Talk About a Transition : Grant’s Game Is on the Move Now That He Is Consistent

Larry Brown, the Clipper coach, is talking about one of his players. Guess which one:

“He’s been our most consistent player, night in and night out, in terms of playing up to his ability. It’s a great thing, to have somebody you can pencil in and know he’s going to give you everything he’s got every time he hits the practice court or the game.

“I’ve been real proud of him. I think if we all played with his energy and unselfishness and his work ethic, it would be a lot easier each night on everybody.

“As a coach, all you want is guys to go out and play like him. I can deal with losses if you get that kind of effort. . . . He’s wonderful to watch.

“I’m just proud of him, and I’m pretty confident that he’s going to be around here for a while.”

Ron Harper?

Mark Jackson?

Ken Norman?

Nope. Gary Grant.

Four and a half seasons after being drafted as a Michigan All-American and hailed as the Clipper point guard of the future, and two-plus seasons after they concluded that future would never come, Grant has become the most unlikely of positives in what so far has been a 1992-93 season of negatives.

The Clippers would have been pleased with mere stability or consistency. What they got instead was consistently good play from someone who saw one point guard brought by trade during the summer to start ahead of him and another arrive in the draft as insurance against continued struggles. The backdrop to all this, a career underscored by disappointment and ugly speculation, makes the positive strides of 1992-93 even more dramatic.

“It’s like night and day,” Grant said.

Actually, like day, then night as long as an Alaskan winter, and now day again, or at least a dawn with the season 39 games old.

He was originally part of the rookie class of ‘88, acquired as part of a three-team draft-day trade to join Danny Manning and Charles Smith as the foundation of the future. He started 48 of 71 games and led all NBA first-year players in assists and steals, overshadowing the turnovers that resulted from trying to be too fancy, the passes that either ended up on the highlight reel or in the third row. The Clippers were so encouraged that they took the unusual step of redoing his contract after one season.

In 1989-90, he started even better. Twenty double-figure assist games in 44 put him fifth in the league. He was also seventh in steals, heading into the Feb. 2 game at Miami. But when Grant suffered a broken ankle that night, resulting in surgery for insertion of a plate and five screws, the long night had begun.

Thinking that being bigger would make him more durable, Grant came back the next season at 210 pounds, about 20 more than his current weight. The weight was no help. He had only 23 double-figure assist games in 61 starts and lost his job to Winston Garland near the end of the season. The Clippers responded with their best stretch of play. The Clippers’ off-season comments about wanting a point guard to provide leadership and stability were thinly veiled knocks, and General Manager Elgin Baylor told Grant that he had a reputation as an uncoachable player. Grant would have been traded but for one thing--no one wanted him.

He was being booed by fans at the Sports Arena, but that was the least of his problems. He was viewed by management as a troublemaker who didn’t work hard enough, a point guard who made poor decisions with the ball. He shot 44.8% those first three seasons.

Off the court, he was on his third agent, with one more change still to come, a sign to many of instability. He was fined for hitting a reporter openhanded in the locker room before a game. Most cutting of all, Grant is the first to acknowledge, were frequent rumors of drug use. His denials and an offer to Clipper management to be tested every day were not enough to slow the momentum.

“Nobody wants a problem person on their team,” he says now. “In the past, I would listen to other coaches and players on other teams and it was like, ‘Gary, you don’t care about basketball,’ or ‘The game’s not your top priority.’ That hurt, because I’m the hardest worker on the team.

“Potential-wise, I was always still there. I just think that people and other teams thought I was partying all the time and running the streets and that I made basketball my second priority. That’s all false.”

The Clippers traded for Doc Rivers before last season and Grant officially became a reserve. But with nagging injuries dogging Rivers, Grant remained prominent, then remained a starter through the end of regular season as the team played well after Brown replaced Mike Schuler. Rivers moved back to No. 1 after Game 1 of the playoffs.

Two months after that, the Clippers used their first draft pick to take LaSalle’s Randy Woods. Three months after that, they traded for Mark Jackson.

Grant, in the final year of his contract, arrived at camp in the best shape of his career. Since then, he has started at both backcourt positions and, combined with Jackson and Harper, allowed the Clippers to go regularly with a three-guard alignment. That defensive set has been a spark.

“Early in the year, he was really in kind of a funk, feeling sorry for himself, I think because he is a free agent and was hoping to get something settled to be able to stay on,” Brown said. “I also think the Mark Jackson trade was kind of a tough thing for him to handle because he played so well for us last year and worked so hard in the summer, and then all of the sudden we make a major deal. After he stopped feeling sorry for himself, he’s just been tremendous.”

Like someone whose career has been revived?

“I do think that the perception around the league has changed, and I don’t think it’s anything that anybody said as much as his actions,” Brown said. “It’s been well documented that (then-San Antonio Coach Jerry) Tarkanian really wanted him. I can venture to say there wasn’t anybody who would have taken him before. And now, I think there’s going to be a lot of people who have respect for him and think that he could be a productive player.

“The biggest thing is that he’s grown up. There were times, I even noticed last year, if things went bad you had to pick him up and remind him to keep playing. Now he fights through that. He’s even said something in a team meeting about what’s important, which was a shock. I asked Keith (Jones, the trainer), ‘Have you ever heard Gary speak up and say, ‘Hey, we need to do this,’ or ‘We’re doing this right’? He said, ‘Never.’ ”

All of which has made Grant a critical component again, and maybe even a future Clipper, a considerable rally from his previous status. Not only is management not eager to trade him, but is considering how acquiring another guard for additional depth will affect his now-surging confidence.

Grant wants to stay a Clipper, but realizes he doesn’t rank high on the priority list, what with so many other contracts in limbo. That’s OK, he says. His play this season has proved to him, and others, that there will be interest in the free-agent market.

He has a new career, a new outlook and a new agent with some experience himself as a point guard, former Laker and Clipper Norm Nixon. That’s a good enough start on the rest of his basketball life.

Nixon, a Clipper during Grant’s rookie season, reminded his client before this season of what made him good in the first place. Start with tenacious defense. Get the crowd involved and feed off that energy. And always, always make the play instead of making the “Play of the Day.”

Grant, now at 187 pounds, took the words and turned them into reality.

“I always could play,” he said. “The only things that have changed is that my assists-to-turnovers ratio has gotten better and I’m not trying to make a fancy pass all the time, not trying to squeeze the ball through three or four defenders. I’ve grown up a lot in that way to where I make the right pass and the right play instead of going for the fancy play and the fancy pass.”

Gary Grant stressing the simple route?

Gary Grant having a future with the Clippers?

Gary Grant “our most consistent player?”

Gary Grant.