REGGIE JACKSON HAD spent enough time in Los Angeles over the years to have an idea of what he was signing up for when Paul George invited him out to a summer pickup game at his old high school in Palmdale, California.
The two friends had lived together at houses in the Hollywood Hills on and off for the past few summers, training together during the days, playing video games and going to dinners with friends and family at night.
But Palmdale is a bit of a drive from basically anywhere in Los Angeles -- an hour and 20 minutes northeast with traffic luck -- and another world from the scene in L.