Mike Dunleavy's leverage: $$$$

Clippers coach and GM might be unemployed by now were it not for the $10 million he is due over the next two years from team owner Donald Sterling.

Donald T. Sterling

Sterling World Plaza

Beverly Hills, Calif. 90212

Donald, mon amour:

I'm sorry I've been busy, but you know how exciting it is with LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal and everyone becoming free agents!

So, how's that up-and-coming team of yours?

The worst ever?

That would take some doing, like that radioactive material in "The China Syndrome," eating into the ground and coming out on the other side of the world.

OK, you lost Blake Griffin? And Eric Gordon? And seven of your first 10 games, including Friday's after leading Toronto by 22 points?

Actually, I had the sense you were in pain when I saw you at the Minnesota game, your first win, when you grimaced at me.

You were miserable enough in the preseason when your guys were 6-2, looking as if you had taken an arrow in the shoulder that was still sticking out, but you were sucking it up.

I understand. If you were to complain, it wouldn't be about arrows or your medical staff but Mike Dunleavy, or as he's known among your friends, "That #%&$#!"

I know it's hard for you to keep defending Mike with people coming up to ask why you don't fire him, as if they were lined up back to Kansas.

Of course, the pain is knowing you owe Mike $10 million the next two seasons, whether he coaches, runs the front office or sits on the beach.

I feel your pain, dog.

I mean, I sympathize. I cover the NBA. I have a 16-year-old. That's what they say today.

You've had teams this bad -- you've actually had teams 100 times worse, assuming these guys ever get healthy -- but you've never had a mess like this.

You're embarrassed, which takes a lot. Firing Mike costs $10 million, unless he stays as a vastly overpaid general manager. And who says you won't continue being embarrassed?

Before Mike, the Dean of Clippers Coaches, you canned one every 1 1/2 seasons -- 13 of them in 20 years, counting interim guys, most of whom stayed on after you combed the nation for big names.

In his seventh season, Mike has single-handedly dropped your average to one coach every two years!