BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2020
HALLOWEEN
Continued from Page 1A
Lakers win 17th NBA title
■ Los Angeles vanquishes Miami in six games to finish most unusual NBA season
By Tim Reynolds
AP Basketball Writer
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.
— The ultimate anguish. The
ultimate joy.
This season, for LeBron
James and the Los Angeles
Lakers, had it all. And it
ended in the only fashion that
they deemed would be accept-
able, with them back atop the
basketball world.
For the fi rst time since
Kobe Bryant’s fi fth and fi nal
title a decade ago, the Lakers
are NBA champions. James
had 28 points, 14 rebounds
and 10 assists, and the Lak-
ers beat the Miami Heat 106-
93 on Sunday night to win
the NBA Finals in six games.
“Our organization wants
their respect. Laker Nation
wants their respect,” James
said. “And I want my damn
respect, too.”
Anthony Davis had 19
points and 15 rebounds for
the Lakers, who dealt with
the enormous anguish that
followed the death of the
iconic Bryant in January
and all the challenges that
came with leaving home for
three months to play at Walt
Disney World in a bubble
designed to keep inhabitants
safe from the coronavirus.
It would be, James pre-
dicted, the toughest title to
ever win.
“We have a Ph.D in adver-
sity, I’ll tell you that much,”
Lakers coach Frank Vogel
said. “We’ve been through a
lot.”
They made the clincher
look easy. James won his
fourth title, doing it with a
third different franchise —
and against the Heat fran-
chise that showed him how to
become a champion.
Bam Adebayo had 25
points and 10 rebounds for
Miami, which got 12 points
from Jimmy Butler — the
player who, in his fi rst Heat
season, got the team back to
title contention. Rajon Rondo
scored 19 points for the Lak-
ers, who put together the elite
talents of James and Davis
with this moment in mind.
And Davis, as white and
gold confetti coated the fl oor
around him, spent his fi rst
moments as an NBA cham-
Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times-TNS
Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James is hit in the face by Miami Heat’s Jae Crowder
while driving to the basket in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Sunday.
“We have a Ph.D. in
adversity, I’ll tell you that
much. We’ve been through
a lot.”
— Frank Vogel, head coach,
Los Angeles Lakers
pion thinking of Bryant.
“All we wanted to do was do
it for him,” Davis said. “And
we didn’t let him down. ... I
know he’s looking down on us,
proud of us.”
With that, the league’s
bubble chapter, put together
after a 4 1/2-month suspension
of play that started March 11
because of the coronavirus
pandemic and came with a
promise that it would raise
awareness to the problems
of racial injustice and police
brutality, is over. So, too, is a
season that saw the league
and China get into political
sparring, the death on Jan. 1 of
commissioner emeritus David
Stern — the man who did so
much to make the league what
it is — and then the shock on
Jan. 26 that came with the
news that Bryant, his daugh-
ter Gianna and seven others
died in a helicopter crash.
The Lakers said they were
playing the rest of the season
in his memory.
They delivered what Bryant
did fi ve times for L.A. — a ring,
and the clincher was emphatic.
T
he Pac-12 will soon
be playing football
again, although under
strange circumstances forced
by the pandemic.
And the Oregon Ducks are
one of the favorites to win
the league title, as they are most
seasons. They are perhaps the top
program in the Pac-12.
But it wasn’t always so.
Oregon did not suddenly burst
onto the national scene. It was a
slow, long slog for the Webfoots.
And I was there.
Growing up in Union, my earliest
memory of Duck football was when,
at age 12, I watched on a black-and-
white TV as Oregon (without their
star running back/defensive back
Mel Renfro) beat SMU 21-14 in the
1963 Sun Bowl, coach Len Casa-
nova’s only bowl victory.
It would be 26 years before
Oregon appeared in another bowl
game. Even when the Ducks had
a decent season, which was rare,
there was no bowl game because the
conference (fi rst AAWU, then the
into the Independence Bowl.
Athletic director Bill Byrne,
seeing a chance to fi nally shed the
program’s bowl-less image, autho-
rized purchasing what he said was
BOB BAUM
10,000 to 11,000 tickets to the game
against Tulsa.
Pac-8) allowed only the conference
I hitched a ride to Shreveport,
champion to appear in the postsea- Louisiana, with a plane-load of
son.
boosters. I drove from Portland to
Oregon was in its fi nal year as an the Eugene airport, but the fog was
independent in that Sun Bowl win. too thick to fl y so we boarded a bus
I was there for 16 of those years, back to Portland. It was a long day.
two as an Oregon student and 14 as
The evening of the game was
Oregon sports editor for The Associ- frigid. A numbing breeze blew into
ated Press.
the press box, as cold as I’ve been at
I received a degree in journalism a sports event.
(I’d say I earned it but that’s a mat-
Oh, and quarterback Bill Mus-
ter of some dispute) from Oregon in grave led the Ducks to victory.
1973. Dan Fouts was in my class.
On the trip home, I may have
Ahmad Rashad (then known as
been the only sober passenger.
Bobby Moore) was a year ahead.
These long-suffering boosters were
Even with those two players, the
almost delirious with their joy. So
Ducks struggled.
what if it was a lower-tier bowl
The Pac-8 rescinded its champion- game, it had been a long time.
only rule in 1975, but still the Ducks
Oregon made it to the Freedom
stayed home.
Bowl in 1990 but the real break-
The drought fi nally ended in
through came unexpectedly in
1989, when Oregon bought its way 1994.
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biggest in NBA Finals history,
topped only by the Celtics lead-
ing the Lakers 79-49 on May
27, 1985.
“We didn’t get the fi nal
result that we wanted,” Heat
coach Erik Spoelstra said.
“But even what I mentioned
to the guys, these are going to
be lifetime memories that we
have together. This locker room
... we’re going to remember this
year, this season, this experi-
ence and that locker room
brotherhood for the rest of our
lives.”
True to form, the Heat — a
No. 5 seed in the Eastern
Conference that fi nished with
a losing record last season, a
team that embraced the chal-
lenge of the bubble like none
other — didn’t stop playing, not
even when the defi cit got to 36
in the third quarter.
“We’re trending in the right
direction,” Butler said. “We’re
going to learn from this.”
A 23-8 run by Miami got
the Heat to 90-69 with 8:37
left. But the outcome was
never in doubt, and before
long confetti was blasted into
the air as the Lakers’ celebra-
tion began.
“Laker Nation,” Vogel, now
a fi rst-time champion who
saw his title hopes as Indi-
ana’s coach thwarted three
times by James and the Heat,
bellowed during the trophy
ceremony. “We did it.”
BOB’S
THOUGHTS
Blazing Fast
Internet!
MO.
“You have written your
own inspiring chapter in the
great Laker history,” Lakers
owner Jeanie Buss said. “And
to Laker Nation, we have
been through a heartbreaking
tragedy with the loss of our
beloved Kobe Bryant. Let this
trophy serve as a reminder of
when we come together, believe
in each other, incredible things
can happen.”
Game 6 was over by half-
time, the Lakers taking a 64-36
lead into the break. The Heat
never led and couldn’t shoot
from anywhere: 35% from
2-point range in the half, 33%
from 3-point range and even
an uncharacteristic 42% from
the line, not like any of it really
mattered. The Lakers were
getting everything they wanted
and then some, outscoring
Miami 36-16 in the second
quarter and doing all that with
James making just one shot in
the period.
Rondo, now a two-time
champion and the fi rst to win
NBA rings as a player in the
cities of Boston and Los Ange-
les — the franchises now tied
with 17 titles apiece — was 6
for 6 in the half, the fi rst time
he’d done that since November
2007. The Lakers’ lead was
46-32 with 5:00 left in the half,
and they outscored Miami 18-4
from there until intermission.
Ball game. The 28-point
halftime lead was the second-
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The Kiwanis Club of Baker City is partnering with
the Sunridge Inn and the Baker County Chamber of
Commerce to put on a 3-hour trick-or-treat event the af-
ternoon of Halloween, which is on a Saturday this year.
Businesses and other groups will stack portable
tables with sweets in the parking lot between the
Chamber’s visitors center and The Sunridge Inn. That’s
just north of Campbell Street and east of Birch Street.
The event will run from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. — 1 hour
longer than the downtown trick-or-treating cavalcade
that has become a tradition.
That extra hour is
one of the changes
Want to hand
designed to reduce
the number of people
out candy?
congregating during a
Businesses,
pandemic when such
organizations and others
gatherings have the
who want to participate
potential to contribute
in the trick-or-treat event
to the spread of the
should call the Chamber
virus, said Cutler, who
of Commerce, 541-
is both the president of
523-5855, by Oct. 19 to
the Kiwanis Club and
reserve a space, which
the executive direc-
is limited. Decorations
tor of the Chamber of
are encouraged.
Commerce.
The expansive park-
ing lot also makes it
easier to achieve the goal that is one of the dominant
terms of 2020: social distancing.
Cutler said the organizations that hand out candy
will each be assigned to one parking space, with an
empty space between each.
That creates about 9 feet between each sugar-laden
booth, she said.
Unlike the rather helter-skelter downtown event, this
year’s trick-or-treating will be more orderly, with kids
and their adult escorts proceeding along a serpentine,
and one-way, route that, appropriately enough, isn’t so
different from the path in the board game “Candyland.”
There will be separate entry and exit points moni-
tored by volunteers, Cutler said.
They will also ensure that no more than 250 people
are going through the parking at one time.
The by now typical COVID-19-related precautions
will all be followed, Cutler said.
Everyone will be required to wear a mask. Cutler
said that’s among the recommendations the Baker
County Health Department made in discussions with
the Kiwanis Club.
The people distributing treats will also wear gloves,
and they will drop the items into kids’ containers.
Baker City Manager Fred Warner Jr. said the city
couldn’t support the usual downtown trick-or-treating
due to the pandemic.
Cutler said Kiwanis Club members weren’t de-
terred.
“Our main focus is kids, and we want to make sure
they have something to look forward to,” she said. “We
think it’s important.”
Cutler, whose view from her offi ce looks across the
parking lot between the visitors center and The Sun-
ridge Inn, thought it was a feasible site.
Cutler said that depending on how many groups
sign up to dole out candy, some of the lot could be
available for parents to park.
There is also parking available nearby on Birch
Street.
She said organizers will encourage people to avoid
parking on busy Campbell Street.
Cutler said the Kiwanis Club is working with the
Baker City Police Department on traffi c issues.
She said she understands that sponsoring such an
event during the pandemic could bother some people.
But Cutler said she’s confi dent that the spacing, mask
requirement and other precautions will ensure the
trick-or-treating is safe.
“I know there are folks out there who think this is
a foolish idea and that we’re jeopardizing kids for the
sake of candy, but it’s not that at all,” Cutler said.
Rich Brooks was in his 18th sea-
son as coach and he sensed his time
at Oregon was nearing an end. It
was a suspicion that grew when the
Ducks started 0-2. They lost at Ha-
waii, and, after a home loss to Utah,
were booed by their home crowd in
a half-empty Autzen Stadium.
The Ducks, unexpectedly, won
seven of their next eight to earn
their fi rst trip to the Rose Bowl
in 37 years. Oregon lost to No.
1-ranked Penn State 38-20.
I spent a wonderful week cover-
ing the team ahead of the game,
darting across greater Los Angeles,
including staffi ng the meeting of
the Oregon Duck and his distant
relative Donald at Disneyland.
But, suddenly, the Ducks were no
joke.
Brooks left for the NFL and the
Ducks named their fi eld after him.
Mike Bellotti moved up from offen-
sive coordinator and promptly got
Oregon to the Cotton Bowl.
I’m not sure I’ve ever been
treated as well as I was when I
covered the team in Dallas. A buffet
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always available in a ballroom.
There was a party where you could
ride a bull (which sadly looked a bit
drugged up). A young girl sang. It
was LeAnn Rimes before her break-
through national success.
Oregon was on its way.
Bellotti had some big seasons in
his 14 years as coach. Then, just as
Bellotti once did, Chip Kelly moved
up from offensive coordinator and
nearly won an NCAA champion-
ship.
The money keeps coming from
Phil Knight. The wins keep piling
up. The Ducks have gone to a bowl
game in 21 of the last 23 seasons.
So different than those long-ago
days of mediocrity or worse.
Bob Baum, who grew up in Union,
retired last year after 43 years with
The Associated Press, the fi rst 23 in
Portland and the last 20 as a senior
sports writer based in Phoenix,
Arizona. He and his wife Leah live in
Island City with their four cats and
two dogs.
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