THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Clipper Coach Cycle Continues: Dream, Reality, Lottery

Let us review the names of the great ex-Clippers of the last 15 months: Larry Brown, Ken Norman, Danny Manning, Mark Jackson, Dominque Wilkins. . . .

Because it’s as easy to spot Amelia Earhart as a Clipper official these days, and because the Clippers haven’t bothered to explain what they’re doing, as a public service we’ll step in.

They’re starting over.

How else to explain their decision, letting Wilkins walk?

There are several reasons why the Clippers haven’t said what they’re doing: (1) They’re embarrassed because observers have been predicting this for years; (2) They don’t like to appear in public; (3) They’re busy not hiring a coach; (4) They might not have realized it yet.

Since time is of the essence and they need to start thinking of marketing themes for next season, here are some suggestions:

--Rebuilding: No One Does It the Way We Do.

--This Time We’ll Get It Right.

--So You Think You Can Coach in the NBA? Win Our Door Prize and See.

--Come See Lamond Murray, Eric Piatkowski, Pooh Richardson, Stanley Roberts and the Exciting Young Clips (While They’re Still Here) in Our Soon-to-Be-Announced New Arena (Wherever).

Actually, the Clippers have chosen the correct course of action, although they would have been better off if they had chosen it in February when they selected Wilkins over the other packages offered for Manning. They concede they knew what Wilkins wanted--$21 million over three years--and they must have known his age, 34, but they made the deal anyway.

Not only that, they claimed to be unanimous in the decision. Owner Donald T. Sterling branded reports that he had cast the deciding vote “lies.”

Six months later, needing only to come up with $12 million to beat the Boston Celtics’ offer, they passed.

In February, they were swamped with bids for Manning. For example, the Portland Trail Blazers offered Harvey Grant and James Robinson, and the Orlando Magic offered Dennis Scott, Anthony Avent and two No. 1 picks.

Now, for the Clippers’ six-year investment in Manning, whom they attained after drawing the lucky ball in the 1988 lottery, they have nothing.

They’re going to have to hire someone to take charge of these kids, so in a few days, weeks or months, they’ll announce a new coach for the next 18 months or so. Last season, it took 62 days to find Bobby Weiss.

This summer, they’re up to 71 days.

The problem is easy to account for.

Each time a vacancy occurs, Sterling dreams of landing a big-timer. This time, he reportedly came up with two mega-biggies, Pat Riley and Larry Brown.

Dreams are nice, but Sterling is delusional (See: We’re Going to Get Danny to Stay, the fantasy he clung to for years). The only way Sterling could get Riley or Brown would be to give them his franchise--a good idea, but another delusion.

The Clippers, of course, deny interest in either. However, they actually announced that they wanted Riley a year ago, and this time the New York Knicks took it seriously enough to give him an extension. The Indiana Pacers took the rumbles about Brown seriously enough to call the Clippers and tell them if they had any thought of Brown returning, forget it.

Meanwhile, Elgin Baylor, vice president of basketball operations, has the task of finding candidates who are actually interested.

The names emerging are Randy Pfund (a nice guy, known locally, who could do a good job in a rebuilding the program with proper support); Bill Fitch (a good man but a hard man, who would need plenty of support, would actually be better running the organization), and Bill Musselman (what are they, crazy?)

Then Baylor has to wait two months until Sterling realizes this won’t be the year they land the elephant and reconciles himself to accepting whomever.

As usual, it’s a hollow exercise. It doesn’t matter whom they hire. They had fine young players and at least one outstanding coach, and look where it got them.

The problem is the front office, where Sterling must fire Baylor (so far Sterling has contented himself with firing coaches) or give him real power (a longshot); must reassign surrogate son and Executive Vice President Andy Roeser to the Sterling Corporation, where he’d be out of harm’s way (longer shot); then must sit back and let his pros run the show (off the board).

You’ve already seen what will happen otherwise. It’s called Clipper history.