How Santa should reward some of Southern California’s sports fans – Orange County Register

Jim Alexander: It is the week before Christmas, after all, so we should conduct this Audible in the spirit of the holiday. Today we’ll ponder which gifts to give, or wishes to grant, to some of SoCal’s fan bases.

And no, we’re not going to hand out lumps of coal. (UCLA fans already have that in mind for football coach Chip Kelly, and after CSUN went into Pauley Pavilion last night and knocked off the Bruins’ men’s basketball team, they might have a similar request for Mick Cronin. Tough crowd.)

But I’m going to start with one that sounds counterintuitive but – I think, anyway – makes some sense if you think about it. Angel fans want Arte Moreno gone, right? That’s been well established. So, if I’m Santa, I have him sell the team, all right … sell it back to the Walt Disney Company!

This will probably shock most people who are familiar with my feelings about corporate philosophy, but think about it: The best years of the Angels’ existence, the decade of the 2000s with a World Series championship and five division championships, were in large part due to the roster and the organization built and nurtured under Mickey and Friends, before Disney decided to get out of the sports ownership business and sold to Moreno in the spring of 2003.

Yes, Arte signed future Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero Sr. before the 2004 season, and yes, he was seen as the benevolent benefactor during those years the Angels ruled the AL West. But we’ve seen the deterioration of the organization over the past decade and a half on his watch. (And, seriously, being given the last opportunity to re-sign Shohei Ohtani – at, presumably, the same terms offered the Dodgers – and declining probably tells you everything you need to know.)

Yeah, maybe this is revisionist history, and maybe the business model doesn’t work in the same way as it did when Disney purchased the Angels from the Autry family in 1996. (Then again, if Disney took over they’d probably go back to being known as the Anaheim Angels, and that would create a lot of goodwill in their community.)

Your thoughts?

Mirjam Swanson: Wrap it in Disney princess paper, stick a bow on it and put it under the tree already – let it go! Let it go! Moreno enacting that specific return policy would be a great gift for the Angels’ suffering fan base.

And because we’re playing Santa here on today’s Audible, I’ll reach into my bag and – let me see if I can find it … hang on … there it is! – present something to another long-suffering group of fans.

I take this nonexistent holiday gift-giving power vested in me and deliver the good people of Clipper nation, those poor souls who take so much crap from everyone, and usually with such good humor, and who do a good job taking care of one another and who were way cooler to me when I was a beat writer for the team than many fan bases are to their beat writers …. one season of good health.

They, themselves, their families – and their stars.

Knock on wood, but as of this writing Wednesday morning, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George have been the healthiest they’ve been in the 213 Era that began back in 2019. Leonard has played every game, and George (who the team is listing as questionable with an illness ahead of their next game on Wednesday) has missed just one with a sore hip.

Probably not a coincidence that the Clippers – with James Harden running point now – are jelling, riding an eight-game winning streak. Probably feels too good to be true for those folks following along, but … holiday magic and all?

Not that Santa actually cares whether they play nice or not, Santa just wants them to be playing.

What else you got in your bag, Jim?

Jim: Ho, ho, ho … sprinkled over a little bit of “Fight On!” This season might be an opportunity for USC’s beleaguered basketball fan base to thump its collective chest. I’m reaching into that bag and pulling out … an extended NCAA Tournament run for Andy Enfield’s Trojans, one that will get them to Phoenix for the Final Four April 6-8.

At this point, the Pac-12 is there for the taking in its final season. Arizona is ranked No. 4 in the AP Top 25 this week, but there are no other Pac-12 schools ranked – including UCLA, which as mentioned above stumbled against CSUN on Tuesday night after almost getting beat by UC Riverside two weeks ago. (Then again, USC has lost to UC Irvine and Long Beach State already. Maybe Santa should be pulling strings to get a Big West team deep into the tournament!)

But USC is 6-5 and two of those losses were to No. 7 Oklahoma and No. 15 Gonzaga, plus Auburn, which is 8-2 and among “others receiving votes” this week. And I might be wrong, but I just think the Trojans could develop enough to be a beast by the end of the regular season and ready to make a run. And can you imagine? USC and the two most heralded freshmen in this year’s classes, and Isaiah Collier and JuJu Watkins could both be on the big stage in March.

(And how about this for a stocking stuffer: The USC and UCLA women’s teams meeting in their own Final Four. Which is, as it turns out, in Cleveland – where Trojans head coach Lindsay Gottlieb used to work as a Cavaliers assistant coach. Santa loves juicy storylines.)

Mirjam: So I wouldn’t get your hopes up, kids. Not if the top thing on your Christmas wish list involves either the USC or UCLA men’s basketball teams that were predicted to finish Nos. 2 and 3 in the preseason Pac-12 poll. Right now, with five losses apiece before Dec. 20, they’re jockeying to see who can be the most disappointing. Santa is good, but the way USC and UCLA are playing, the way they’re shooting – 45.3% and 43.2%, respectively, and 34.6% and 31.5% from deep – both squads look like they’re in need of a Christmas miracle.

But you and I might have gone shopping at the same campus bookstores because I also come bearing gifts for Trojans and Bruins fans – and I didn’t have to break the bank to get them.

Tickets to watch good basketball.

To watch the women play – and, like, make shots. (UCLA is shooting 51.6% from the field this season, and 35.9% from 3-point range; USC is making its baskets at a 49.5% clip, and 39.5% from long range).

The No. 2 UCLA women are GOOD-good. Potentially national championship good. Kiki Rice and crew are 10-0 with victories already over three ranked teams, including UConn. And you can get in to see them with a general admission ticket between $6 and $11 – and $0 if you’re 18 or younger.

The No. 6 USC women? Freshman sensation JuJu Watkins – the No. 2 scorer in all the land, her 26.8 points per game second only to Caitlin Clark’s 30 ppg – and her No. 6 Trojans are also 9-0. And they’re bringing out stars like, this week, comic actor Kevin Hart to games that will set you back just $15.

Seriously, though, tickets to the UCLA-USC women’s game on Dec. 30 will literally be a Christmas gift at my house, because my teenage daughter who has just become an NBA fan in the past year started talking about really wanting to go see that one. Real fans know.

You’re a real one, Jim. Any other great ideas?

Jim: In my role as duly (self-)appointed Santa, I decree that next Saturday’s UCLA-USC game at Pauley and the return match on Jan. 14 at Galen Center shall be sellouts. Full houses. Packed to the rafters. These teams deserve no less.

One last item on my list (and yes, I checked it twice): One more deep run through the Stanley Cup playoffs for the Kings’ Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty … and, yes, maybe one more parade down Figueroa. The last time the Kings had one of those post-championship parties, then-Mayor Eric Garcetti dropped an F-bomb on live TV. You don’t think Her Honor Karen Bass would … nah, she wouldn’t, would she?

But consider: During that 2012-15 span, the Kings were an elite team and two-time Cup champions, and Kopitar and Doughty were at the heart of it all. Nearly a decade later, they’re still playing top-level hockey and, in their own ways, relaying the message of what it takes to the players around them. It took the Kings long enough to get back to the postseason, and after disappointing first-round losses to Edmonton the last two springs this might be the veterans’ last, best opportunity to take those last several steps and compete for a Cup again. And they have enough talent around them to pull it off.

The Kings also still have the most loyal fan base in SoCal, perhaps small in numbers but huge in their devotion. It says here that they deserve one more chance to party – and a team that has become true road warriors this season (13-1-1 away from downtown L.A.) has an outside shot, and maybe more, at giving it to them.

Besides, Santa and the reindeer do their best work in freezing conditions.

Mirjam: That’s the cold truth.

OK, my last gift – another bargain! Perfect for the sports fan in your life.

A subscription to any of the Southern California News Group’s newspapers that serve your community.

Really, though, the work our colleagues are doing covering the region’s sports is so good, so varied, so dedicated, so on the ball … if you know a sports fan who isn’t already reading, well, ’tis the season!

We’ve got pro’s pros like Bill Plunkett covering Ohtani and the Dodgers: “It was a long courtship but he finally said, ‘Yes.’” (After Jeff Fletcher did such a fantastic job covering Ohtani on the Angels.) We’ve got rising stars like Luca Evans covering other rising stars at USC: “The kid forged in fire put his head down in an all-out sprint, making a beeline for the rim, his story at USC taking flight as his feet left the hardwood.”