Text messages from press row ...

Elton Brand stayed with the Clippers five years longer than he ever intended, which might be why it took only a slight nudge to push him away. ...

If Brand’s agent is to be believed, Donald Sterling and the Clippers not only blew it in failing to retain a player who was the face of their franchise, they insulted him too -- though David Falk never actually mentioned Sterling by name. ...

Falk called him only “the owner.” ...

Frustrated Clippers fans probably will come up with more colorful names they’d like to call Sterling now that the dream teaming of Brand and Baron Davis has gone up in smoke. ...

It’s curious that contending teams such as the Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs made offers to Corey Maggette, but the Clippers had no use for him. ...

Maybe that’s because in the most successful of the Clippers’ eight seasons with the statistics-conscious swingman, their run to the brink of the Western Conference finals two years ago, Maggette sat out all but 32 games. ...

Perhaps it’s not a foregone conclusion that Roger Federer will supplant Pete Sampras as the most prolific winner of Grand Slam men’s tennis events. ...

Sampras is the all-time leader with 14, but the seven-time Wimbledon champion won only three Grand Slam events after his 27th birthday -- at Wimbledon in 1999 and 2000 and at the U.S. Open in 2002, when he was 31. ...

Federer, winner of 12 major titles, turns 27 on Aug. 8. ...

Just wondering: If Federer might not be the greatest player of his generation -- Rafael Nadal has won 12 of their 18 meetings, 10 of 14 in tournament finals -- can he truly be considered the greatest of all time? ...

A-Rod and Madonna are no DiMaggio and Monroe. ...

Dara Torres was the oldest U.S. swimmer at the Olympics eight years ago. ...

When the Beverly Hills-reared Torres, 41, won the first of her nine Olympic medals at the Los Angeles Games in 1984, Michael Phelps was not yet born. ...

Reader Mike Casey of Temecula notes that although Russell Martin will be the Dodgers’ lone representative at the All-Star game, three ex-Dodgers were selected for Tuesday’s gala at Yankee Stadium -- Dioner Navarro of the Tampa Bay Rays, J.D. Drew of the Boston Red Sox and Milton Bradley of the Texas Rangers. ...

The surprising thing about a survey conducted by Radio Heard Here was not that Americans prefer football over baseball as their favorite sport to listen to on the radio, 30% to 25%, but that 3% listed golf as their favorite. ...

Golf on the radio? ...

By the way, 15% chose basketball as the most listenable sport and 11% picked soccer, with 66% of Latino respondents listing futbol No. 1. ...

The Sporting News predicts that Philip Rivers and the San Diego Chargers will defeat Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys in the Super Bowl next February at Tampa, Fla., while Athlon Sports picks the Cowboys to top the Chargers. ...

Neither magazine expects Eli Manning and the New York Giants to win the NFC East, much less make it back to the NFC championship game. ...

Twenty-two years after his last major league appearance, Manager Steve Yeager of the Long Beach Armada was briefly activated by the Golden Baseball League team last month because of a shortage of available players. ...

Says the soon-to-be 60-year-old former Dodgers catcher, who never actually got into a game, “It sparked the ballclub a little bit to see the old man out there taking batting practice. They were laughing and having a good time.” ...

Illustrating anew that beach volleyball continues to spread far beyond its California roots, Misty May-Treanor could win her 100th title this weekend in Chicago and, if she and partner Kerri Walsh win out through the Olympics, Walsh would win her 100th in Beijing. ...

Holly Miyagawa, 37, of Hermosa Beach is one of more than 20 Southland athletes scheduled to compete in the National Kidney Foundation’s U.S. Transplant Games starting Friday in Pittsburgh. ...

Says Miyagawa, a four-time medalist two years ago in track and volleyball: “It’s important to compete just to show everybody that there’s life after a transplant.” ...

Not to put undue pressure on the new quarterback, but the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas has set opening lines on two key USC football games, favoring Mark Sanchez and the Trojans by 4 1/2 points over Ohio State and 17 1/2 over Notre Dame.

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jerome.crowe@latimes.com