D2 TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2019 LATIMES.COM/SPORTS
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As Klay
Thompson
walked around
Los Angeles
recently, he did
so without a
limp or the
assistance of
crutches just one month
removed from surgery to
repair a torn left anterior
cruciate ligament he suf-
fered during the NBA Fi-
nals.
“I feel good,” Thompson
said. “I’m going to come
back 110 %. ”
Dr. Neal ElAttrache
performed the procedure on
Thompson at the Kerlan-
Jobe Institute in Los Ange-
les, and Thompson said he
is on track to return to the
court at some point next
season.
“That’s my goal,”
Thompson said. “I doubt I’ll
be back before the All-Star
break, but I want to be back
this season.”
Thompson knows the
path toward a sixth straight
NBA Finals appearance is
going to be difficult for the
Warriors, with his injury
sidelining him for much of
next season and the team
losing Kevin Durant, De-
Marcus Cousins, Andre
Iguodala, Shaun Livingston
and Quinn Cook. But if
Stephen Curry and Dray-
mond Green can stay heal-
thy and D’Angelo Russell —
dealt to the Warriors as part
of the trade for Durant —
can build off his All-Star
season, Thompson thinks
the Warriors can be in the
playoff mix by the time he’s
ready to return.
“My season is obviously
going to start a little differ-
ently,” Thompson said. “I’m
going to be on offseason
mode for a little bit until I
can run again. With Kevin
leaving and DeMarcus
leaving and losing Andre
and Shaun, the parity in the
league is back. Everyone
was trying to catch up to the
Warriors the past five years,
but now teams have closed
the gap, if not taken that
leap, so for us getting D’An-
gelo was huge because in my
absence, he’s a proven All-
Star and a 20-point guy and
great play maker.”
As Thompson goes down
the list of teams in the West,
he shakes his head at the
number of contenders that
are aiming to take the War-
riors’ place in the Finals.
“The West is so stacked,
not just with the Lakers and
Clippers but the Jazz made
great moves, the Nuggets
are young and upcoming,
the Blazers have an amaz-
ing backcourt, the Rockets
have a two-headed monster
in the backcourt with two
MVPs still in their prime,”
Thompson said. “So it’s
going to be tough for us, butI assume I’m going to be on
the court at some point and
hopefully I’ll hit the ground
running and we’ll be in
playoff contention. That’s
all we need is just a shot.”
Thompson, who was
born in Los Angeles when
his father, Mychal, played
for the Lakers, said he never
really considered leaving
Golden State for a return to
L.A. after the Warriors
offered him a five-year maxi-
mum contract worth $190
million, but believes the
Lakers got perhaps the best
bargain of the offseason
when they signed Cousins to
a one-year, $3.5-million
contract.
“DeMarcus is a great
teammate and I developed
such a great chemistry withhim, coming off screens and
cutting off from posts,”
Thompson said. “I’ll miss
him. I know he’s going to be
a huge asset for the Lakers.
When they slow it down, he’s
so good on the block and
such a great decision maker.
People don’t realize what a
great decision maker he is.
Above all, I love his will to
compete. He was very hurt
last year during our Finals
run, but he was still out
there making a huge impact
and getting double-doubles
and he won us a couple
games, honestly.
“He’s just such a gamer
and I’m going to miss com-
peting with him. L.A. got a
very good player, who’s very
hungry. I know he’s eager to
get out there and show
everybody he’s still one of
the best players in the world
because he has all the tal-
ent.”::With next season’s NBA
schedule slowly leaking out
before the league officially
unveils the complete slate,
there’s one game — or at
least one team — Kyle
Kuzma is particularly look-
ing forward to seeing.
The Lakers forward said
the first time they play the
New Orleans Pelicans will
be interesting, going up
against former teammates
Lonzo Ball, Brandon In-gram and Josh Hart, all part
of the trade that brought
Anthony Davis to the Lak-
ers.
“They’re my friends and
we’re always going to be
friends,” Kuzma said. “Just
because we’re not team-
mates doesn’t mean we
won’t be friends. I’m always
going to communicate with
them and keep up with
them. I’m just happy for
those guys. They’re in an
unbelievable situation for
them to really grow and
become the players they
want to be.”::One of the bigger NBA
names who’s still unsigned
is former defensive player of
the year and two-time All-
Star Joakim Noah. While
Noah is weighing his op-
tions, he has been training
in Los Angeles and talking
with Terrell Owens, who
relayed his experience of
playing with the Buffalo
Bills and Cincinnati Bengals
at the end of his Hall of
Fame career.
“I told him about the end
of my career when I was with
Dallas and looking to sign
with another team and
Buffalo came to the table,”
Owens said. “That’s not the
most desirable place to play
football, but I didn’t allow
that environment or what
people said about it to determe from going there. [Noah]
might have a chance to go to
Detroit, which isn’t a desir-
able destination, but I said
be a bright spot in a not so
great environment. It
doesn’t matter. Just rededi-
cate yourself and be the best
basketball player you can
be.”::Less than a year from the
opening of the Los Angeles
Stadium at Hollywood
Park, which will be the home
of the Rams and Chargers,
stadium officials have
talked about planning for
the 2022 Super Bowl, 2023
College Football Playoff
National Championship
Game and the 2028 Summer
Olympics. Rams chief op-
erating officer Kevin Demoff
would like to add another
event to that list perhaps as
early as 2021: WrestleMania.
“I know Los Angeles was
one of the first cities
WrestleMania was held in,”
Demoff said. “I was a kid
who grew up on WWE when
it was known as WWF on
Saturday nights and watch-
ing the events they had at
the L.A. Sports Arena.
We’ve had really good con-
versations with the WWE
and they’re very aware of
the building and what it can
hold, so I’m hopeful we can
get WrestleMania here in
the near future.”The poster boy for weakened Warriors
ARASH MARKAZI
KLAY THOMPSON
expects to miss at least
the first half of next sea-
son after knee surgery.Nathan DenetteAssociated PressThe day after he made an
impassioned plea for gun
control in the middle of a
nationally televised soccer
game, Philadelphia Union
midfielder Alejandro
Bedoya was named the
MLS player of the week.
Bedoya scored during
the third minute of his
team’s eventual 5-1 win over
host D.C. United. During
the ensuing celebration, the
32-year-old veteran of the
U.S. national team rushed
to an on-field microphone
and shouted, “Congress, do
something now. End gun
violence!”
He was responding to
mass shootings this week-
end in El Paso and Dayton,
Ohio, that left 31 dead.
“I’m not going to sit idly
and watch this stuff happen
and not say something,”
Bedoya said after the game.
“Before I’m an athlete,
before I’m a soccer player,
I’m a human being first.”
Bedoya’s words could
not be heard at Audi Field,
but they came through loud
and clear on the FS1 broad-
cast of the game. The North
American Soccer Reporters
acknowledged that over-
whelming fan support for
Bedoya’s statement fac-
tored into his selection as
player of the week.
Also on Monday, league
officials determined Bedoya
would not be disciplined for
his actions.Crikey! That was
unnecessary
The Miami Marlins were
understandably frustrated
Sunday after getting sweptby the Tampa Bay Rays in a
two-game series to drop to
25 games under .500.
But that was no reason
to drag the late Steve Irwin
into the mess.
The two teams had been
engaging in a lighthearted
back-and-forth all weekend
on social media. Some mis-
guided soul who had the
keys to the Marlins’ Twitter
account somehow thought
they’d get the last word by
invoking the 2006 death of
TV’s most popular crocodile
hunter.
“yOU’RE LITERALLY
THE ANIMAL THAT
KILLED STEVE IRWIN
LOG OFF,” the Marlins
account tweeted.
Irwin died in 2006 after
being attacked by a sting-
ray. The Marlins issued an
apology Monday morning
and indicated that the
matter had been handled
internally.
“This was a regrettable
exchange by our otherwise
creative social media team,”
the organization stated.
“Unfortunately, in this
medium, sometimes we
swing and miss, and thiswas definitely a miss.”A green, fuzzy free
agent?
The Phillie Phanatic is
an excellent dancer. He has
a great sense of humor
(although men with bald
heads or people who don’t
like having popcorn
dumped on them might
disagree). He’s popular with
the ladies. And no one can
handle an ATV or hot dog
cannon better than he.
But how is the large,
fuzzy, green, pear-shaped
creature with an anteater’s
tongue at pitching in the
late innings?
That’s something the
Dodgers might want to find
out, since the Philadelphia
Phillies’ longtime mascot
could be hitting the free-
agency market next sum-
mer.
The Phillies filed a fed-
eral lawsuit in Manhattan
last week to prevent the
company that developed
the Phanatic’s costume
from backing out of a 1984
agreement that transferred
the rights of the wildlypopular character to the
team “forever” for $215,000.
According to the lawsuit,
Harrison/Erickson Inc. sent
the team a letter in June 2018
stating its intention to
“make the Phanatic a free
agent” after June 15, 2020,
unless the contract is rene-
gotiated. The documents
say H/E is looking for “mil-
lions of dollars.”
Neither Harrison/Erick-
son nor the Phillies have
commented on the dispute.
True to his nature, the Pha-
natic also hasn’t discussed
the matter.The right decision
The Capital Gazette
commended the Navy foot-
ball team’s decision to drop
“Load the Clip” as its motto
for the 2019 season.
The Midshipmen play
their home games about
three miles from the Annap-
olis, Md., newspaper’s office,
where a shooter killed five
staff members on June 28,
2 018.
“We must applaud the
decision by the Naval Acad-
emy and its football team to
change the motto for this
season from the gun-glory
image initially adopted to a
more traditional message
about victory,” the Gazette’s
editorial board wrote Sun-
day, two days after Navy
announced its new team
slogan would be “Win the
Day.”
“It’s clear the midship-
men responsible [for cre-
ating the initial motto] did
not see the connection
between ‘Load the clip,’ a
reference to ammunition
magazines and a readiness
to keep firing, and the gun
violence that is tearing this
nation apart.”MORNING BRIEFINGVocal Bedoya is player of week
By Chuck SchilkenPHILADELPHIAUnion’s Alejandro Bedoya, right,
made his views known during a televised game.Jamie SquireGetty Imagesflict of interest with the
track.”
Auerbach, reached last
week before the ownership
became well known, didn’t
see a problem with the ar-
rangement.
“I don’t think it makes
much difference, in my opin-
ion,” Auerbach said. “If I
thought it was a problem, I
would give Tim his money
back. We all have conflicts of
interests. If I thought it was a
problem with my ability to
be even-handed, we would
have to do something to get
him out of the partnership.”
Ritvo took care of that.
On Sunday, he presented
Del Mar with a bill of sale
showing that he had sold his
interest back to Auerbach,
according to Josh Rubin-
stein, chief operating officer
of Del Mar.
Ritvo did not return a
message for comment. How-
ever, TSG made it clear it
sees the appearance of con-
flict as an issue.
“The Stronach Group ex-
pects that all its employeeswill avoid situations where
there can even be a percep-
tion of a conflict of interest,”
TSG said in a statement.
“When the issue around this
horse was raised, the indi-
vidual immediately divested
himself of any interest in
that horse.”
Ritvo’s name was re-
moved from the Equibase
list of owners by Monday,
and his name was taken out
of the program.
Auerbach would not say
how much Ritvo and Clark
paid to buy into the horse.
“Together they couldn’t
have had more than a quar-
ter of the horse,” Auerbach
said. “We were sitting
around a table and I liked
this horse and Mike [Rog-
ers] was buying into him.
And Tim said, ‘I want in, too,’
so he joined.”
The colt was bred by Au-
erbach and listed at the Bar-
retts yearling sale in October
2017 but not sold. The high
bid was $47,000.
“I think there is an obliga-
tion to be transparent, to
avoid any hint of corruptionor conflict of interest that
raises concerns about dis-
honesty,” Klein said. “It’s a
general commitment most
businesses should have, and
the gambling industry
should have a deeper com-
mitment.”
There are several items
involving Santa Anita and
the board. Besides granting
a license for the fall meeting,
Auerbach will vote on a pro-
posed racing schedule that
gives two of the three Los
Alamitos thoroughbred
meetings to Santa Anita, ac-
cording to those familiar
with the plan but not au-
thorized to comment. Los
Alamitos would retain the
L.A. Fair meeting, which
would be run Dec. 3-20.
The appearance of con-
flict of interest is nothing
new to the CHRB. A former
commissioner, George Kri-
korian, owned horses with
Los Alamitos owner Ed
Allred.
Perhaps most puzzling
was when Gov. Jerry Brown
appointed jockey Alex Solis
to the board in 2015. The con-flict is that with Solis an ac-
tive rider, the stewards, who
work for the CHRB, would
have to make rulings against
one of their bosses.
During the time Solis
continued to ride, seven in-
fractions were levied against
him. The details of the pen-
alties were not immediately
available.
To name a horse after a
living person, the person
must sign a form with the
Jockey Club, which registers
and manages all names.
Fravel did that but has no
ownership stake in the
horse.
The fact that the colt is
making his first start in Au-
gust of his 3-year-old season
means he has had some
bumps along the way. He’s
listed as 6-1 on the morning
line, the fifth favorite in the
nine-horse race for maiden
California-breds.
When he returns to the
Mandella barn after the
race, it’s possible he’ll be
greeted by board member
Solis. He’s an assistant
trainer for Mandella.Business partnership raises eyebrows
[Racing,from D1]