ESPN needs to be in Los Angeles. It needs its anchors to be able to look outside and see Staples Center, needs its editors and writers and producers to listen to Los Angeles sports talk radio and hear the discussions about who should be the USC quarterback, whether Arizona hired the right college basketball coach, understand how Kobe Bryant rules the (West Coast) world, whether Ben Howland should open up his UCLA offense.

But ESPN didn't move its 10 p.m. "SportsCenter" operation to Los Angeles to appease those who live here and are convinced there is an East Coast bias and who believe ESPN was invented to promote the Yankees-Red Sox and North Carolina-Duke rivalries until the end of time.

"Are the Yankees and Red Sox good?" asks ESPN Los Angeles anchor Neil Everett. "Yeah, they are. So they're still going to lead the show. But if the Angels and Dodgers are good, they'll lead the show too."

The Worldwide Leader in Sports, as ESPN calls itself, is now doing one of its "SportsCenter" broadcasts five times a week (10 p.m. Pacific) from the hub of sports in the city, across the street from Staples Center in the LA Live entertainment complex.

As producer Sandy Nunez said Tuesday, the two full-time anchors Everett and Stan Verrett can walk across the street and catch a quarter of the Lakers or the Clippers and then go finish writing their scripts.

You won't, however, see this 10 p.m. "SportsCenter" leading every night with local teams, no automatic Dodgers or Angels highlights in the summer or USC football in the fall or UCLA basketball in the winter.

"Look, we don't want the Los Angeles 'SportsCenter' to look different than the Bristol 'SportsCenters,' " Verrett said. "We've established a brand. It's not broke, it doesn't need fixing. We're adding another dimension."

If there is a criticism to make about the first few shows done from Los Angeles, it's that the network felt the need to make Stuart Scott such a focal point.

Everett, 46, an even-keeled West Coast-lover who lived in Hawaii for 15 years, and the more high-energy Verrett, a 42-year-old from New Orleans, will be the full-time anchors.

But Monday it was Scott, along with former UCLA coach Steve Lavin, who got the first main moment by analyzing the NCAA championship game. Tuesday night Verrett won't be on the show. Scott will host with Everett. And Wednesday Everett won't be on the show while Scott hosts with Verrett.

Nunez said that rotation makes sense from an ESPN perspective. "This is an enormous initiative," she said. "When you go through this much trouble, yeah, you want a marquee name. Stuart Scott, he's ESPN."

Los Angeles-based vice president Judi Cordray said, "Stuart is the face of 'SportsCenter.' We want him out here this week."

But from a local viewer perspective, it will be nice to get Everett and Verrett together, to let them find their rhythm, see how they evolve into West Coasters. ESPN has been doing clever ads with Everett and Verrett.

Everett is living at the beach in Santa Monica right now; Verrett is a downtown guy, he said. That's what we need, to get to know the new anchors because they are the faces who will be the West Coast guys. Scott leaves on Thursday. Then the new guys get the show to themselves. Not a minute too soon.