Shortstop Andrelton Simmons says that depression and thoughts of suicide led to his decision to opt out during the last week of the Los Angeles Angels’ 2020 regular season, telling the Orange County Register that “the idea of finishing the season in a bubble was too much for me to handle.”
Simmons, who recently finalized a one-year, $10.5 million contract with the Minnesota Twins, chose to share his story in writing, through a series of Twitter direct messages, instead of verbally, because “it is still difficult to articulate certain things or be open.”
The Angels announced on Sept. 22 that Simmons had opted out of the final five games of the regular season. No additional information was provided, though Simmons said in a statement that he felt it was “the best decision for me and for my family.” At the time, the Angels remained mathematically in the race for the second wild card and second place in the AL West. Although their chances of reaching the postseason were slim, league rules required that potential playoff teams begin quarantining that week in preparation for upcoming playoff games.
“It was tough for me mentally to where the thought of suicide crossed my mind,” Simmons told the Register. “It was something I vowed a long time ago I would never consider again. I was fortunate to talk to a therapist, which helped me let go of those thoughts. At the end when a lot of people were still going through what most would think of as tough times, the idea of finishing the season in a bubble was too much for me to handle.”
Simmons played in just 30 games during the abbreviated regular season, missing time due to an ankle he injured for a third straight summer. He told the Register it was difficult to focus on baseball when so many people were struggling amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“First time was driving through Oakland and seeing some of the shops and restaurants trying to stay open with all the homeless people camping outside,” he said. “That’s when it really hit me.”
Simmons began communicating with a therapist, but his hesitations about entering a playoff bubble persisted.
“I was really saddened by how much I was hearing about the death toll, and seeing how smaller businesses were going out of business and I was a little depressed at how the effects of all the new rules and fears were gonna affect people’s livelihoods and how disconnected people were becoming,” he said.
Simmons told the Register he wasn’t forthcoming about his reasons for opting out at the time “because I don’t like the idea of having to explain every detail of my life” and “was afraid of people judging and people twisting my story.” But he said he changed his mind when he realized that being open about his situation could help others who are struggling.
Information from ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez was used in this report.
Three people on a film set were critically hurt in an explosion that sparked a grass fire near Los Angeles on Tuesday, authorities said. The blast was reported around 4:45 p.m. in a mixed-use industrial neighborhood of Santa Clarita, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Abraham Bedoyan. Ambulances took three critical patients to hospitals, according to Supervisor Martin Rangel with the LA County Fire Department. Fire spread to a grassy hillside but firefighters were able to quickly douse the flames, Rangel said. Aerial TV news footage showed fire crews at a large lot with multiple cargo containers. Sheriff’s officials advised residents to stay clear of the area about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of downtown Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES —
Three people on a film set were critically hurt in an explosion that sparked a grass fire near Los Angeles on Tuesday, authorities said.
The blast was reported around 4:45 p.m. in a mixed-use industrial neighborhood of Santa Clarita, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Abraham Bedoyan.
Ambulances took three critical patients to hospitals, according to Supervisor Martin Rangel with the LA County Fire Department.
Fire spread to a grassy hillside but firefighters were able to quickly douse the flames, Rangel said. Aerial TV news footage showed fire crews at a large lot with multiple cargo containers.
Sheriff’s officials advised residents to stay clear of the area about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of downtown Los Angeles.
Four courtside fans — at least one of whom was not covering her face with a mask — were ejected from Monday’s game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Atlanta Hawks following a verbal spat with Lakers star LeBron James, the Hawks confirmed to ESPN.
Juliana Carlos, who later posted on social media, and her husband, Chris Carlos, exchanged words with James in the fourth quarter of the visiting Lakers’ 107-99 win, prompting the ejection.
Juliana Carlos posted a video on her Instagram account showing the scene shortly after State Farm Arena security personnel and one of the referees, Mitchell Ervin, intervened.
She can be heard saying, “Shut the f— up. Don’t talk to my husband like that,” while standing on the sideline with her mask pulled down below her chin. Someone off camera can be heard asking her to put her mask on, which is required of all fans attending NBA games this season. She wrote “f—ing loser” in a text box to accompany the video, with her camera pointed at James.
After the ejection, Carlos posted a selfie-style video, offering her account of what happened.
“So, I’m minding my own business, and Chris has been a Hawks fan forever. He’s been watching the games for 10 years. Whatever, he has this issue with LeBron. I don’t have an issue with LeBron. I don’t give a f— about LeBron,” she says in the video. “Anyway, I’m minding my own business, drinking my [beverage], having fun. All of the sudden, LeBron says something to my husband, and I see this and I stand up. And I go, ‘Don’t f—ing talk to my husband.’ And he looks at me and he goes, ‘Sit the f— down, bitch.’ And I go, ‘Don’t f—ing call me a bitch. You sit the f— down. Get the f— out of here. Don’t f—ing talk to my husband like that.'”
James was not asked postgame about Carlos’ name-calling allegation, but he was not fazed by the incident and said he felt like an ejection was unnecessary.
“At the end of the day, I’m happy fans are back in the building,” he said after putting up 21 points, nine assists and seven rebounds to help L.A. to the road win. “I miss that interaction. I need that interaction; we as players need that interaction. I don’t feel like it was warranted to be kicked out.”
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LeBron James acknowledges he misses the interaction with fans and isn’t sure the spectators should have been removed from the game.
He did say that alcohol could have been a factor, however.
“They might have had a couple drinks, maybe,” he said. “And they could have probably kept it going during the game, and the game wouldn’t have been about the game no more, so I think the referees did what they had to do.”
James also said that Chris Carlos went “out of bounds” with whatever he directed at him. “I guess [Carlos] said something that rubbed the big dawg the wrong way,” added Lakers center Montrezl Harrell.
While James said he was not close enough to the fans to be potentially compromised by Juliana Carlos removing her mask, other members of the Lakers found it unacceptable.
“It certainly exposed something with regard to having fans in the pandemic,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “You obviously can’t have fans taking their masks down and shouting at our players with the virus out there during these times.”
“With COVID going on, we obviously can’t have that,” L.A. big man Anthony Davis echoed. “We want to make sure we all can be safe.”
James later tweeted about Carlos, bestowing her with a derisive nickname commonly used to mock entitled white women.
The Hawks are one of nine NBA teams currently allowing fans to attend their home games. Atlanta’s State Farm Arena currently allows up to 8% of its capacity for Hawks games, according to a team official. Monday’s announced attendance was 1,341.
Despite the episode, several Lakers still supported fans coming to their games.
“We love having fans at the game. Whether we’re home or away, it just brings back the game that we love, that joy from the fans and the support,” Davis said. “Whether it’s 500 people or 1,000, 1,500, whatever it is, it’s always enjoyable to play in front of a crowd.”
“I love our fans,” James reiterated. “Laker Nation and everybody else that’s against Laker Nation. It just feels better. Fans in the stands is just — it’s just better. It’s better for everybody — especially on the last game of a 14-day road trip.”
Previously covered University of Michigan for ESPN.com and AnnArbor.com
Also covered Notre Dame for Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Lindsey Thiry
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Covered Rams for two years for Los Angeles Times
Previously covered the Falcons
Has covered the NBA and college football and basketball
Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford is heading to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for quarterback Jared Goff and a multitude of draft picks, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Saturday night.
The Lions will receive a third-round pick in 2021, a first-round pick in 2022 and a first-round pick in 2023 in what is the first exchange of former No. 1 overall picks in the common draft era (since 1967). The deal cannot be made official until the start of the new league year on March 17.
Following news of the trade, the Rams’ Super Bowl odds for the 2021 season moved from +1800 to +1500 at Caesars Sportsbook by William Hill.
It’s the first big move made by new Lions general manager Brad Holmes, who was hired earlier this month from the Rams, for whom he was the director of college scouting. That was Holmes’ role when the Rams traded up from the No. 15 selection to take Goff first overall in the 2016 NFL draft, making a splash in their return to L.A. after 21 seasons in St. Louis. The Rams will not make another first-round selection until at least 2024.
A source told ESPN the Lions had interest from seven or eight teams offering first-round picks as compensation for Stafford. Though the deal for Goff won’t necessarily preclude the Lions from taking a quarterback in this year’s draft, Goff told ESPN’s Jeff Darlington on Saturday night that he spoke with new Lions coach Dan Campbell, and that Campbell made clear through his message that Goff is in the Lions’ plans for the future.
When asked following Detroit’s final game of the 2020 season if he thought it was his final game with the Lions, Stafford said he did not want to get into hypothetical situations. Soon after the season concluded, Stafford went to Lions team president Rod Wood and mentioned a trade might be best for both sides.
Stafford, 32, will leave Detroit as the team’s all-time leader in every passing category. He is No. 16 all time in NFL passing yards (45,109) and passing touchdowns (282), No. 18 in attempts (6,224) and No. 14 in completions (3,898). His career passer rating of 89.9 is No. 21 all time, and his 144 interceptions are tied for No. 66 all time with Joe Flacco and Steve Bartkowski.
Stafford is No. 4 all time in passing yards per game (273.4), behind just Patrick Mahomes, Drew Brees and Andrew Luck. He also is second all time behind Luck in attempts per game (37.7) and is fourth in completions per game (23.6) behind Brees, Mahomes and Matt Ryan.
Stafford came into the league as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 draft out of Georgia and became Detroit’s starter immediately. Injuries, including a separated shoulder, hampered his first two seasons in the NFL, but he went on to start all but eight games for Detroit since the start of the 2011 season.
When he had to miss the final eight games of the 2019 season due to fractured bones in his back, it ended a streak of 136 straight starts — at the time the sixth-longest consecutive starts streak for a quarterback in NFL history.
Stafford has dealt with a multitude of ailments over the years, including injuries to his ribs, ankle and right thumb last season. He also played in 2018 with fractures in his back and a proximal interphalangeal joint dislocation of the middle finger of his throwing hand in 2016, among other things.
While the Lions never won the NFC North with Stafford as their quarterback, he kept them largely competitive over the past decade as the team’s first draft pick after Detroit’s 0-16 season in 2008. Stafford had eight seasons of 4,000 or more yards passing and a 5,038-yard season in 2011, when he also threw a career-high 41 touchdowns. Stafford has thrown at least 20 touchdowns in every full season of his career — and at least 10 interceptions, as well.
Stafford already has friends and a place to stay on the West Coast: Stafford owns an estate in Newport Coast, southeast of Los Angeles in Orange County, and he is a childhood friend and former high school teammate of longtime Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw.
Although the Rams didn’t confirm the trade, their official Twitter account tweeted at Kershaw, asking him: “Have you heard from an old friend today?”
Stafford has won just five of 16 matchups against his new division opponents in the NFC West. Goff, meanwhile, has won four of six against the NFC North.
Goff, who turned 26 in October, leaves L.A. after five seasons, including four under Rams coach Sean McVay, and with a 42-27 record. He made seven winless starts as a rookie under former coach Jeff Fisher, before the Rams hired McVay, who was known for his offensive acumen and ability to develop quarterbacks. McVay and Goff flourished in their first two seasons together, winning back-to-back division titles and an NFC championship.
The Rams awarded Goff a four-year, $134 million extension with $110 million guaranteed after he led the Rams to a Super Bowl LIII appearance. However, the offense never appeared the same after a 13-3 loss to the New England Patriots in that Super Bowl, as the Rams fell from a top-scoring team to an average unit over the past two seasons.
Issues between Goff and McVay became apparent during the 2020 season despite a 10-6 record. After a 23-20 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Week 12, McVay publicly called out the quarterback for three turnovers and demanded that the issue improve. Over the past two seasons, Goff ranked second in the NFL with 38 turnovers.
McVay opted to start undrafted free-agent backup John Wolford in a wild-card playoff game at the Seattle Seahawks despite Goff telling his coach he would be ready to play 12 days removed from surgery on his throwing-hand thumb. Wolford was forced to leave that contest in the first quarter because of a neck injury, and Goff, the only available backup, passed for 155 yards and a touchdown in the 30-20 win. After the game, Goff expressed disappointment that he did not start.
A week later, in a divisional playoff at the Green Bay Packers, McVay was forced to start Goff with Wolford sidelined because of his neck. Goff passed for 174 yards and a touchdown in a 32-18 loss.
After the Packers game, when asked if Goff was his quarterback, McVay said, “Yeah, he’s our quarterback, right now.”
Earlier this week, Rams general manager Les Snead did not provide a public vote of confidence for Goff when asked multiple times about the quarterback’s future with the Rams.
“Moving on from Jared Goff, that’s … the money we’ve invested in him, that’s not easy to overcome,” said Snead, who added later that “anything can be done” in a cap-based system.
The Lions will face the Rams next season at SoFi Stadium.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The average number of Latino residents dying from coronavirus each day in Los Angeles county has increased by more than 1,000% since November, according to county public health officials.
Los Angeles is battling one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in the US, amid a winter surge that has left hospitals across the region overwhelmed. LA county’s Latino population has faced the brunt of the crisis.
In November, the average number of Latino residents in LA county dying from Covid-19 each day stood at 3.5 per 100,000 residents. Now, it is 40 deaths per 100,000 residents. “That’s an increase of over 1,000%,” said Barbara Ferrer, the county public health director at a briefing this week.
“Los Angeles under Covid-19 has won the world series in baseball, the championship in basketball and holds the title for most Covid-19 infections and the most Latinos who are losing their lives,” said Sonja Diaz, the founding director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative at the University of California, Los Angeles, to the Guardian.
Los Angeles county’s population is 48.6% Latino, but Latinos are dying at a rate of more than one-and-a-half times that of all Los Angeles residents. As of this week, 231 Latinos died per 100,000 people in Los Angeles county, according to county data, as compared to 82 white people per 100,000. “Our Latinx community is, in fact, bearing the worst of this pandemic,” said Ferrer.
It’s a devastating trend that’s reflected in other parts of the state as well. Latinos represent 38.9% of California’s population, yet constitute 55% of positive Covid-19 cases and nearly half the deaths.
Diaz pointed out this is because Latinos make up much of the essential workforce and are often forced between risking exposure to the virus and earning a paycheck.
A Latino worker wears a mask and gloves as he crosses a street in the MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles. Photograph: Apu Gomes/AFP/Getty Images
“Nationally, Latino households have 1.6 wage earners per household compared to 1.2 in non-Hispanic households,” Diaz said. “That means there are more Latino households with adults who leave the house every day because of the hyper-segmentation of Latino workers in essential working situations. That means they are going to be more exposed to Covid-19, just to ensure they have the money necessary to keep shelter and food in their homes. They’re going to work not because they’re aspiring to be heroes but because our economy and the current decision-making of our leaders require that they show up to work.”
Many in these positions have reported having to work through unsafe conditions with no protective gear and no social distancing measures, Diaz said, and don’t have access to sick leave, despite legislation requiring employers to provide sick leave related to Covid-19.
“No matter what, these people of color are showing up to work and they are showing up to work under dangerous conditions that have not been remedied,” Diaz said. “We’re still expecting these low wage workers to show up to work without any of the common sense safety measures necessary.”
California this week lifted its statewide stay-at-home order after recording improving trends in the state’s rate of infections, hospitalizations and intensive care unit capacity as well as vaccinations.
The announcement came after a relentless surge of cases following the winter holidays had overwhelmed the state’s medical system and left many counties with limited ICU capacity.
Parts of the state, including southern California and the San Joaquin valley region, are still seeing high rates of infection, however.
Meanwhile, the state is trying to speed up vaccination after a slow start earlier in the year. Most regions are now vaccinating residents over the age of 65, in addition to healthcare workers and first responders.
Diaz fears what reopening will do to the Latino population. Already throughout Latino communities Los Angeles county, everybody knows somebody who has had the virus.
“We are an embarrassment to industrialized societies in our ability to get Covid-19 under control,” Diaz said. “As a result, Californians of color are getting sick and dying and having a difficult time recovering at the same time millions of Californians are requiring them to put their bodies on the line.”
Mark the calendar: It was nine days into a seven-game road trip before the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers showed any sign of being vulnerable this season, in Thursday’s 107-92 loss to the Detroit Pistons.
L.A. mustered just 34 points in the second half — the fewest the Lakers have scored in any half since LeBron James joined the franchise in 2018 — and was outscored 25-14 in the fourth quarter by a Pistons team that came into the night with the second-worst record in the league at 4-14.
The Lakers went scoreless for nearly seven minutes — from the 8:40 mark in the fourth quarter until there was 1:50 on the clock — as the Pistons’ lead ballooned from one to 17. L.A. went on an 0-for-12 drought with two turnovers as Detroit took control.
“I think we just weren’t connected defensively at the level we were kind of supposed to be,” said Kyle Kuzma, whose 22 points and 10 rebounds were spoiled by the Lakers’ late collapse. “Individually, everybody made mistakes and collectively with those made the team defense suffer a little bit.”
That team defense, which was ranked No. 1 in the NBA going into Thursday, played without Anthony Davis, last season’s Defensive Player of the Year runner-up, who was out with a bruised right thigh.
Whatever explanation might have existed for the poor showing, be it the absence of Davis, the accumulation of road weariness or the challenge of a back-to-back, James didn’t want to hear it.
“I mean, we still have games to be played, work to be done,” he said. “We got to continue to get better, and you can’t really get your mind into the grasp of how many days you are on the road or whatever the case may be. Every team does it. Every team hits a long road trip. We’re professionals.
“We got to keep our minds fresh, keep our bodies fresh as much as we can to go out there and put together a complete 48-minute game, or close to 48 minutes. Obviously we haven’t done it the last couple of games, and we just got to be better on Saturday.”
Coach Frank Vogel challenged last year’s Lakers team not to drop consecutive games all season, and it has remained a part of the team culture this year. L.A. made it more than a quarter of the way through the season before failing the mission, losing to Detroit a night after falling in Philadelphia.
The back-to-back losses also marred the Lakers’ perfect 10-0 road record to begin the season, which had set a franchise record. They’re now 10-2, with games in Boston on Saturday and Atlanta on Monday to finish out the road trip.
While no one sounded the alarm, both Kuzma and James lamented how the Lakers are still trying to find a set rotation, and because of a lack of practice time, end up experimenting with new lineups in the games.
“We’re a brand-new team,” Kuzma said. “We’re playing like 14 people. It’s a tough situation. Obviously, we’re working through things. The coaching staff is trying to figure out rotations and figure out what works with what best, what players can play certain lineups. And that’s just the point of the season we’re in.”
Kuzma provided a 10,000-foot perspective, saying that losses — even bad ones like Thursday’s — are “just the beauty of the journey” and the regular season is meant to be a rehearsal to work out the kinks before the playoffs, anyway. And, as the Lakers’ road trip stretches beyond a week and a half, he acknowledged the very real challenge of constant travel. “It’s still a pandemic out here,” he said.
Vogel put the performance on himself, saying he has to do a better job of putting his players in a position to be successful, but ultimately chalked the night up as something that won’t faze his team.
“We’ll be fine,” Vogel said. “You have nights like this in a long season. We’ll be fine. We’ll bounce back. Not happy, none of us are happy with how we played tonight, but we’ll bounce back.”
Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid said he believed Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James should’ve been assessed a level two flagrant foul and been ejected from Philadelphia’s 107-106 victory over the defending champions Wednesday night.
“Well, first of all, I mean you look at it, that’s a very dangerous play,” Embiid said of James’ foul, which came at the 5:44 mark of the third quarter. “I guarantee you that if it was me, I would have probably been ejected from the game, which has happened in the past with me getting flagrant fouls really for nothing.”
While Embiid was annoyed about James only being given a flagrant one — allowing him to remain in the game — he was equally bothered by the fact that, 68 seconds later, he was called for a flagrant one foul himself for an elbow to Anthony Davis that Embiid didn’t believe merited that penalty.
“When you compare that to the one that I got, which I thought I didn’t really hit him, I didn’t elbow him,” said Embiid, who had 28 points, six rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots in 38 minutes. “I might have touched him. But I don’t think it deserved the flagrant, if you’re gonna compare those two.
“Those are tough plays and I just thought, you know, it should’ve been a flagrant 2.”
For his part, Sixers coach Doc Rivers, a product of a different era of the sport that featured just a bit more physical play than today’s game, said he didn’t think either play should’ve been called for a flagrant at all.
His only concern in the moment was that Embiid, who fell several feet onto his back and writhed on the ground in pain, was all right after falling down. And while Embiid wasn’t moving as well after the play, he managed to stay in the game and help the Sixers win.
“First of all, LeBron’s not a dirty player,” Rivers said. “It was just a physical play and they had to call the flagrant, I guess.
“You know, all of the flagrants tonight … you can get a flagrant easy these days. But that fall was hard, and there was some concern there for sure. The fact that Joel kept going, clearly he wasn’t the same after that as far as his movement. And we kinda knew that and we used him a lot in pick and rolls because of that.”
Embiid, who has been on the injury report off and on recently with a sore back, which has kept him out of a game or two, said he won’t know how it responds until after he wakes up in the morning, but that he felt it limiting him during the game.
He said part of Philadelphia’s collapse down the stretch, which saw the Lakers score 13 straight points to erase 12-point Sixers lead with three minutes to go and take a 106-105 lead with 11.2 seconds remaining, was in part because of his back limiting his movement.
“It’s on me,” Embiid said of Philadelphia’s late-game slide. “I missed a couple shots. I just didn’t have the legs. Not because I was tired, which I wasn’t, but my back just didn’t allow me to dominate the way I’ve been doing in fourth quarters. I missed a couple shots, we made a couple mistakes on defense, they made a few threes, and just like that they were up 1.”
But just when it looked like the ongoing questions about the Sixers and their inability to close down the stretch would come back to haunt Philadelphia once again, the Sixers were bailed out by a terrific shot by Tobias Harris, who confidently took a pass, dribbled to the elbow against Lakers guard Alex Caruso and rose up to bury what turned out to be the game-winning jumper with 3.0 seconds remaining.
“I’m a person that I visualize myself in those spots, so when the opportunity came … that’s a shot I work on time and time again but in those moments just being confident enough to let it go and being OK with the result.
“Tonight, it fared well.”
It was a shot that also allowed the Sixers to laugh off those late-game foibles, a stretch that nearly ruined what had been an incredibly impressive performance by the hosts over the first 45 minutes against the NBA’s defending champions, one Harris said his team viewed as a measuring stick given the opponent they were facing.
“I would say a little bit of both,” said Harris, who finished with 22 points, when asked if he’d focus more on being happy he hit the game-winner or being frustrated at Philadelphia’s sloppy play late. “I’d say there’s always growth in everything. So, tonight’s win is a great win for us against a great team, but, at the same time, we know we could be better, especially in the fourth quarter.”
Los Angeles County officials said Sunday that appointments are available this week at the county’s five large coronavirus vaccination centers at Magic Mountain, the Pomona Fairplex, Cal State Northridge, the Forum in Inglewood and the County Office of Education in Downey.
Appointments can be booked at www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/vaccine/index.htm.
Residents who receive their first dose of the vaccine at a county-run large capacity vaccination site will be provided the date and location to receive their second dose, and automatically registered for their second dose appointment. They will also get email reminders.
On Sunday, the county reported 8,243 new cases of COVID-19 and 98 additional deaths, bringing the county’s totals to 1,073,111 cases and 15,260 fatalities.
There were 6,697 people with COVID-19 hospitalized in the county as of Sunday, down from 6,881 a day earlier. That number had reached a peak of more than 8,000 earlier this year.
But while that number is down, health care workers and ICU capacity remain overwhelmed, with the Southern California Region continuing to have 0% available ICU space and remaining under the Regional Stay at Home Order.
Officials with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health have been urging patience among residents anxious to get a COVID-19 vaccination, with supplies remaining woefully short and the overburdened online reservation system leaving many people frustrated as they try to schedule appointments.
“We are also seeing a decline in hospitalizations and several other indicators we track, including test positivity rate, percentage of emergency department visits associated with COVID-19 and percentage of respiratory specimens positive for COVID at sentinel laboratory surveillance sites,” said Dr. Paul Simon, the Department’s chief science officer.
“However, despite these promising trends, I do want to emphasize that the numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths remain far too high,” he said. “So while there’s reason to be hopeful, we all must remain vigilant and continue to be disciplined, wearing masks, physically distancing when outside the home, avoiding gatherings and washing our hands frequently.”
Simon said the five sites — each capable of administering 4,000 shots per day — will be operating at much lower capacity this week, likely in the 2,000 to 2,500 range.
The county expects to receive about 143,900 more doses of vaccine this week. However, since people need to receive two doses of the medication, spaced three to four weeks apart, the bulk of the vaccine coming this week will be used to administer second doses to people who have already received the first shot. Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer estimated earlier that only 37,900 of the new doses will be available for people to receive their first dose.
Simon said Friday that the most recent figures showed that 441,140 doses of vaccine have already been administered in the county, although he said that number is likely much higher due to delays in tallying vaccination totals. As of this week, the county had received about 853,000 total doses.
Simon said people should not look at those numbers and assume there are 400,000 unused doses in the county, noting again the lag in vaccination reports and the daily administration of doses. If the county’s weekly allotment doesn’t dramatically improve beyond the current average of about 150,000, “the vaccination effort will likely extend well into 2022,” Simon said.
He said if the county can get its allocation increased to 500,000 per week, “we would have the potential to reach 75% of the adult population in the county, or 6 million adults, by mid-summer.”
In the meantime, he urged patience, saying, “We do understand how important it is to get vaccine out as quickly as possible.”
He said the state is upgrading its vaccine-appointment website, to which the county system is linked, so it should operate more smoothly this week.
The county also has a call-in reservation system, which is available from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 833-540-0473. But that line should be used only by people unable to use the website, since call volumes are already exceedingly high, Simon said.
On Saturday, the health department confirmed 269 new deaths and 10,537 new coronavirus cases.
The COVID-19 surge that started around Thanksgiving and continued through the New Year appears to be leveling off. The focus now is getting people vaccinated, but there’s a shortage of doses around the country and even in LA County. Michelle Valles reports for the NBC4 News on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021.
There were 6,881 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized, and 24% are in the ICU. This is the first time since Dec. 29 that daily hospitalizations decreased to less than 7,000 patients. But while that number is down, health care workers and ICU capacity remain overwhelmed, with the Southern California Region continuing to have 0% available ICU space and remaining under the Regional Stay at Home Order.
Eight new cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) were also reported. This brings the total cases of MIS-C in L.A. County to 62 children, one of whom has died. All 62 were hospitalized and 45% were treated in the ICU. Of the children with MIS-C, 31% were under 5 years old; 37% were between 5 and 11; and 32% were between 12 and 20. Latino/Latinx children account for nearly 74% of the reported cases.
MIS-C is an inflammatory condition associated with COVID-19. Symptoms include fever that does not go away and inflamed body parts, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes or gastrointestinal organs. If you believe your child is displaying MIS-C symptoms, contact your primary care or urgent care provider. Seek emergency care for critical or life-threatening conditions. If you do not have a primary care provider, dial 211 and LA County will help connect you to one.
Also Sunday, officials announced the planned opening of a pop-up COVID-19 walk-up testing site at Veteran’s Memorial Park, 6364 Zindell Ave. in Commerce. The site will open Tuesday.
Tests are free and proof of medical insurance is not required. All on-site testing will be conducted from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Jan. 26-30.
Three-hundred and sixty-three days following Kobe Bryant’s death and 104 days after winning an NBA championship in his honor, the Los Angeles Lakers’ co-captains, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, reflected on the time that has passed since the world lost Bryant.
“Man, it’s a saying that time heals all,” James said after a win over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday at the United Center, where Bryant’s idol, Michael Jordan, used to play. “And as devastating and as tragic as it was and still is to all of us involved with it, only time. And it takes time. Everyone has their own grieving process.”
Many among the Lakers and in Bryant’s family and close circle of friends are still in mourning, nearly a year after a helicopter crash killed 41-year-old Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others.
“As we approach his one-year anniversary, it saddens our hearts to actually come to the realization that he’s gone,” Davis said. “I know I still have trouble with it, you still just can’t believe it.”
With emotions still raw, the Lakers organization has no plans to make this Tuesday, Jan. 26, any more difficult than it already will be by placing any further emphasis on the anniversary, sources told ESPN. There will be no Black Mamba uniforms worn Monday in Cleveland, the day before the anniversary, or Wednesday in Philadelphia, the day after. There will be no formal tribute, which could potentially draw more attention to the harrowing details of the accident and cause more trauma than healing.
The Lakers’ team will continue to pay homage to Bryant in the subtle ways many of its players have since last season: with pairs of Bryant’s signature sneakers on their feet, with a No. 24 finger sleeve on James’ hand, with Bryant’s nickname unifying the group in every huddle.
“To this day, it’s, ‘Mamba on three!’ anytime we bring it in because we still want to recognize that he’s a part of our organization,” Davis said. “And ever since the tragedy happened, we had a mindset that this is bigger than, you know, ourselves.”
James was asked about Bryant during several postgame news conferences this week and invited conversation about the Lakers luminary’s life, but he was reticent to dwell on the circumstances surrounding Bryant’s death.
“I try not to put myself back in that headspace, because it’s just too dark,” James said, “for not only myself but for our organization and for everyone that’s involved in it.”
Lakers center Marc Gasol, whose older brother, Pau, teamed with Bryant to win two championships, was also not ready to share his thoughts publicly.
“I’m not comfortable talking about it,” Gasol said. “I’m sorry. Still to this day, I have never really talked about it.”
But bring up how Bryant’s game mirrored Jordan’s? That was something James readily weighed in on, if only for the sake of Bryant’s basketball legacy.
“I only looked at Kobe for him,” James said. “And obviously you’ve seen a lot of the similarities between him and Mike, but I appreciated Kobe’s game for Kobe’s game. The way he played the game, the finesse that he played with, the ballhandling capabilities, the shooting, everything that he possessed on the floor — I respected him for who he was as a player and what he was able to bring onto the floor.
“The fact that he was able to take some things from MJ and look at some of MJ’s DNA and actually be able to do it — a lot of people try to do that, a lot of people wish they could take things from some of the greats, implement them into their game and then be successful, they just can’t. They don’t have the ability to do it. They don’t have the drive to do it, the mindset to do it. But he actually did it and did it at a high level for a long, long, long time. And you can respect that.”
And Davis marveled at the magnitude of Bryant’s lasting impact, an influence so omnipresent that the Lakers’ star big man never fully comprehended it while Bryant was still alive.
“I didn’t know, and I know he was very, very known and popular, but I didn’t know he impacted so many people’s lives outside of basketball,” Davis said. “From soccer, to football, to players overseas, to people who don’t even play sports, they’re always talking about the ‘Mamba Mentality.’ I didn’t know how impactful he was worldwide. … I just didn’t realize how many people he impacted worldwide that’s outside the basketball community.”
This season’s Lakers team is in pursuit of a repeat title to pair with the one it dedicated to Bryant’s memory.
“When the tragedy happened, it was more so, you know, ‘Let’s do it for him,'” Davis said. “And that’s what we ended up doing all last year. … We know we fought to the end for a purpose, and it wasn’t just for ourselves. It was for the Bryant family. And we were able to get that accomplished.”
While Bryant remains on the Lakers’ minds and in their hearts, James said that Bryant will be remembered because he’s not just being carried by his former franchise, but by the people all over the planet he once thrived in.
“There’s a lot of things that die in this world, but legends never die, and he’s exactly that,” James said. “So it’s all about representing that.”
Anthony Davis might have performed better as a facilitator in crunch time than he ever has before in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 113-106 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday, but the All-Star big man was still hypercritical of his play.
“Right now, to be hard on myself, man, I think I suck right now,” Davis said after finishing with 18 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocks. “I’m not making shots. I’m not making free throws. But I think tonight my aggressiveness, just being a [post-up threat] and getting to the paint, allowed guys to get open.”
He did miss 10 of the 18 shots he attempted — shooting just 44.4% compared to the 53.2% clip he came into the night connecting on this season. And he went just 2-for-5 from the foul line, which made the career 80.1% free throw shooter just 14-for-22 (63.6%) in his past three games.
His passing, however, proved to be a difference-maker. The Lakers went 3-for-3 off Davis’ feeds in the final three minutes, allowing visiting L.A. to turn a one-possession game into a relatively comfortable win.
It was the most assists he has ever had in clutch time in a game in his career.
He laced a dish to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to boost L.A.’s lead from two to five with 2 minutes, 42 seconds remaining; he found Alex Caruso in the corner for another 3 to put the Lakers up by seven a minute later; and he set up LeBron James for a 3 with 1:04 remaining to give his team an eight-point cushion. The final flurry sealed the win and allowed the Lakers to extend their road winning streak to 8-0 to begin the season.
“I trust my teammates. AC hit one for me. Bron hit one and Kenny hit one, and they’re in the right spots where I want guys when I have the ball in the post,” Davis explained. “And just [am] able to make the read with their guys doubling or collapsing to the paint when I get there, and was able to kick it out and those guys made shots.”
While Davis finished with fewer than 20 points for the fifth straight game — his longest sub-20 streak last season was limited to just three games during the seeding games in the bubble when L.A. had already locked up the No. 1 seed — his assists have been on an uptick.
Five of Davis’ six assists against the Bucks led to a 3-pointer for L.A. — tied for the most 3s he has ever assisted on in a single game in his career — and his 13 assists over the past two games are the most he has ever had in a two-game span since joining the Lakers.
James explained that he knew Davis had this passing ability in him all along but he rarely got to display it in New Orleans because teams would play him one-on-one, figuring he can’t beat them all by himself.
“But I felt like since he’s been here, he’s so damn good that I know eventually he’s going to see a lot of double-teams,” James said.
Once those doubles come, James said, Davis has been coached to spot the lanes he can target to find open teammates.
“He’s continuing to grow every single game. Every single film session, we kind of break those things down — what he sees on the floor,” James said. “Tonight was another example of him just seeing the other side of the floor and putting the ball on time, on target and guys knocking it down.”
Much like Davis, Lakers coach Frank Vogel left the win unsatisfied, even though the Bucks came into the night ranked No. 2 in offensive efficiency and averaging 120.4 points per game and the Lakers held them far below that output.
“Well, we have to be better,” Vogel said. “We didn’t play our best basketball game tonight.”
It’s the tone of a team seeking something far more substantial than a regular-season win in January.
“My aggressiveness tonight,” Davis said, “that’s the only way I feel like I’m gonna get out of this funk or whatever that I’m in.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself to be a better basketball player every game, and that’s what I’m gonna continue to do.”
