Don’t Be Like Clippers: Re-Sign Barry

Clippers at the crossroads: It’s another defining moment for the local Joe Btfsplks (he was the one in “L’il Abner” with a dark cloud hovering over his head), who have an assignment, should they choose to accept it:

Re-sign Brent Barry.

Not since Danny Manning has their future been embodied so clearly by a player. Barry isn’t as accomplished as Manning was but he does OK--he started the week leading or sharing team leads in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals--and he has that magic, besides. He’s like Kobe Bryant, when they’re out there, you can’t tear your eyes away from them.

Of course, this is what the Clippers hoped for but it took two years to arrive.

“Maybe I found a toolbox and got out of Coach’s doghouse or something,” Barry says. “I’m just going out and trying to play basketball the way I’ve always played it.”

He’s just better at it now. He long has been the centerpiece of Clipper marketing, when his only real accomplishment was winning a dunk contest. Imagine what he’d be worth if he were a real player, which he may well be.

Or if he were a free agent, which he definitely will be next summer.

The Clippers have an unhappy history with free agents; most head for the city limits at a high rate of speed. (Ron Harper, the notable exception, got a $4-million-a-year deal, then said he felt as though he was “in jail.” The Clippers just wished he had left.)

They’ve been indecisive, cheap or just unlucky, as with Bo Outlaw, who took half as much as they offered to play with his buddy, Penny Hardaway, and reportedly turned down the Lakers too. The bottom line has been a steady succession of farewells. Real men may not leave but real Clippers do.

Owner Donald T. Sterling recently claimed they’ve never lost a player they wanted. It’s one way of looking at it since Manning and Charles Smith were never as good again, although knee injuries had something to do with that.

Nevertheless, there will be no getting around this one. They sign Barry or look like . . . well, Clippers.

Barry is good, charismatic and half of what they have left from their famous Antonio McDyess deal. If they lose Barry, they have only Rodney Rogers (also a free agent next summer) to show for McDyess. In a lesson they have never learned, every player they lose makes the next one more likely to go.

“That’s something I have no control over,” says Barry, feigning disinterest in his bargaining position.

“A lot of people ask me, why didn’t the Clippers do something? A lot of guys were getting re-signed. I don’t know. I don’t worry about it. That’s an organizational matter and I’m not a very organized person.”

They didn’t re-sign him because they didn’t know what they had but they do now. They’re again at the point where they have amassed something to lose. Despite this season’s mounting losses, they have a lot of real prospects like Barry, Lorenzen Wright, Maurice Taylor, Lamond Murray (I never thought I’d say it) and Keith Closs and a bunch of other guys who can play.

If they could keep everyone and sign a star with their $7 million to 10 million of cap room, they could be something but that will take a lot of money and commitment. This season the pressure is on Sterling.

WHAT WENT AROUND COMES AROUND

Phil Jackson said the Bulls might be 15-15 by the time Scottie Pippen returned, but he was probably just preparing everyone for the worst.

The Zenmeister should have known better than to mess with the great karmic flow. The team that was 141-23 over two seasons just started 4-4.

First, it lost to the Celtics. Then there was the debacle in Atlanta where Dennis Rodman said he didn’t feel like playing, Michael Jordan advised him to “go home,” and General Manager Jerry Krause, reminding everyone that Jackson made them bring Rodman back, noted: “The way I feel is I signed him and brought him here and now the coach has to take care of it.”

Krause, who is not close to Jackson, doesn’t even refer to him as “Phil” any more.

Then came last week’s lowlights:

* Tuesday--The Bulls fall, 101-80, in Cleveland. Rodman gets five rebounds in 12 minutes since Jackson, whose team is far behind, needs someone who won’t run away from a layup. Says Rodman: “There’s no interest on this team. Period. . . . Hopefully, this season is going to be over pretty quick. Because it’s going to be a long one for the Chicago Bulls.”

Jackson joins Rodman in ripping referee Violet Palmer. Says Mr. Liberal: “It was a rookie performance. She was making home calls, which is what rookies will do.”

Not that they were using Palmer as a cop-out, but it’s unusual for teams that trail by 24 at the half to mention any official.

Jordan, eschewing the referee excuse, says the Bulls look “like an expansion team,” adding in a jibe at owner Jerry Reinsdorf:

“I’ll tell ya. It gives Chicago what to look for in the coming years, huh?”

* Wednesday--They lose at home to the Wizards, 90-83. Jordan takes 28 shots and misses 18. For the season, he’s shooting 38%. Says the Wizards’ Juwan Howard before the game: “We can’t take them lightly.”

* Friday--They beat Charlotte at home, 105-92. Jordan looks like Jordan for a night but Rodman arrives 20 minutes before game time. Says he was stuck in traffic.

Nosiree, you can’t take them lightly. Pippen’s coming back sometime, assuming there’s something to come back to.

FACES AND FIGURES

There was nothing surprising about the NBA’s new $2.6-billion TV network package, a raise of almost 150%. In an age of declining ratings, even for the NFL, professional basketball continues trending upward, although whether this will continue without Jordan remains to be seen. The NBA and major league baseball have been leapfrogging each other as the No. 2 TV sport in recent years but baseball, which has seen its ratings dive, may not match this one the next time around. . . . Knick Coach Jeff Van Gundy, on his $8.5-million man, Larry Johnson, who apologized to teammates for lethargic play: “I always tell him he’s Larry Johnson! He’s not some average player! He’s a great player! I don’t think he has as much confidence in himself as we have in him.” . . . Hardaway is averaging a pale 21 points and complaining of a sore knee (not the one he complained about last season, the other one.) There are also questions about his relationship with Coach Chuck Daly, who got along with Mark Aguire and Derrick Coleman. Penny didn’t like Daly’s suggestions he’s not psychologically up to carrying a team. During a victory at Detroit, they barked at each other. “It was my fault,” Hardaway said. “Don’t read anything into that.” . . . The 76ers’ Jerry Stackhouse, upset at trade talk, started in a funk but is now averaging 15.5 points and shooting 55%. Coach Larry Brown denies nothing. “Hey, we’ve lost 124 games over the last two years,” Brown says. “And as I remember things, we lost them with Jerry and a couple of other guys here. Hell, we can lose with anybody. I’m trying to find guys we can win with.” . . . Meanwhile, Boston’s Rick Pitino keeps denying he’s shopping Chauncey Billups, but who listens any more? Officials in Charlotte and Denver say they were offered Billups. . . . Atlanta’s 1,078-game winner, Lenny Wilkens, asked how it felt to coach against Larry Bird: “Why don’t you ask Larry Bird how it feels to be coaching against me?” . . . Charles Barkley has had a full season and it’s not even Thanksgiving. Try this: arrives in camp weighing 275, complains other guys (understood by insiders to mean Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler) aren’t serious enough, tosses bar patron through plate-glass window, leaves team, threatens retirement, returns, misses last shot in loss to Portland, erupts when Olajuwon says he should have gotten the ball more, calls Hakeem “selfish,” advising him to “keep his mouth shut and say it privately.” Last week, the big three held a press conference, vowing eternal friendship and no further comment. Said Barkley: “I just wish the media would let this situation end because you all are trying to destroy our team.” . . . Comment: It’s not worth commenting on. . . . The Mavericks were so proud of Shawn Bradley, who was averaging 17 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks before Shaquille O’Neal squashed him, 37 points (including nine dunks) and 12 rebounds to Bradley’s six and three. Said Dallas’ Michael Finley: “Sometimes you’re the Louisville Slugger and sometimes you’re the ball.”