Ex-Times columnist J.A. Adande has resurfaced as the NBA columnist for ESPN.com, a move that David Davis comments on at SoCal Sports Observed. Adande's first column talks about why he became a sportswriter.

I write about sports because when I was a fourth-grader a rookie guard named Magic Johnson made me fall in love with basketball and the Lakers, and I decided I wanted to play for them. I write about sports because as an eighth-grader I realized that wasn't going to happen.

I write about sports because my ninth-grade English teacher, Ann Colburn, all but drafted me onto the school paper. I write about sports the way I do because I grew up reading Jim Murray, and because I got tips from Michael Wilbon, Tony Kornheiser, Roy S. Johnson, Bill Plaschke, Shaun Powell, Jay Mariotti and Ralph Wiley.

Around the LA Observed blogs today:

• Business headlines digested by Mark Lacter. LA Biz Observed

• Observing Los Angeles photographer Iris Schneider. Native Intelligence
• Turmoil inside the Society of Professional Journalists over copyrights and contracts. TJ Sullivan at Native Intelligence.
• Jenny Burman recommends an Echo Park blog by a UC Davis professor and a screening tonight of One Night With You. Chicken Corner
• Pro and con on David Duchovny and "Californication" from Veronique de Turenne, whose garden is going crazy in the Malibu breezes.
• Also from Davis, the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority voted to contribute $54 million for the Dodgers' new spring training home in Glendale, Az.
• The L.A. Riptide bandwagon awaits you. SoCal Sports Observed