Ferry’s Debut Sparks Bitterness, Not Victory : Clippers: No. 1 draft choice who opted to play in Italy nearly comes to blows with Polynice as Cavaliers win, 98-93.

Danny Ferry, the scourge of the Sports Arena, made his first appearance Sunday, turning an otherwise forgettable season for two teams into a memorable evening.

Ferry needed less than two quarters of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 98-93 victory over the Clippers to reach Bill Laimbeer-like status. He was booed the moment he stood in front of the bench and walked to the scorer’s table to check in with the game 10:44 old. It got so loud that the public address announcement was largely drowned out. The crowd, announced at 12,050 but more like 8,000, booed lustily every time he touched the ball--inbounds passes, free throws, whatever.

Then they got mad.

After Loy Vaught’s basket with 3:56 left before halftime, Ferry, a likable sort who earned the wrath of fans by playing in Italy last season after being drafted No. 1 by the Clippers, got tangled with Olden Polynice under the basket. Ferry said that Polynice had been unnecessarily hitting him the previous several times down court. Polynice, the Clipper center who recorded a career-high 16 rebounds, said Ferry elbowed him in the back.

Whatever, the two squared off. Clipper Danny Manning jumped in. When Polynice broke through restraints by teammates, Ferry started coming at him. This time, Ron Harper, a former Cavalier, played peace maker. No punches were thrown, and Polynice was pulled by Coach Mike Schuler, in his effort to encourage cooler heads, for 18 seconds. When Polynice went back in, he stood with with his back to the lane as Gary Grant shot free throws and gave Ferry a long stare on the bench, but nothing else.

“I kind of expected to get harassed here somewhat, and I was not disappointed at all,” Ferry, who scored 14 points on six-for-10 shooting in 26 minutes, said with a smile. “I got my share of grief, but I’ll trade it for a win.

“Honestly, I didn’t really think to much about it before coming in. I kind of expected the worst. I just didn’t know what it would be.”

Said Polynice: “He tries to be big and bad, but I don’t know why. If he’s big and bad, he should back it up. He knows someone was holding me back. He was lucky Ron Harper was in between.”

The Clippers (20-41) should be thankful of the Ferry-motivated distractions by fans, for it provided proper cloud cover for another loss. The Cavaliers came in with a two-game losing streak, mild considering their 22-39 record, but they had played as badly as any team since Thursday: a 30-point loss at Golden State followed by a loss at Sacramento, when the injury-depleted Kings had eight players in uniform.

So this time, Cleveland, playing for the fourth time in six nights on the road, shot 51.4%, committed one turnover in the fourth quarter and got 26 points and 14 rebounds from Brad Daugherty.

As if anyone noticed.