COMMENTARY : Clippers, Not Ex-Coaches, on Firing Line

In all other cities in America, with all other teams in the NBA, the firing of the coach would be big news. The headlines would scream, the local TV news would flood the scene with mini-cams, the columnists would analyze and dissect for eager readers.

Monday, the Clippers fired their coach. Yawn.

The thing is, the Clippers always fire their coach. Firemen fight fires, politicians lie to the public and the Clippers fire their coach. It is life as we know it.

The victim’s name this time is Bob Weiss. He is a nice man with considerable NBA experience who was the result of an almost-unprecedented-in-NBA-annals 62-day search. The main question when he arrived was not whether he could coach, but whether he would have enough time to learn all of his players’ names.

Now, he is gone, and his departure conjures up a number of scenes, including Weiss calling his wife and saying, “Honey, I’ve got good news. The Clippers just fired me.”

The only coach to last four full seasons with this team was Jack Ramsay, and that was when it was the Buffalo Braves. After a six-season stop in San Diego, the Clippers moved to L.A. for the 1984-85 season. Weiss was the eighth coach in that span, if you want to include Mack Calvin, who won one of two games and is one of only two Clipper coaches to carry an overall .500 or better winning average. The other is Larry Brown, who left with a .578 mark.

Give the Clippers credit, however. They understand that they have only furthered their position in the world of sports as America’s knee-slap. Jay Leno, David Lettermen and Dennis Miller live for the Clippers to do something. Anything. With the Clippers around, who needs writers?

As one Clipper official said Monday, “We know the stereotype, and we know that firing the coach just feeds that stereotype.”

That indicates the Clippers clearly believed Weiss did a bad job last year, because even the Clippers can take only so much of being a nightly punch line.

But that raises the obvious question about why, then--once again--was the Clippers’ judgment so wrong, so far off, in their hiring process. Those who blared the trumpets less than a year ago about the wonders of Weiss now find him wanting. They probably would hire Madonna to run their chapel meetings, or Tonya Harding and Jeff Gillooly for strategic planning.

In the next few weeks, or perhaps months, we will have Clipper Coach No. 9 (L.A. vintage) bursting on the scene. There will be talk of new beginnings, of playoff berths, of building for the future.

In the media guide, owner Donald Sterling will be quoted as saying: “The addition of (fill in the blank) was a very positive step for our franchise. Coach (fill in the blank) is a winner and he is a superb communicator. Our long-term commitment to him can only bring success.”

That, of course, was what Sterling said about Weiss.

The positive, stiff-upper-lip stance in this is that the Clippers should be commended for acting fast to remedy a bad situation. They believed Weiss was a bad coach and had to be dumped. But that’s like the guy who is trying to become a sword-swallower seeking praise for having bandages nearby.

The statute of limitations might have run out on the public’s ability to accept yet another false start by the Clippers. This is, after all, Los Angeles, where the shows that go on only do so when they are worth the price of admission.

Were the Clippers stumbling along elsewhere, fans would show up wearing paper bags.

In L.A., they simply stop showing up.