Has Johnson Stopped Playing or Have Clippers Stopped Paying?

Injured Clipper star Marques Johnson will meet with Alan Rothenberg, the team’s president, today in an effort to settle a dispute over the payment of Johnson’s $1.3-million salary.

The Clippers have stopped paying Johnson, who has been on the disabled list since last November with a neck injury.

The team claims that Johnson is permanently disabled, and there reportedly is a clause in Johnson’s contract that permits the Clippers to spread one year’s salary over two years if he becomes permanently disabled.

Johnson maintains that he is not permanently disabled, that he intends to have surgery as early as next week to fuse two vertebrae in his neck, and has taken the team to arbitration to settle the dispute. A decision is expected in the next two weeks.

“I don’t want to go into the details of his contract,” Rothenberg said. “He’s coming in to see me tomorrow (Wednesday), so maybe I’ll know more then.”

Said Johnson: “I’m going to talk with Alan tomorrow and try to see if we can settle this. This has been a difficult time for me with the injury and then to have this happen, too. It’s definitely disappointing.”

Johnson has been out since last Nov. 20, when he suffered a ruptured disk in his neck after colliding with teammate Benoit Benjamin in a game against the Dallas Mavericks.

Tony Daly, the Clipper team physician, recommended then that Johnson have the fusion surgery, saying that he wouldn’t clear Johnson to play again otherwise.

Johnson says he hasn’t had the surgery yet because he has been getting opinions from other doctors.

Johnson was scheduled for surgery last January but called it off. Johnson said Tuesday that he has been seeing a chiropractor to strengthen his neck muscles so that he will recover faster after the surgery.

Johnson was examined Tuesday by Dr. Elliot Blinderman at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

“(Blinderman) is a doctor I feel comfortable with,” Johnson said. “If I get the OK from Dr. Daly, I’ll go ahead and have the surgery done, hopefully within a week.”

Rothenberg said he was surprised that Johnson hadn’t already had the surgery.

“He has been told since right after the injury that the surgery was required,” Rothenberg said. “He has been to three or four specialists and they’ve all told him that he should have the surgery. I don’t know why he hasn’t had it.

“I’m mystified. I haven’t heard an explanation that I can understand. What the doctors have said is that irrespective of whether he’s a basketball player or not, he has to have the surgery.

“The doctors that I have talked to have said that going to a chiropractor was the worst thing he could do.”

Johnson told the Orange County Register Monday: “I’ve tried not to be the center of attention over this mess. I had hoped to have this thing resolved without going to arbitration. Obviously, that hasn’t worked.

“There have been enough negative things said about the Clippers this year that I don’t want to add to the mess.

“I feel very disappointed that the Clippers have acted this way.

“This is a consistent pattern with the Clippers. I can’t begin to describe how frustrating it has been. I think it’s the main reason Derek (Smith) isn’t with the club--because they screwed with him so much when he was hurt last season. They’re doing the same thing to me.

“I certainly don’t appreciate being treated so shabbily when I’m injured and trying to do my best to come back.

“I was told it was up to me. I was told that if I needed 20 opinions, that was fine. There was no way I was going to rush into something as serious as this. Never did I consider myself finished as a player.

“Then I got a letter from the Clippers in January saying that they were going to stop paying me my salary because of the clause that said if I was permanently disabled, then they were only obligated to pay me one year’s salary spread over two years.”

Johnson said Tuesday: “My lawyer called me and told me not to say a whole lot more than what has been said. My reaction was to comments (Rothenberg) made in a halftime (TV) interview (during Sunday night’s Clipper-Laker game). I said it, but I’ve been advised not to say any more than that.

“This was was something I was hoping that would work itself out. It hasn’t and it’s been an ongoing thing for the last two months.”