Not All Is Shipshape With the Clippers’ Future

Responsibility is just another word for something, finally, to lose: Despite everything that went wrong, it was a great season in L.A. with spectacular plays, dunks galore and excited fans. What can we say but:

Thank you, Clippers!

Talk about your mind-benders. Showtime moved to the other side of the tracks as the Clippers finished 13-3 at home in a style you had to rub your eyes to believe.

At 21, Lamar Odom discovered the triple-double, posting three in four weeks. At 20, Darius Miles isn’t going to be rookie of the year, on a losing team in the Pacific time zone with statistics that don’t jump off the page.

But if you ask NBA executives which rookie they’d most like to have . . .

“Darius Miles,” Sacramento King personnel director Jerry Reynolds says. “Obviously, his body’s got to get bigger and he has a minor thing to learn-- shooting the ball--but, my goodness, he has a gift.

“He’s as quick off his feet as anybody. The other night he blocked one of Chris Webber’s jump hooks, just easy, and you don’t see that very often.”

The Clippers are in a particularly sweet spot with everyone but Cherokee Parks locked up . . . er, signed . . . for next season. The kids imported their own esprit--an ESPN magazine staffer who hung around for a week said they were more like a college team--changing the franchise perception from Hopeless to Hot. So many fans lined up outside practices at L.A. Southwest College, the school brought in security. It didn’t even do that for the Lakers.

“These kids are just learning what it’s all about,” publicist Joe Safety said late in the season. “They don’t want this to end.”

End, it had to, in style--a rout of the Phoenix Suns as fans stayed around to cheer afterward and Odom and Miles danced on the scorer’s table.

But this is the West, where more than excitement is required. The Clippers may have separated themselves from the Golden State Warriors and Vancouver Grizzlies but were still in 12th place, 16 games out of the playoffs.

What is required is a veteran. As Coach Alvin Gentry, who kept them going after a 16-34 start, muses, “I don’t know if we need to add another real, real young player.”

Clipper insiders talk about Webber, but the day they land him, they’ll have to revive me. Competing with other owners for the privilege of offering

$100 million isn’t Donald T. Sterling’s idea of fun.

A more realistic choice would be the Toronto Raptors’ high-character, hard-working Antonio Davis, who could take over for Michael Olowokandi or play alongside him.

Not that Sterling is likely to pursue him, either. The larger the tab, the more questions the Donald asks, like, “Is he really worth it?”

Sterling has always insisted he’d pay the right player, the problem being Michael Jordan was never available. So the Clippers fall to the bottom and acquire talent but can’t take the next step because Sterling doesn’t accept the rules his competitors play by: 1) you have to pay a premium for players you need; and 2) you have to take some risks.

Asking a 21-year-old to carry your team is tough because Odom needs someone to lean on too. Lacking a mentor, he broods at not getting star treatment from referees, acts out and gets worse treatment.

Appropriately or not, he ended the season flat on his back in the Delta Center, protesting his sixth foul and getting a technical foul one last time.

Then there’s Olowokandi, drafted No. 1 in 1998, who arrived, as advertised, large, athletic and raw. It turned out he was also intelligent, personable and clueless.

His first two seasons were a write-off, lost to injuries, foul trouble and the prevailing gloom, in which he learned to count touches and brood when teammates froze him out.

Gentry’s staff came in determined to coach him--look around, there aren’t many like him out there--but found him surprisingly stubborn about needing to score, as opposed to defending and rebounding.

Olowokandi says he now understands what they want, although that doesn’t mean they get it every game.

Of course, it’s not easy being the top pick in a draft in which Vince Carter was No. 5 . . . and Dirk Nowitzki was No. 9 . . . and Paul Pierce No. 10.

“It’s definitely true, but that was something that happened,” Olowokandi says. “I have absolutely no regrets about it. There was a reason for it so I sort of feel like, hopefully, one day I can show this is the reason why it happened. . . .

“I stopped getting down on myself when I wasn’t scoring. . . . Before if I wasn’t scoring, if I wasn’t getting touches, I got down and I would think, ‘Oh, we’re a selfish team,’ and blame it on everything else and not be involved in the game.”

Gentry says he’s improving “by leaps and bounds.” Without being prompted, Odom told The Times’ Lonnie White that the players are eager to see if Olowokandi is signed next summer when he’s a restricted free agent, which Odom might not have said a year ago.

Nevertheless, Olowokandi still plays at varying levels: lively if he feels involved, lethargic if he doesn’t, as in his 32-minute, six-rebound, no-blocks finale at Utah.

Everyone knew he was a project and the process continues, if slowly.

You’re supposed to crawl before you can walk, but these Clippers flew. It was great fun on the court, if business as usual upstairs.

Perhaps to keep in practice, Sterling sued former coach Bill Fitch, who’s owed money, for breach of contract, alleging Fitch failed to seek another job.

Fitch is 67, but Sterling obviously believes retirees should stay busy.

The Clippers: They’re fan-tastic, but if Sterling wants to keep them around, he’d better awaken from his lifelong nap and do something.

IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN

Our annual we-don’t-care-what-everyone-else-

thinks awards:

MVP--Allen Iverson, 76ers. Great heart finally overcomes scrawny body and accident-prone lifestyle. Honorable mention: Shaquille O’Neal, Lakers; Webber, Kings; Tracy McGrady, Magic.

Baddest big man ever (self-titled by recipient)--O’Neal. Ask Kobe Bryant.

Rookie of the year--Mike Miller, Magic. In a down season, he averaged 15 points after the All-Star break for a team on its way to the playoffs.

Best draft pick--Miles. Elgin Baylor surprised everyone by taking Miles over Marcus Fizer at No. 3.

Worst draft pick(s)--Fizer over Miller at No. 4 and, at No. 8, Jamal Crawford, who looks overmatched, over Keyon Dooling, Courtney Alexander, Helo Turkoglu, Desmond Mason and Morris Peterson, to name a few, by Jerry Krause, Bulls.

Defensive player of the year--Ben Wallace, Pistons. At 6 feet 8, 235 pounds, he was No. 2 in rebounds,

No. 10 in blocks.

Comeback player of the year--Steve Nash, Mavericks. The NBA calls this “most improved” so it doesn’t have to reward any more reformed druggies. After two awful seasons, Nash, a young John Stockton, became the key to the Mavericks’ rise.

Most improved--McGrady. If you put it that way, it’s hard to go against a 22-year-old with season averages of 7-9-15-27.

Most improved at the free-throw line--O’Neal. Now there are only a few hundred people around here who are better than he is, rather than a few hundred thousand.

Worst comeback of the year--J.R. Rider, Lakers. When they signed him, they thought they had nothing to lose. He showed them they did.

Coach of the year--Larry Brown, 76ers. How does a guy who takes four UCLA freshmen to the NCAA final, wins an NCAA title with a Kansas team that’s just over .500 at midseason and turns around six NBA teams go this long without once winning this award? Honorable mention: Don Nelson, Mavericks (despite what Mark Cuban thinks, this is who turned them around). Special mention for perseverance: Phil Jackson, Lakers; Gentry, Clippers; Mike Dunleavy, Trail Blazers; Pat Riley, Heat; Jeff Van Gundy, Knicks, David Stern, NBA.

Special mention for perseverance, players’ division: Bryant. He took a licking and kept on ticking.

Worst coach of the last four seasons--Rick Pitino, Celtics. In that time, he got them one good player (Pierce) while going 102-146 and leaving them capped out. Honorable mention: Dave Cowens, Warriors. Too-good guy whose team flat quit on him. Leonard Hamilton, Wizards (until last week). Overmatched college coach whose players kept snapping at him. After being offered a buyout to resign by Michael Jordan, Hamilton told reporters he had already decided to go.

Snide note I feel worst about--Discounting the prediction by Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly that Jordan will return. Hiring Doug Collins, who coached him once, is just one more sign Jordan’s thinking about it. Sorry, Reills.

All the other snide notes, I’m standing by, at least for the moment.

Executive of the year--Geoff Petrie, Kings. He traded for Webber, stonewalled Webber’s request to be traded, drafted Peja Stojakovic and Turkoglu, acquired Bobby Jackson, Doug Christie and Scot Pollard. Now all he has to do is handle the latest Webber situation.

Executive comeback of the year--Jordan, Wizards. He finally figured out it was time to back up the truck. Turned down by the coaches he wanted, he wasted a season with Hamilton before hitting on Collins, a turnaround artist who can think like a general manager. Jordan, a fledgling executive, can use all the help he can get.

Executive faux pas of the year--Trader Bob Whitsitt, Trail Blazers. He was on a long hot streak until this season, which he capped off by bringing in Rod Strickland, gassing a team that was then 42-18 and

No. 1 in the West. It finished 8-12.

Crummy owner of the year--Michael Heisley, Grizzlies. He gave Vancouver a chance to show it could support a team--for two weeks. Runner-up: Ray Wooldridge, Hornets. Charlotte would be happy to put up a new arena if he’d sell the team, which is why Stern keeps looking for a buyer. Honorable mention: Rich DeVos, Magic. The Amway billionaire, author of the book, “Compassionate Capitalism,” wanted a $250-million arena--of which he’d pay $10 million. He also threatened to move and told the tourism industry to get its “grubby little fingers” off the tax money he needs.

So that’s how big guys get to be big guys! Is this a great economic system or what?