Give Him a Phone Booth, and This Team Might Fly

Not until after the smashing success of opening night did I notice the Superman insignia tattooed to Loy Vaught’s right arm. He was changing clothes, something these super-powered people always do in cramped quarters, after supplying 22 points, 16 rebounds and four steals to the Clippers’ cause in their entertaining last-second victory over Portland, when that familiar “S” emblem on his bicep caught my eye.

“I thought that was Shaquille O’Neal’s thing,” I said.

Vaught flexed to inspect his tattoo and said: “Yeah, he’s got one, too.”

“Did you steal it from Shaq or did Shaq steal it from you?” I asked.

“He stole it from me,” Super Loy said, laughing.

“He did?”

“Yeah. We were playing together at UCLA this summer. He saw mine and liked it.”

And here I thought for Shaq it was not so much a tattoo as a monogram. I wondered why Loy didn’t wear a big “L” instead, until naturally I realized that there are no known superheroes called Luperman.

“So, why did you get yours?” I inquired anyway.

“Because I liked the idea of leaping tall buildings with a single bound,” Vaught explained.

Good explanation. Now I know how, at 6 feet 9 inches, Vaught goes bounding after those rebounds. For years I had thought him to be from Grand Rapids, Mich., originally. Turns out he was tucked into a tiny rocket when Krypton was crumbling and aimed into space. So don’t miss the next exciting episode of Loy and Clark, now playing at an arena near you.

Loy Vaught is Dennis Rodman without the hairdo. He also isn’t the head case Rodman is, but rather a reliable, responsible sort who is going to be a steadying influence this season on a Clipper squad still long on skill and short on discipline. While others play with spectacular flair and make spectacular mistakes--in the season opener, Danny Manning, Ron Harper and Mark Jackson committed 22 turnovers between them--Vaught is careful with the basketball and goes about his business. He played 40 minutes of the opener. How many turnovers? Zero.

And you thought Shaq was super in his NBA opener. Finally getting his big chance in his fourth season after the defection of Ken Norman to another city, Vaught could become one of the major surprises of the league as well as the missing piece of the puzzle for a team that has enough ability to contend. This is a big year for the Clippers because their starting lineup has never been much better. Who knows? A good season and good friends might even persuade Manning to change his mind and re-enlist.

Two things you should know about the Clippers this season: (1) Manning seems determined to shoot every time he touches the ball, and (2) is that so bad? If Vaught and a more mobile Stanley Roberts can loiter around the hoop the way, say, Horace Grant and Bill Cartwright have for Chicago, there are point-scorers such as Manning and Ron Harper who know how to swoop to the hoop the way Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen did.

OK, so it seems almost blasphemous to mention the Clippers in the same breath with the three-term NBA champions. Fact remains, what the Bulls proved to the rest of the league is that three supremely talented players can take a team on a stairway to heaven. If Vaught could become a breakthrough player, then the Clippers have possibilities, particularly since I’ll also pit Mark Jackson against B.J. Armstrong or John Paxson straight up, any day of the week.

Now, the down side:

Unlike Chicago, the Clippers have no advantageous sold-out house in their favor. Last Friday’s season opener was shamefully unattended, even though the organization in this greed-is-good era of ours made the gesture of cutting ticket prices and spending a fortune on pregame pyrotechnics. Nevertheless, some 6,259 additional customers at the same hour saw fit to go see the Lakers and that motley crew they put on the floor, and what was their reward? A wonderful effort by the Lakers that the crowd in part inspired.

Something else the Clippers lack is, as ever, control of the basketball. I can hear Bob Weiss in the huddle now, begging his players not to be careless, to stay alert and wait for good shots. But Harper, Jackson and Gary Grant are like so many players in the league who have such awesome talent, they are in too big a hurry to show it. Teams this reckless lose in spite of their talent. Ask Weiss, who coached the Atlanta Hawks.

I find it interesting that Clipper home games are televised in Los Angeles by Channel 13, a station that bills itself as “Very Independent.” This could also well be the slogan of the Clippers, who are very independent and very entertaining, although not so thrilling that their fine play-by-play broadcaster, Ralph Lawler, needs to shout “Fasten your seat belts!” four times in one half. Our seats aren’t that bumpy yet, Ralph, but thanks.

It would be something if this season’s Clippers did get us so carried away that Super Loy actually did have to come along and steady us. Maybe all they really need is for a few thousand more fans to come along for the ride.