Ready to Go : He’s Had His Problems With Clippers, but Manning Simply Wants to Play

Forward Danny Manning of the Clippers always wanted a tattoo, but he wasn’t sure what to get.

He finally got his body art last summer.

He has a small black panther with the letters ACL written underneath it on his right ankle. ACL stands for anterior cruciate ligament, a tear of which Manning suffered in his right knee as a rookie.

“I like the panther because it’s a very sleek, lean, aggressive animal,” Manning said. “It kind of keeps me motivated when I look down at my leg and I can see the scar (from his knee surgery) and I see the panther.”

It was an appropriate choice because Manning has been perhaps the Clippers’ toughest player since they made him the first selection in the 1988 NBA draft.

The all-star forward, who is playing for his fifth coach as he begins his sixth season as a pro, has had to endure the career-threatening knee injury, a highly publicized feud with Coach Larry Brown, who left the Clippers after last season, and a contract dispute with owner Donald T. Sterling.

The Clippers agreed to trade Manning to the Miami Heat for guards Glen Rice and Willie Burton last month, but backed out of the deal at the last minute as Manning was set to fly to Miami.

According to Ron Grinker, Manning’s agent, Sterling vetoed the deal, but the Clippers say the decision was made by their “executive committee” of Coach Bob Weiss, General Manager Elgin Baylor and Sterling because they think they have a chance to sign Manning, who can become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

“We had more indication to believe that we have a chance of signing Danny than we did maybe a week and a half ago,” Weiss said then. “Although he’s made no commitment to us, but just through talking to him we feel that it’s more possible now and that’s why we leaned more toward keeping Danny.”

Grinker said the Clippers were kidding themselves, that the only way Manning will remain in Los Angeles is if he signs with the Lakers.

“He won’t be with the Clippers,” Grinker said. “He hasn’t changed any position at all. There has been no change in position from the day Danny signed the contract.

“You could do everybody a favor by just letting Danny play basketball and be a professional. There shouldn’t be anything else said. There’s no story. Danny’s going to play this year. He’s under contract, and that’s where it should be.”

Has Manning changed his mind about not re-signing with the Clippers?

“My statements have been made about how I feel and I haven’t swayed from that at all,” Manning said. “I’m just here to play basketball.”

Does he regret that it’s come to this?

“Not at all,” Manning said. “From day one, I gave everybody a blueprint of my future, and all I did was stick to my word.”

Manning has grown weary of the dispute with the Clippers. He would much rather concentrate on preparing for what would seem to be his final season here, which opens Friday night when the Clippers play the Portland Trail Blazers at the Sports Arena.

“I’m playing basketball, which is what I want to do,” Manning said. “Right now I’m in an L.A. Clippers uniform and I’m going to do whatever it takes for the L.A. Clippers to win.

“It’s not confusing. It’s just a matter of staying focused. I know that when I step out onto the basketball court, I’m a competitor and I want my team to win.

“It’s not a distraction for me. It might be a distraction for some other people. Blowing my knee out in 1988 was a distraction. This is not a distraction. There’s nothing for me to say.”

Manning played well in the exhibition season, averaging a team-high 20.4 points and 5.4 rebounds.

Weiss said: “It has definitely been a distraction off the court. But once we step on the court, Danny’s not the type of individual that sulks. He doesn’t have any ill will toward his teammates. We have a great relationship.

“On the court everything has been terrific. But when you are off the court, it’s constantly on your mind.”

Former Clipper forward Ken Norman, who signed with the Milwaukee Bucks last summer after becoming an unrestricted free agent, sympathizes with Manning.

“It’s tough,” Norman said. “But either way, whether Danny’s (with the Clippers) or somewhere else, he’s going to be happy. . . . Now what’s important for Danny, whether he wants to be here or elsewhere, is that he make a decision that’s going to be good for Danny Manning and his family.”

Manning seems happiest on the basketball court.

Perceived as being unemotional, he displayed more emotion during the exhibition season, saying that was a conscious decision.

“With the situation I’m in, a lot of people could look back and say, ‘Hey, he’s not playing hard,’ ” Manning said. “A lot of people used to ask me why I don’t play with more enthusiasm, but I’ve never been a rah-rah type of guy, it’s just that when a special play is made on the court, I like to celebrate. I’m just celebrating more this year than I have in the past.

“I like (celebrating), actually. I wish I would have started doing it earlier in my career. It’s a nice way to express yourself on the court.”

After the turmoil of Brown’s 1 1/2-year tenure as Clipper coach, during which Manning asked to be traded last season, only to rescind the request a few days later, Manning seems to enjoy the more relaxed atmosphere that Weiss has brought to the Clippers.

And even under Brown, who coached him at Kansas, where he led the Jayhawks to the NCAA title in 1988, he blossomed.

After averaging a career-high 19.3 points in Brown’s first season with the Clippers, Manning increased his scoring average to a career-best 22.8 points and set a single-season team scoring record en route to making his first NBA All-Star game appearance last season.

“Naturally, I’d like to say that the system (Brown) implemented helped me out and it helped out everyone on the team,” Manning said. “It was just something that catered to the athletic talent we had on the squad and it worked well for me because I was familiar with the system.

“The differences I had with Coach Brown weren’t that big. I think a lot of it was blown out of proportion. We both wanted to win and we proved that we could do that together at Kansas and we were also competitive in the NBA.

“Coach Weiss is very relaxed,” Manning said. “He’s easygoing, and that’s my personality.”

*

Manning cringed as the TV lights went on. He had the look of a fugitive who had been captured as he answered reporters’ questions with cliches after an exhibition.

Coached by Georgetown’s John Thompson in the 1988 Olympics, Manning and the other U.S. Olympians were programmed by Thompson on how to deal with reporters--mostly by avoiding them. He still is not altogether comfortable with them.

“I’m a very quiet person,” Manning said. “Some people say I’m even shy, but people assume I’m shy because I don’t say much if I don’t know you. But if I know you, then I’m not quiet. I just keep to myself. It’s just how I deal best with situations.”

Manning also dislikes the spotlight. Whereas teammates can often be found at trendy nightspots, Manning spends as much time as possible with his wife, Julie, and two children, Taylor Elizabeth, 3, and Evan, 8 1/2 months.

“I like spending time with my kids and my wife,” he said. “They’re always there when things aren’t going well to give me a helping hand or a smile on the face and that’s nice.

“I realize what I do is a professional sport. I entertain people and I enjoy doing that. But when I leave the court, I want to have a life. I want to be able to enjoy my family. I want to be able to go out and do things and not have to be distracted.

“One of the most frustrating things for me is when I’m out with one of my kids and someone wants to come up and start talking about basketball. I think it’s a compliment that they recognize me and recognize my talents, but that’s the time I want to spend with my family.”

During the off-season, Manning lives near Lawrence, Kan., where he attended high school and college, because he likes the college town’s slower pace.

“The comfort zone that Danny has is the off-season in Kansas,” Grinker said. “He can just be Danny there, and he likes that.”

Manning and trainer Keith Jones have become close friends and Manning and teammate Ron Harper are all but inseparable. Manning and Jones spent Halloween together, watching Manning’s infant son, while their daughters were out trick-or-treating.

“Keith keeps me healthy,” Manning said. “And our families are very good friends.”

Although Manning is a small-town guy and Harper grew up in the inner city, they became friends when Manning helped Harper through a serious knee injury in Harper’s first season with the Clippers. They hold a summer basketball camp and have also become golfing buddies.

But Manning’s life revolves around his family.

He considered not moving his family here this season because there was a chance they might be uprooted if he was traded, but he brought them anyway, and they live in a rented Brentwood house.

“You get used to coming home to a nice meal and smiles on your kids’ faces and a loving wife and it’s very empty when you do nothing but come home and go to a hotel on the road and at home,” Manning said.

Grinker, who has known Manning since he was a child, thinks of Manning as a kid in the body of a 6-foot-10, 27-year-old man.

“He’ll make people think that he wants to go to Disneyland, the amusement parks or the malls for the benefit of the kids, but it’s really (for) him,” Grinker joked. “He really likes those things and uses the kids as an excuse.”