Now’s Time for Sterling to Move

Today is put-up-or-waste- another-year-of-your-life time for Clipper owner Donald Sterling.

It could be the brightest, sanest day in the history of the franchise--eclipsing, yes, even Feb. 20, 1991. (Who can forget the glorious headline: “Benoit Benjamin Dealt To Seattle.”)

Or it could be just one more chalk mark on the jail cell wall--the Clippers’ players, coaches, trainers and staff cruelly denied parole for another 12 months of isolation.

Today, March 1, is the day the Clippers could move to Anaheim on a full-time basis.

No more counting 18,000 ticket stubs at The Pond and musing, “Well, wasn’t that nice? We must do this again sometime.”

No more overnight stays at an Orange County hotel 10 times a season before “home” games.

Best of all, no more “Who Dropped Donald Sterling On His Head As An Infant And Why Won’t He Move His Damn Team To Anaheim Already?” newspaper opuses.

The Pond could have the Clippers, 41 times per regular season, as early as next season. The deal could be done today, the day annually set aside for Sterling to either renew his ball-and-chain lease with the L.A. Sports Arena or declare his emancipation at last.

“Explore other options” is the legal-ese for it.

Or, if you prefer the loose Orange Countian translation: “Come on down, misery loves company.”

On deadline’s eve, rumors that Sterling was about to concede and rubber-stamp a trial run in Anaheim were bounding all over the place, like one of Charles Outlaw’s free throws.

Reportedly, Clipper employees were telling friends and colleagues “We’re moving there next year.”

Reportedly, Clipper officials and representatives of Ogden Corp., the company that manages and operates the Pond, were conducting “very hush-hush, closed-door meetings” Thursday that would lead to an agreement by today.

Then, there was the sighting of Sterling sitting next to Ogden CEO R. Richard Ablon at Tuesday night’s Clippers-Spurs game at the Pond. Ablon had flown in from New York for the occasion. Sterling had flown in from his own little world. This, in itself, was odd. Not as odd as the Clippers’ eventual victory, but odd enough.

Something was in the air, something was going down, and it smelled like D-E-A-L.

Courtside reporters nearly keeled over when the second half began and Sterling was no longer in his seat.

The deal was done--that had to be it.

Sterling, obviously, had gone off to a sealed private suite and was signing the final papers then and there.

Or, he could have eaten some bad fish before the game and was tending to a different sort of business, which, as it turns out, was the official Clipper explanation.

This much is fact: Sterling and Ablon did sit, did meet and did talk.

Conclusions to be drawn or hurdled at with reckless abandon?

“I think it was meaningful,” Pond assistant general manager Tim Ryan said Thursday. “Absolutely meaningful. I don’t think either [Sterling or Ablon] set up these situations very often.”

“Its only significance,” Pond general manager Brad Mayne said, “is that it shows Ogden is committed to bringing the NBA to the Pond on a full-time basis. It shows we’d really like the Clippers to come here.”

Tuesday night’s game drew 14,555--nearly three times the typical in-house attendance for a Clipper game at the Sports Arena.

The Clippers also won, giving them back-to-back victories at the Pond. When’s the last time the Clips pulled that kind of stunt at the Sports Arena?

The Clippers draw better at the Pond, they play better at the Pond, they’re treated better at the Pond. Sterling is running out of arguments against the move--and running out of options as well. That dream arena to be built “in the greater Los Angeles area” Sterling has promised, or threatened, for years and years? Where’s the money? Who’s the builder? Where’s the site? The questions are becoming harder and harder for Sterling to dodge.

The absence of any plausible arena plan, at this late date, has helped Anaheim in this latest push, Mayne believes.

“Sure, because that means another option is no longer available to them,” Mayne said. “We all know there will only be two NBA teams in this market. If a new building is built in L.A., whoever gets left out will be out of luck.”

That would figure to be the Clippers, since the Lakers are expected to room with the Kings when the Greater Western Forum, or whatever the new place is to be called, opens in 1999. And that would leave the Clippers the Pond . . . or nothing.

That scenario is believed to be nudging Sterling closer to the county line. That and this Clipper Armageddon scenario for 1996-97: The Lakers go deep into the playoffs, maybe even to the finals, with Magic Johnson, Magic announces plans to return for another season and Jerry West adds a free-agent center over the summer named Shaquille O’Neal. If the Clippers are small potatoes in town today, they could find themselves mashed beyond recognition by next November.

Sterling has an alternative, however.

He signs a lease with the Pond to play all his home games there next season.

He changes the team’s colors, logo and name and makes a complete break with the franchise’s laughing-stock past.

He sees if the 15,000 turnstile counts are a twice-a-month fluke or a twice-a-week routine. Meanwhile, Disney watches, too. Research and development, Disney calls it. Sterling dives in now, Disney buys a percentage two or three years later, Sterling becomes richer, possibly even popular, Disney expands the empire and the franchise is saved.

And, one day, maybe, it is even spotted back in the playoffs.

“I believe this facility will get an NBA team,” Mayne said Thursday. “The only question is when. I’d sure like to have it now, instead of waiting.”

It could happen as soon as today, but the final decision still belongs to Sterling. This could be a great day for the Clippers--and you can count those on one hand, minus the thumb--or it could be just 24 more hours of filler before another.