City Makes Pitch to Keep Austin

Never mind the Coliseum. Don’t worry about the new arena. The City of Los Angeles has a new reclamation project: the Clippers.

City officials informed the team that they wanted to welcome Isaac Austin, the team’s newly acquired center, and encourage him to stay, and 24 hours later, before Friday night’s game, Steve Soboroff, the president of the Recreation and Park Commission, was on the Sports Arena floor, presenting Austin a certificate of welcome signed by both Soboroff and Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.

Austin, a free agent at season’s end, says he hasn’t decided if he’ll stick around. He came over from the Miami Heat in a Feb. 19 trade.