 (bet $10 to win $210 total)
Los Angeles Lakers: +2800 (bet $10 to win $290 total)
Philadelphia 76ers: +3500 (bet $10 to win $360 total)
Minnesota Timberwolves: +10000 (bet $10 to win $1,010 total)
Here is what to know about the NBA title oddsboard:
West Update: The two teams favored to win the title both reside in the Western Conference: OKC and San Antonio. The Thunder swept the Suns in Round 1 and the Spurs gave up just a single game to Portland. Now, OKC gets L.A., which it swept in the regular season, and San Antonio gets a banged-up Minnesota, which the Spurs actually lost to in the regular-season series. A few uncertainties still exist in each series. Will Anthony Edwards be healthy enough to take the floor for the Wolves? How effective can he be? Will Luka Dončić return in time to impact the OKC-L.A. series? What about Jalen Williams returning for the Thunder? If the odds hold true — the Thunder are favored to sweep the Lakers and the Spurs are favored to sweep the Wolves — we will be staring at an OKC-San Antonio Western Conference finals.
East Update: The third, fourth and fifth teams on the title oddsboard reside in the East: New York, Cleveland and Detroit, respectively. New York was the only Eastern Conference team to make it out of the first round in fewer than seven games, as the Pistons, Cavs and 76ers needed do-or-die Game 7 wins to move on. Arguably the most impressive team of the bunch is the one closest to the bottom of the oddsboard: 7-seed Philadelphia. It overcame 2-seed Boston despite being down 3-1, winning Games 5 and 7 on the Celtics’ home floor. While Cleveland simply won four home games on its way to advancing, the top-seeded Pistons also trailed 3-1 against Orlando, before winning the final three contests of the series. New York is favored to beat Philly in five and Detroit is favored to beat Cleveland in seven.
Sports
Lakers respect the Thunder but insist they aren’t intimidated by them
The Lakers understand the daunting challenge they’re about to face against the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals.
Lakers coach JJ Redick referenced the great Chicago Bulls teams that won back-to-back championships in 1996 and ’97 and the Golden State Warriors teams that won titles in 2015 and ’17 when talking about the Thunder after practice Sunday.
“The Thunder is one of the greatest teams ever in NBA history,” Redick said. “It’s just the reality. They’re that good. I think our guys recognize that and respect that, and we know what kind of task we have in front of us.”
The Thunder had the best record in the regular season at 64-18. They were ranked first in defensive field-goal percentage (43.7%), first in defensive rating (106.5), first in net rating (43.7) and second in points given up per game (107.9).
They have the league’s reigning most valuable player in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is the leading candidate to repeat as MVP. He was second in scoring this season (31.1 points per game) and leads the postseason in scoring (33.8).
The Thunder just swept the Phoenix Suns in their first-round series. The Lakers eliminated the Houston Rockets in six games.
This season the Thunder beat the Lakers by an average of 29.2 points per game in sweeping the four-game set. So the Lakers are facing long odds to win this series, but they say they aren’t intimidated heading into Game 1 on Tuesday night.
“You can respect the team but you can’t fear them,” forward Jake LaRavia said. “You can’t come into the game fearing the opponent and then you’re just gonna come in and get punked. So, we respect how good this team is, but our goal is to win — win the games and win the series. So, our mindset stays the same.”
The Thunder have a reputation as a stingy defensive team — they were called for the seventh-fewest fouls per game (19) this season.
“They’re top five in every category that’s disruptive-base: steals, blocks, turnovers forced, all that stuff. And they don’t foul,” Redick said. “They somehow do all of that without fouling, which is one of the most remarkable things, I think, in NBA history.”
Gilgeous-Alexander is famous for drawing fouls. He took nine free throws per game this season, third-most in the league.
“Nobody’s been able to stop him all season,” Redick said. “So, you can hope and pray.”
Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drives against the Lakers during a Thunder win on April 2.
(Cooper Neill / Getty Images)
The Lakers had their own weapon at the free-throw line, but it’s unclear when Luka Doncic might return from injury. The All-Star point guard hasn’t played since sustaining a Grade 2 left hamstring strain against the Thunder on April 2.
Doncic was coming off a magical month, becoming the only player in history other than Michael Jordan to score 600 points in March.
Redick had no update on Doncic’s status — he remains out indefinitely.
But the Lakers got by the Rockets with LeBron James leading the way. He averaged 23.2 points, 8.3 assists and 7.2 rebounds in the six games. And star guard Austin Reaves, who also was injured in the April 2 game against the Thunder, returned to help beat the Rockets.
Still, few think the Lakers, who advanced past the first round for the first time since 2023, can get by the deep and talented Thunder.
“You could say nobody thought we were going to get past Houston, but everybody in this building believed,” Reaves said. “It’s the same mindset going into this. We obviously know the team that we’re about to face and how good they are and the problems that they can create for 48 minutes. So, we’ll have to lock in every single day, film, whatever it could be, to continue to get better and and pay attention to all the little details like they do.”
Sports
Legendary WWE tag team duo departs company in latest wave of cuts
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Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, the WWE tag team known as the New Day, reportedly departed the company on Saturday as part of the latest string of releases.
Kingston and Woods became fan favorites as they formed New Day with fellow superstar Big E. But after Big E was sidelined with a serious injury, the two continued their tag team prowess in the ring. Kingston and Woods were four-time tag team champions as a duo and held the belts eight times when they were with Big E.
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Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston attend Netflix Tudum 2025: The Live Event at The Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on May 31, 2025. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Fightful Select and BodySlam both reported the departures of Kingston and Woods. The two were moved to the alumni section of the WWE website.
Kingston had a ton of success as a singles competitor. He captured the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35 over Daniel Bryan as part of the “Kofi-Mania” era where he received a ton of fan support on his way to his first title. He was also an intercontinental champion four times and a United States champion three times.
Woods joined WWE in 2010 after stints at Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Woods won the King of the Ring tournament in 2021.
Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston of the New Day celebrate their win during WrestleMania 41 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 19, 2025. (Craig Melvin/WWE)
As a tag team, the two were considered to be one of the best in WWE’s history. They captured their last titles at WrestleMania 41 and turned heel soon after that. The two lost their tag titles in June and Woods was injured during the year. Kingston formed an alliance with Grayson Waller in the interim before the departure.
Elsewhere, Tonga Loa and JC Mateo reportedly departed the company as well.
Loa first appeared in WWE in 2009 before departed in 2014. He re-appeared most recently in 2024, joining forces with Solo Sikoa and the newly formed MFT faction.
MFT’s JC Mateo, Talla Tonga, Solo Sikoa and Tonga Loa face off with Jimmy Uso during Saturday Night’s Main Event at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Ga., on July 12, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
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Mateo joined WWE in 2025, also backing up Sikoa in the faction. He was also a tag team champion with Tama Tonga before eventually dropping the belts to Damian Priest and R-Truth in March.
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