THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Manning Is on Everyone’s Christmas List

Last Sunday, Danny Manning broke the Clippers’ all-time scoring record.

Wednesday, they presented him with the ball in a pregame ceremony and Manning beat the Orlando Magic with a last-second shot.

For the Clippers, it would be a great world if that added up to a hopeful sign, but this is the real world and it doesn’t. Manning has been vowing to leave for six years through his agent, Ron Grinker. Finally, the Clippers believe it.

Sources say the front office has dropped the honeymoon scenario, the hope that things would go so well this season that Manning would have a change of heart and stay.

Said a Clipper official: “We’re going to protect ourself.”

Of course, this has been General Manager Elgin Baylor’s position all along. He had that training-camp deal with Miami for Glen Rice and Willie Burton until owner Donald T. Sterling dropped in unexpectedly, heard the news and attached himself to Manning’s ankle, begging him not to leave, asking him to list his requirements for staying.

In the ensuing hubbub, Coach Bob Weiss allowed himself to be convinced that they still had a chance to sign Manning. Suddenly, the consensus swung 180 degrees and the deal died.

Can the Clippers get it back?

Not so fast.

Grinker says he isn’t playing ball anymore.

“They can do anything they want,” he said last week. “They can trade us to Oshkosh and we’ll deal with that. But we have no interest in talking to any team before a deal is made.”

If he sticks to it, a team would have to trade one or two players making $3 million for Manning with no assurance of keeping him after the season.

Once teams would have considered it to get Manning on the roster, giving them the right to re-sign him at any price, no matter how far they were over the salary cap. Now, however, with the one-year “outs” or termination clauses having breached the cap, Manning can work out a $50-million deal anywhere.

In a major free-agent year, Manning’s is the first name on every general manager’s lips: 27, 6 feet 10, 230 pounds, 26-point average, keeps his mouth shut . . . are you kidding me?

The list of contenders stretches from coast to coast, but here are the notable ones:

--Lakers: They have A.C. Green’s $1.8-million slot, which, with the allowable 30% annual increases, could be used to offer a 12-year, $57-million deal with a one-year out. One advantage: Manning likes living in Los Angeles. Grinker keeps saying if Danny stays in town, it will be with the Lakers.

--Charlotte Hornets: They have their sights on Manning and a strategy for signing him: clearing out Eddie Johnson, Kenny Gattison, Rumeal Robinson and Mike Gminski, on the last year of their contracts, to create room under the cap. Manning grew up in North Carolina and, Grinker says, he would love to go home.

--Heat: Miami might make the trade, even without a word from Grinker. Rice is having a big season, but he’s a one-dimensional jump shooter who will be a restricted free agent and will cost $4 million or so to re-sign. Heat boss Lew Schaffel has a good relationship with Grinker and they agreed to a contract that would pay an average of $5.5 million before the trade fell apart. Grinker says Danny likes Miami.

--Boston Celtics: They brought Robert Parish back to save his $4-million slot for Manning. Grinker says Danny has always admired the Celtic mystique.

--Atlanta Hawks: If they don’t re-sign Dominique Wilkins, they will have his $3.5-million slot available for Manning. I’ll bet Danny was thrilled by “Gone With the Wind.”

--Phoenix Suns: If Charles Barkley retires, they will be interested. Grinker respects team President Jerry Colangelo and Danny likes the desert.

--Orlando Magic: Not as hot a possibility, but the Magic called last week to offer Dennis Scott. Who wouldn’t want to play with Shaquille O’Neal?

The bottom line is, everyone is interested in Manning and Danny is interested in most of them.

For the Clippers, only 67 more shopping days before the trade deadline.

DIDN’T YOU USED TO BE BLAZERMANIA?

In Portland, they keep talking about a window and it’s not in a store on Pioneer Square.

It’s the window of opportunity, which the Trail Blazers had and missed.

It was open while Clyde Drexler was in his prime, but in 1990-91, the year they started 19-1 and won 63 games, the Lakers ambushed them in the West finals. The next season, the Trail Blazers were 2-2 with the Bulls in the NBA finals with Game 5 on their floor, but were blown out, 119-106, before being dispatched in Chicago.

Two seasons later, you can almost see their arteries hardening before your eyes. The feared Trail Blazer break? Gone. The Blazermaniacs? Booing.

Clyde? The ex-Glide.

He doesn’t bounce off the floor anymore or swoop past defenders. He hasn’t shot 50% for nine games. He’s a lifetime 49% shooter, but after arthroscopic knee surgery, shot 43% last season and is now at 41%.

Management, out of good options, insists the key players have a year or two left.

“Everybody measures our team by when we were 19-1, like Houston is now,” Coach Rick Adelman said. “This is not that team. This is not that team, no matter what anybody says.

“We’re a different team. It’s unfair for fans to compare us with Houston, Seattle and Phoenix. We’re in a process we have to go through.”

Indeed. It’s called aging.

WE WON’T HAVE BENOIT TO BASH MUCH LONGER

So we had better get our licks in while we can.

A sucker may be born every minute, but you would have thought Benoit Benjamin had used up his allotment. However, New Jersey General Manager Willis Reed, who coached him at Creighton, stepped up and the Lakers’ Jerry West was able to unload him.

The rest was predictable.

Benjamin reported at his usual weight--overweight.

Coach Chuck Daly hated him.

A rift opened between Reed, who needs this job, and Daly, who can always find another.

“I’ve been disappointed that (Benjamin) hasn’t gotten the minutes,” Reed said last week, taking the argument public.

“Players need minutes to get in a groove. We’re paying the guy $3.2 million, you’ve got to play him. I’m not willing to accept a guy plays 15 minutes a game and you’re telling me he can’t play. Chuck agreed to (the trade). Chuck doesn’t want to admit he wanted the deal, along with his coaching staff.”

Replied Daly: “I don’t give out minutes. Players earn minutes. It’s up to him to make the most of his minutes. I don’t have doghouses.”

Benjamin has two more years--at $3.2 million--after this one, by which time Daly figures to have found something better and Reed may be back in college coaching.

After that, why not a few years in Europe to see if Big Ben can bring down any organizations over there?

FACES AND FIGURES

Remember your Mailman at Christmas, or else: Utah’s Karl Malone, miffed at Larry Johnson’s $84-million extension and the $69 million Derrick Coleman turned down, has outplayed each. Mailman had 58 points, 22 rebounds and shot 60%. Coleman and Johnson combined for 28 points, 20 rebounds and shot 33%. . . . Desperately seeking someone: Doc Rivers’ knee injury leaves the Knicks in need of a point guard. Best available candidates: Derek Harper and Sedale Threatt.

Thanks: Reserve center Will Perdue of the Bulls, recently signed to a five-year, $9-million contract by General Manager Jerry Krause, went after Krause in his column in the suburban Daily Southtown. “Believe me,” Perdue wrote, “I’m not alone in my inability to understand why Jerry accompanies the team on road trips so often. It seems most GMs stay away from the spotlight and work behind the scenes, but not Jerry. When the players know that Big Brother is watching, it puts more pressure on them. Even when we win, the guy is never in a good mood.”

Byron Scott, on the end of his Laker career: “I really feel the last couple of years I wasn’t treated well. I’ll miss the fans, but after hearing all those stories about how they take care of their players and the way I was treated, it hurt me.” . . . Comment: Better not ask Kurt Rambis, axed two days before he would have received a $250,000 bonus. . . . Late bloomer: Piston center Olden Polynice, 29, traded on draft day 1987 for Scottie Pippen, had career averages of six points and five rebounds, but now, in the last year of his contract, is averaging 15 and 14. “We keep waiting for the bubble to burst, but it hasn’t,” Coach Don Chaney said. “Maybe this is for real.”

Chicago’s Horace Grant, in hot water for posing with naked women, said it was OK, since he’s no longer married. His wife, Donna, filed a motion to bar him from saying he was single until their divorce is final. . . . Grant was also publicly chided by Coach Phil Jackson for sitting out games because of flu and ripped by an anonymous teammate. “A lot of us players play when we’re hurt or when we’re sick,” the teammate said. “Horace has done that before but no more. We believe we’d be better off trading him since he really doesn’t like the Bulls anymore.” . . . The mystery Bull turned out to be Stacey King, who blew his cover by admitting to teammates that he had said it, whereupon they ratted him out to reporters. Presumably, King was embarrassed to put his name on the quote because he was using the phrase us players so loosely.

The Dallas Mavericks, still sullen after meeting with Quinn Buckner, were 1-20 when they left on a trip to Houston, New York, Minnesota and Milwaukee. If something doesn’t change, Buckner might not make it to the All-Star break. They have until Jan. 16 to win to stay ahead of last year’s 2-30 start. . . . Bobby Hurley continues to improve, although without inspiration from the Kings, who dedicated their home game against the 4-16 Bucks to him, but lost. “We wanted to get a win so we could send him a tape,” Lionel Simmons said. “I definitely don’t want him to see a tape of this one. It might take away some of the progress he’s made.” . . . Congratulations: King owner Jim Thomas, in a rare retreat from scapegoating, picked up Coach Garry St. Jean’s option for next season. Whatever has gone wrong extends far beyond St. Jean.