THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Such a Deal: Clippers Up, but Prices Still Down

For you shoppers, the Clippers are offering an improved product at the old bargain prices.

Two more victories and they’ll equal last season’s total. You won’t have to deal with crowds, long lines at concession stands or parking hassles. You can stay for the entire game and be on the freeway within 15 minutes.

The Clippers are usually competitive and will improve if they get Rodney Rogers up to speed, Brent Barry calmed down and Brian Williams signed. Despite the fact everyone’s doing it, it’s too early to judge the Antonio McDyess trade, but no matter what else happens, the Clippers have a chance to make their end work.

A year ago, the Sports Arena was a halfway house. The point guard was coming off a year’s sentence on the Pacer bench. The big guard had just been converted from small forward. The small forward was a rookie. The power forward was a complementary player who was called upon to carry them. The 300-pound center suffered his second season-ending injury and was replaced by a 210-pounder from the CBA.

Now they’re more like an NBA team:

Pooh Richardson--It took a while to get his confidence back last season. Then he was sidelined for the first month of this one. He isn’t back to the 45% shooter he once was, but he’s happy in his beloved L.A. and working on it.

Barry--Possible prodigy, even if Coach Bill Fitch tethers him to the bench to remind him of the importance of poise and defense. (Six turnovers Friday against the Lakers suggest he’s still learning. Next, Fitch will have him write on the blackboard, “I will not throw behind-the-back passes in traffic.”) Barry can shoot, pass, handle and has a fire burning within him, so there’s every reason to believe he’ll make it.

Terry Dehere--He has come a long way, but size and circumstances make him a reserve. His agent faxed in a protest. Fitch said he filed it.

Malik Sealy--Injured now. His shooting must improve, but he has legitimate tools.

Lamond Murray--Hasn’t happened. He’ll do an awesome move, dunk or rebound, showing why general managers loved him in the ’94 draft, but it’s generally a surprise when it happens. Seems to lack drive or confidence and doesn’t have forever to find it because of . . .

Rogers--Injuries have slowed him, but his record shows he can match Murray’s numbers in his sleep.

Loy Vaught--He couldn’t carry them, but 17 points, 10 rebounds and 52% are nice to have. Other teams keep asking for him.

Williams--The linchpin of the deal.

In his first season at center, he’s already one of the NBA’s top 10. If he gets the 10 rebounds a game Fitch wants, he’ll be closing on the top five. He was at 6.6 in November, 7.5 in December and 8.9 this month, so at least he’s headed in the right direction.

Personally, Williams is an eye-opener: whip smart (who was the last player you knew who read Nietzsche or, come to think of it, the last person you knew who read Nietzsche?), adventurous and, off the floor, a dedicated nonconformist.

NBA people have never been sure what to make of him. When he left Arizona in 1991, several teams put private detectives on him.

“They thought I was gay coming out of college,” Williams says, matter-of-factly.

“If you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to be afraid of. I kind of find it hilarious that they want to put a private eye on a 21-year-old kid coming out of college to find out what he’s doing that could be detrimental to your team. I don’t think there’s even a wrong crowd to hang out with in Tucson, Ariz.

“What the hell does it matter that I felt like chasing bulls down a Spanish street, that I have jumped off a mountain with a parachute on my back? What does it matter, really?”

He’s 6 feet 11 and can play, so it doesn’t matter at all, except to remind general managers what exclusionary clauses to put in his next contract.

He can spend his summer with Tibetan monks, and there will still be a line out the door if he opts for free agency next summer. If Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo stay where they are, big players such as Williams, Juwan Howard and Dale Davis will be that much more valuable.

Signing Williams is all-important for the Clippers, who will match any offer. The real question is, where does he want to be?

“Planet Earth is my home,” he announces. “That’s all the home I need. I just wander the Earth. I am king. I don’t need a starting point. I don’t need a destination.”

In other words, he isn’t saying. However this turns out, it’s fun having him around.

The NBA, restructured by the new labor agreement, is hard on the reputationally challenged, and those 10,000 empty seats at home games is a major downer. The franchise’s problem remains, giving its players tangible proof it’s moving forward.

A former Clipper official warns of a deadline: If they hope to sell the 200 luxury boxes that would make a new arena profitable, they should do something--a move, construction or renovation--before the new Taj Mahal for the Kings and Lakers is announced and goes after the same corporate money.

Despite Donald T. Sterling’s bumbling history as an NBA owner, one nice thing must be said for him. No, really.

In this day of the carpetbagger, it’s nice to find someone who isn’t in it for the municipal payment. Sterling is dedicated to keeping the team in town, whether the town appreciates it or, indeed, knows it’s here. He’s an old-fashioned sportsman, in it for the love of the game (or the scene or as a vehicle to schmooze the stars).

His franchise is at another crossroads. One of these times, he’s going to have to do something right or it’ll be bargain days at the old barn forever.

NAMES AND NUMBERS

Many happy returns: Having been through this once, twice or thrice, we’ve found Magic Johnson’s comebacks have stages: 1) He thinks about it, confiding in about 1,000 people; 2) he notices some of them get pained expressions; 3) his agent, Lon Rosen, reminds him he’ll have to sell his 5% of the Lakers, a transaction complex enough to require several months as it did when he bought in; 4) the minicams arrive; 5) someone asks about Nick Van Exel’s feelings; 6) Magic concludes this won’t be a total lark after all; 7) decides to bag it, wondering what all the fuss was about. . . .

An Orlando radio host went off on the news that unmarried Shaquille O’Neal has fathered a child, prompting teammate Penny Hardaway to plead with local reporters: “A guy like Shaquille doesn’t have to take anything from anybody, especially in Orlando. If they keep putting pressure on him, maybe that will drive him away to somewhere like Los Angeles or a bigger city where people don’t make a big deal about anything like this.” . . . It’s still not safe to fool with Mother Nature or MJ: Michael Jordan, who heard Jerry Stackhouse’s stories of beating him in pickup games, outscored him, 48-15, sitting out the last nine minutes. Philadelphia Coach John Lucas said Jordan told him North Carolina Coach Dean Smith asked him to torch the rookie. Noted Jordan, delicately: “We both came out of a program where we were taught not to talk like that.” . . . Grant Hill, a fast learner who faces Jordan today on national television, is begging him not to take the All-Star voting, which Hill again leads, personally. “Tell him I voted for him,” said Hill. “I don’t want to do anything to get him upset.” . . .

The Phoenix Suns pride themselves, with merit, on being a basketball organization, but firing Paul Westphal, who averaged 59 victories in three full seasons--tops in the league--shows when things go bad, basketball people do what regular people do: panic. When the aging, injury-prone players collapsed in a heap, owner Jerry Colangelo canned Westphal, all the while denying his own personnel decisions were part of the problem. (“They have nothing to do with where we are.”) OK, who let centers Mark West and Oliver Miller go, leaving only Joe Kleine? . . . Old/new Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons, now 0-2, praised players for their effort in a blowout by Orlando. “Yeah,” said Charles Barkley, “we were very enthusiastic in getting our butts kicked. It’s very simple. We don’t get our players back, we’re going to get our rumps rocked. No matter who the jockey is, you have to have the horse.” . . . Barkley did meet with Colangelo, who told him he won’t be traded unless someone overwhelms them. Said Barkley: “I guess I’ll go home and tell Maureen [his wife], ‘I love you, honey, but I hope nobody pretty calls me. Unless I get a blockbuster, I’m with you.’ ” . . . Prediction(s): Suns make playoffs, exit early, put Barkley and Kevin Johnson on the block, decide they don’t like the offers, go for a last hurrah next season. . . . Flailing typically, Charlotte traded Kendall Gill and Khalid Reeves, who are under contract through 1999, for free agent-to-be Kenny Anderson, who turned down $6.6 million a year and is represented by David Falk, who spirited away Alonzo Mourning. It would make more sense if Anderson was the old Kenny instead of the hype who hasn’t shot 40% since his wrist was broken by John Starks three seasons ago. . . . Proving the fog hasn’t totally lifted in New Jersey, General Manager Willis Reed introduced Gill as “Gilliam.” Fortunately, the man in charge now is new President Michael Rowe, who directed the Anderson and Derrick Coleman trades.