Plenty of Fireworks in Clipper Opener : Pro basketball: Wild show gets things started, and then Aguirre supplies the finish.

Right after the laser show, the fireworks and the eardrum-shattering explosions, the Clippers opened their 10th season Friday night at the Sports Arena.

One by one, the 12 Clipper players were introduced, running on the court as a spotlight brightly showed the way. After three loud, cannon-like explosions, the house lights came on and the players looked at each other like they might have expected only nine to still be standing.

Opening night drew a crowd of 11,246, or just enough to fit comfortably in Mark Aguirre’s shorts.

If Aguirre plays basketball wearing big drawers, they certainly do not affect his flair for the dramatic.

An 11th-hour addition playing for the league minimum salary, Aguirre stood calmly behind the three-point line, his black shoes flat on the floor and dropped in the game-winner.

The Clippers walked off as a 97-95 winner over Portland and Aguirre walked off holding the ball in his right hand, his arm high above his head.

Actually, it was sort of a landmark occasion for Aguirre.

“It’s the first time I’ve had a send-the-people-home type of thing,” he said. “That’s the first. I’ve been on the other end of a few of those, you know.”

There could have been another, as far back as 1979 when Aguirre was firing up flat-footed jumpers for DePaul. It was Aguirre who could have beaten Indiana State in the Final Four semifinals with a last-second shot, but he missed.

If Aguirre had made it, DePaul would have played Michigan State and that guy named Magic Johnson, not Indiana State and Larry Bird. The course of basketball would have been changed.

As far as Clipper opener goes, this one probably ranks somewhere near the top. It wasn’t anything like the first home opener in Donald Sterling’s reign, which occurred in 1981 in San Diego, a few months after he bought the team from Irv Levin.

On Clipper opening night 12 years ago against the Houston Rockets, Sterling bounded across the court, leaped into the arms of Coach Paul Silas, then attempted to plant a kiss on Michael Brooks’ cheek. There was nothing wrong with Sterling’s sentiment, just his timing, since there still were 29 seconds left in the game.

But now Sterling is a veteran owner. This time, Sterling stayed put in his chair at midcourt, content merely to munch popcorn and chat with King owner Bruce McNall.

If it had been possible, Portland Coach Rick Adelman probably would have checked Aguirre into the boards.

“When he got the ball and he was open, I thought to myself ‘There’s a game-winner there,’ ” Adelman said.

Over in the Clippers’ locker room, Aguirre faced a bunch of reporters and recounted the first game-winning shot of his career. Aguirre had two baskets in the game, both of them three-pointers.

“Three-point league leader,” Tom Tolbert shouted.

Aguirre was the only player on the floor who has won an NBA championship. He was a Detroit Piston on two title teams, but now he is a Clipper and sort of enjoying it.

“I don’t think this is going to happen every night,” he said. “I’m just trying to make something good.”

For openers, he was perfect.