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LAKER NOTES

By Bill Plaschke

Vince Carter’s decision to attend his University of North Carolina graduation ceremony before playing Game 7 for Toronto in the Eastern Conference semifinals Sunday was a surprise even to another recent graduate.

“Vince is my friend, but if you start doing special things during playoff time, it gets real tricky for some people,” said O’Neal, who left the team to attend his graduation ceremony at Louisiana State in December. “If I had graduated now, I would have had somebody send me a medal. I wouldn’t have gone.”

He laughed. “That’s why I took easy classes instead of hard classes, so I could get out in December.”

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Bill Plaschke

Bill Plaschke, an L.A. Times sports columnist since 1996, is a member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame and California Sports Hall of Fame. He has been named national Sports Columnist of the Year nine times by the Associated Press, and twice by the Society of Professional Journalists and National Headliner Awards. He is the author of six books, including a collection of his columns entitled “Plaschke: Good Sports, Spoilsports, Foul Balls and Oddballs.” Plaschke is also a panelist on the popular ESPN daily talk show, “Around the Horn.” He is in the national Big Brothers/Big Sisters Alumni Hall of Fame and has been named Man of the Year by the Los Angeles Big Brothers/Big Sisters as well as receiving a Pursuit of Justice Award from the California Women’s Law Center. Plaschke has appeared in a movie (“Ali”), a dramatic HBO series (“Luck”) and, in a crowning cultural moment he still does not quite understand, his name can be found in a rap song “Females Welcome” by Asher Roth.

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