Manning Doesn’t Want to Be Traded : Pro basketball: He has a change of heart, then scores 24 points to lead Clippers to 104-99 victory over Bucks.

Danny Manning said Sunday he has changed his mind and doesn’t want to be traded after all.

But that might not be enough to persuade the Clippers to keep him.

Manning’s comments before he scored a team-high 24 points in a 104-99 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks before 14,034 at the Bradley Center defused the controversy that started Friday when he said he wanted to be traded, citing a strained relationship with Coach Larry Brown. It might also make a scheduled meeting today in Los Angeles between General Manager Elgin Baylor and Manning and his agent, Ron Grinker, unnecessary.

But it does not wipe out the possibility that Manning might be traded anyway if an attractive deal comes along, maybe even an offer the Clippers might have resisted in the past. Two reasons, sources say:

--Manning has changed his mind once. What happens if he changes it again? The trading deadline is Feb. 25, so why not at least call around for the possibilities now.

--Even though his comments Sunday were optimistic, including saying he could play for Brown for years despite their personality clashes, Manning has yet to say he wants to stay with the Clippers after becoming an unrestricted free agent in July of 1994.

Rather than losing him to free agency with no return, it might make sense to trade him.

No decision has been made, not with Manning’s change of heart coming as suddenly as his original comments. Team officials are waiting on today’s meeting, boosted by the apparent thaw between Manning and Brown, and by Grinker’s positive relationship with Baylor and executive vice president Harley Frankel. They held off on trade talks over the weekend in hopes the situation would settle.

But it is believed that Dallas recently offered holdout lottery pick Jim Jackson and Derek Harper for Manning and Loy Vaught. The Clippers quickly passed. Though concerned about Harper’s four-year contract and hesitant to trade the highly regarded Vaught, especially now that he might start at power forward if Manning leaves, the opportunity to get a dependable guard and a versatile young player might get a longer look the next time.

Manning said his comments about wanting to be traded were made out of frustration as the Clippers labored through a six-game trip that ended at 2-4.

“It’s like, I don’t talk much,” he said. “When I do, I don’t say it the right way.”

So he no longer has irreconcilable differences with Brown?

“Not at all,” Manning said. “Coach Brown and I both want the same thing. We want to win.”

Said Brown, who coached Manning’s father in the ABA and then coached Danny at Kansas: “You ask me if I’m troubled by what he said (originally)? Yeah, that hurt, because most of the good things that have happened to me in basketball, him or his family have been involved. I don’t like to see anything affect that. But my biggest thing is that we do what’s good for him and what’s good for the club.

“If he said he wanted to be here and not be traded, I’d love to see (the new contract) get done. But I don’t know what it means, (that) he doesn’t want to be traded. Does that mean he wants to be here forever?”

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Clipper Notes

The Clippers outscored Milwaukee, 29-19, in the fourth quarter to win. They were behind, 96-95, with two minutes remaining before finishing with a 9-3 run. . . . The Clippers returned to Los Angeles after the game, take today off and then open a two-game home stand Tuesday against Houston. . . . The Clippers held another team meeting before practice Saturday, this time with the coaches involved. . . . The Clippers played without John Williams, who had a sprained right arch. He is day-to-day. Alvin Robertson, No. 1 in the NBA in steals, missed his fifth consecutive game for the Bucks because of with a sore lower back. . . . Milwaukee’s Blue Edwards had a career-high 36 points, along with 11 rebounds.