Sterling Gets Boo Bashing : Reunion: For the first time since their departure five years ago, the Clippers returned to San Diego while memories flowed all evening.

They were impatient, craving for a look the moment they walked through the turnstiles Thursday night at the San Diego Sports Arena.

Where was he? Did he still have that pompous look about him? Who was he entertaining now? Where was his glass of wine?

It didn’t take long for the fans to spot him. He sat at courtside, wearing a tailor-made navy blue suit, accompanied by his entourage.

It’s been eight and a half years since Donald Sterling strutted into this city and announced that he was buying the San Diego Clippers, and five years since he abandoned the city and took the NBA team to Los Angeles, but the 9,121 fans on hand Thursday didn’t forget.

They looked at him in disdain. They loathed his every action. They taunted him at appropriate moments. They booed his team during the introductions of the Clippers-Seattle SuperSonics exhibition.

How dare he have the gall to come back.

It was like Imelda Marcos returning for a shopping trip in the Philippines. Or Bobby Knight vacationing in Puerto Rico. Or Robert Irsay showing up for a few crab cakes in Baltimore.

“It wasn’t hard to come back,” Sterling said, shrugging sheepishly. “My team came back, and I wanted to be with them.”

Although Sterling was quite gregarious on this evening, the fans made it clear that he is not welcome back. This city might yearn once again for a professional basketball franchise, if they had a choice between obtaining a team owned by Sterling and remaining without, frankly, they’d rather watch reruns of Gilligan’s Island night after night.

“I know it’s been a long time, but I still hope nothing good happens to that man,” said Paul Mendes, the Clippers’ business manager during Sterling’s first season in San Diego. “When I left the organization, I was so teed off that I wanted to bury Don Sterling.

“And you know something, I still do.”

Manny Jackson, the man who’s trying to bring an NBA franchise back to San Diego, shook his head and said: “Obviously, the memories here are very strong. That’s a shame. It leaves a strong level of skepticism that still needs to be overcome.”

There they were, hugging each other, laughing with one another, sharing their memories of the days that seemed like fiction except for those who were there.

It was like a high-school reunion, only the reunion was among those who served under Sterling in his first season as an NBA owner. Mendes showed up. Dick Christman, the director of public relations during Sterling’ first season, took off early from his vending business to be there. Even Patricia Simmons, who mysteriously emerged as assistant general manager, was on the scene.

Some of course, couldn’t make it. Ted Podeleski, formerly the Clippers’ general manager who would later file a lawsuit against Sterling, remained in Phoenix. Pete Babcock, the Clippers’ director of scouting, sent his regards from Denver where he is President of the Nuggets. Paul Silas, the Clippers’ coach, was in New York where he’s assistant coach of the Knicks. Tom Siedel, the Clippers’ assistant marketing director, said he had to go to a seminar or something.

Oh, well, it didn’t matter, the stories flowed freely without everyone there, and hooooo boy, did they have stories.

“You know, as bad as things were there, and as horrible as we were on the court,” Christman said, “it was a special time. We were a close front-office. Most of us were in our first year in the league, and most of us were fired after that season.

“I don’t know, I guess because things were so crazy with Don, we kind of rallied around each other, and that made it special.”

Well, it at least helped them retain their sanity, even if Sterling did everything in his power to make it not only the laughingstock of the NBA, but one of the wackiest, zaniest seasons of any team in any sport at any time.

Oh, the memories, who can forget?

“You know, for a team that won only 17 games,” Christman said, “we sure got a heck of a lot of ink. Don got us in the papers every day. I know he sure kept me busy. My phone was ringing off the hook every day.”

Oh, that Don, what a card.

Who can forget his first game as Clipper owner on Oct. 31, 1981?

There were 11 seconds remaining before the Clippers’ 125-110 victory over Houston became official when Sterling--who had shed his suit coat, loosened his tie, and unbuttoned his shirt to the navel--came dashing across the court, leaped into the arms of Silas, and told him how much he loved him.

“That still is my one big regret in life,” Christman said, “I missed that. I heard all about it, of course, but I missed it. I was busy setting up a post-game press conference and I missed that whole damn thing. God, I wish I saw that.”

Who can forget Sterling’s informal press conference on Jan. 8, 1982, planned simply to talk about his first 100 days on the job?

Sterling, who had already bought three rounds of drinks for himself and reporters, told the waiter to serve the most expensive drinks in the house on the last call when these words spewed from his mouth:

“We have to bite the bullet,” Sterling said. “We must end up last in order to draw first, and get a franchise-maker like Ralph Sampson of Virginia. We’ll finish where we expect to. . . . I guarantee we’ll have the first or second or third pick in the draft. I can’t guarantee we’ll win the coin flip. (But) I don’t think we’ll have to work very hard to have the worst record.”

Said Mendes: “As soon as he said that we all looked at each other and couldn’t believe what we had just heard. You saw reporters checking their notes and playing back tapes. Once he said that, there was no reason to even work for the man. I mean, what’s the purpose of working for a sports team who doesn’t want to win?

“That idiot had just made us the laughingstock of the NBA.”

You can just imagine how long it took the boys in the league office to hear that. Within 24 hours, Commissioner Larry O’Brien notified Sterling and told him that he was being fined $10,000.

Well, to no one’s amazement, the Clippers went on to lose 42 of their next 51 games, and finish with a 17-65 record. They lost 19 consecutive games at one point, and just missed equaling the league record when they beat Portland on the last day of the season. Silas celebrated by ripping out the page from the playbook and burning it in effigy.

The reward for having one of the worst records in NBA history is that they were able to draft Terry Cummings. Of course, just like Tom Chambers, Bill Walton, Adrian Dantley, Bob McAdoo, Byron Scott, Kermit Washington and Lloyd Free, he eventually was traded away.

“We never said we were intelligent,” Sterling admitted at the infamous press conference, “just committed.”

Who can forget Patricia Simmons?

One day during the season, a pretty woman showed up at the Clipper offices and said she was Patty Simmons, a model and friend of Sterling. She rose up though the corporate ranks becoming vice president in charge of promotions and community relations, then business manager, and then assistant general manager.

Silas loves to tell the story that when he left for an NBA tour of China, and returned, his office supplies and files were sitting in the hallway. Simmons had taken his office.

“She really wanted that office,” Mendes said. “She had no clue at all about how to work with a professional sports franchise. But you know, she actually had a pretty tough job. She had to take crap from us whenever Don screwed up, and believe me, that was a lot.”

Who can forget Sterling’s planned budget cuts?

Despite owning $1 billion worth of real estate in Beverly Hills and Malibu alone, Sterling cut his budget by $1.7 million. One proposed budget had him reducing training camp expenses from $52,404 to $120; medical expenses from $10,454 to $100 and advertising from $205,581 to $8,830.

OK, reducing the 1982-1983 exhibition schedule to just one game can help reduce training camp expenses, but how in the world did he expect to cut his medical costs?

Well, you see, Silas not only was going to coach the team, but Sterling gave serious consideration to firing the team trainer and having Silas tape the players’ ankles himself.

“There were lots of stories like that,” Babcock said, “but I’d rather keep them to myself. I’d like to keep working in this league.”

Oh.

Who can forget the night the Cleveland Cavaliers came to town and Sterling threw a party for his buddy, Cavalier owner Ted Stepien?

“That’s the night I’ll never forget,” Mendes said. “There were Stepien and Sterling together with all of their friends, bimbos, clowns and idiots. It was a huge party, you’d think they won the NBA championship or something. Instead, I think they had a combined 22 wins between them.

“I’m thinking to myself, ‘Here are two complete idiots who don’t deserve to have an NBA franchise, and they’re running around hugging everybody.’

“It just made me sick. Hell of a party, though.”

And just what story would be more appropriate about the Sterling legend than the one involving Michael Spilger?

“It was another one of Don’s PR blunders,” Mendes said.

Before the start of the 1981-82 season, Sterling set out pamphlets advertising a $1,000 prize for hitting nine of 10 free throws.

Well, one of these lawyers just happened to be Spilger, San Diego State’s basketball captain and free-throw shooting leader in the 1969-1970 season.

Spilger, naturally, made nine of 10 free throws and won the prize.

Sterling offered him double or nothing.

Spilger took him up on his offer, and did it again.

Spilger never received the money, and instead was offered a trip for two for six days and five nights in Puerto Rico. Only problem was that the trip didn’t include transportation. Nor food and drinks. And the lodging was good for just two days.

OK, OK, Sterling offered him two season tickets. Spilger insisted on cash since he already had seven season tickets, but when he didn’t receive his money for a year, he told Sterling the following season he’d take those tickets.

Sterling informed him he’d have to buy two in order to get two free.

Spilger took him to court.

So after all of the stories were told, and a night’s basketball was completed with the Clippers winning, 125-117, these former Clipper employees had asked themselves the question that inquiring minds must know:

Does this city really miss the Clippers?

“You know something,” Mendes said, “if they ever tried to move back, I think the whole city would be willing to help them pack their bags again.”