The world according to Jim:
• I’m guessing Clayton Kershaw and Anže Kopitar didn’t coordinate their plans Thursday.
Two retirement announcements, within two hours of each other. Two individuals who have meant so much to Los Angeles sports dating to the aughts, the late stages of the 2000s, both announcing their intention to walk away. We certainly anticipated that we would hear these announcements at some point from these stars, 37 and just turned 38 respectively, who had set standards, won championships and seem headed for their respective sports’ Halls of Fame.
But the same day? That’s eerie. …
• For what it’s worth, the Kings announced their news conference first, emailing the notice at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday without specifying the reason. The Dodgers announced Kershaw’s retirement on social media around 1 p.m. on Thursday and his 5:30 media availability shortly thereafter.
And Kopitar started his session in El Segundo thusly: “I guess some pretty big news broke in the city today with Kershaw retired, so thank you guys for coming here.” …
• Kopitar reached the NHL in 2006-07 at the age of 19, playing in 72 of the Kings’ 82 games with 21 goals and 41 assists and finishing fourth in the Calder Trophy voting for Rookie of the Year. He will enter the 2025-26 season with 440 goals, 838 assists, two Selke Trophies as the league’s best defensive forward, three Lady Byng Trophies for gentlemanly play, the 2021-22 Mark Messier Leadership Award – and two Stanley Cup titles. …
• It was about a month after the end of Kopitar’s second NHL season (32 goals, 45 assists and an All-Star Game appearance in ’07-08) when the 20-year-old Kershaw made his first appearance on the Dodger Stadium mound, May 25, 2008, allowing two runs and five hits in six innings against the St. Louis Cardinals.
I didn’t write about Kopitar’s debut, Oct. 6, 2006 in Anaheim; he scored two goals that night in the Kings’ 4-3 loss to the Ducks. But I was there for Kershaw’s first appearance at Dodger Stadium, and this was the top to the next day’s column:
“This city got its first real look at the reason for the buzz Sunday. And if day one of the Clayton Kershaw Era is any indication, the hype and the expectations are going to be bigger and louder very soon.”
(I did not, however, take my own advice and save the scorecard.) …
• Going into Friday night’s start against the Giants, his last regular-season start in The Ravine, he has 222 career victories, a 2.54 career ERA (47th all-time and third best among pitchers who broke in over the last 100 years), 3,039 career strikeouts, five ERA titles, and three Cy Young Awards (and an MVP in one of those seasons, 2014). Also, one season in which he won pitching’s version of the Triple Crown (2011, leading the league with 21 wins, a 1.77 ERA and 248 strikeouts) and a Gold Glove.
Plus 11 All-Star appearances, including the start on his home mound at the 2022 Midsummer Classic, with some guy named Ohtani leading off for the American League. And the Roberto Clemente Humanitarian Award for the things he does for his community.
And two World Series rings, with a shot at a third one. …
• The two post-1925 pitchers with better ERAs than Kershaw? Mariano Rivera (2.21, 13th) and Hoyt Wilhelm (2.92, 45th). …
• Yeah, sometimes the phenoms actually do turn out as advertised. And sometimes they can still wake up the echoes once they reach a certain age.
Kershaw might not reach 90 mph with his fastball very often any more, but he has been as effective as ever this season (10-2, 3.53 ERA in 20 starts), after a late start to his season because of surgery. Kopitar, the Kings’ captain, played 81 games in 2024-25, scored 21 goals, was a plus-14 and won his third Lady Byng. …
• Elsewhere in the most diverse (and occasionally fickle) sports market on this continent, we are seeing all kinds of speculation about who might be UCLA’s next head football coach, and those lists include lots of young head coaches having success in other places or coordinators who seem ready to step into the limelight. But consider that resurrecting UCLA football will require more than just stringing together victories. The Bruins have slid into irrelevance, their fan base discouraged and disengaged. …
• So hear me out: What if the most successful college football coach of the last two decades decided that he was bored with retirement, that being a talking head on TV just wasn’t that fulfilling, and he let it be known that he wanted one more challenge? What if seven-time national champion Nick Saban, 74, nudged his agent, Jimmy Sexton, to check in on the UCLA opening just for the heck of it? …
• This is nothing but a what-if at this point, folks. And I will stipulate that I have no advance knowledge of any such machinations or any indication whether either the school or the coach would actively pursue it. …
• Among other things, I wouldn’t want to get Saban in trouble at home. His name has been bandied about previously – for coaching gigs, or for a federal commission to regulate college football. And, as he told ESPN’s Pat McAfee a few weeks back, “Ms. Terry (his wife) sees this on the internet somewhere and she says, ‘Why didn’t you tell me about this?’” His response: “Tell you about what? I didn’t know anything about it.” …
• So just to be clear, Ms. Terry: This is merely suggestion, not speculation. But wouldn’t it be a fitting coda to his career to rescue a program from irrelevance? …
• This week’s quiz: Tim Skipper is UCLA’s interim football coach. Who was the last guy in that position? Answer below.
• As fast as the turnstile spins in the transfer portal these days – and when teams welcome 50 or 60 transfers in one season, it’s more than a bit much – does anyone else wonder if it might be worth trying to revive the old transfer rule, where if you change schools you sit out a season? …
• Here’s an encouraging development for those who still think the idea of the multi-sport high school athlete has merit: Tyran Stokes of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame is considered the No. 1 basketball prospect in the class of 2026. And he is going out for football as well as a senior.
His reasoning, as he told Tarek Fattal: “This could be my last chance to just be a kid.” How perfect is that? …
• Quiz answer: If you guessed Ed Kezirian … sorry, but you’re wrong. Kezirian is the long-time offensive line coach, later a UCLA athletic administrator and a member of the school’s Hall of Fame, who would wave a towel on the sideline to get the fans fired up. But while he’s the most memorable interim coach (1-0 in replacing Bob Toledo and winning the Las Vegas Bowl in 2002), he’s not the most recent. That would be Jedd Fisch, who was 1-1 in 2017 as Jim Mora’s replacement, is now Washington’s coach and has been mentioned in connection with the current UCLA opening.
jalexander@scng.com