Righting the Ship

Donald T. Sterling

Sterling World Plaza

Beverly Hills, Calif.

Dear Donald,

*

I went to one of your games last week to get ammo for my usual number, but it turned out to be a waste of time.

Your players weren’t muttering about leaving and when the game started, they actually tried, to say nothing of all the spectacular dunks and ballhandling wizardry.

There were people in most of the seats, cheering, as opposed to Laker fans who are even more blase these days, sipping designer water and calling each other on their cell phones.

There go two easy rips a year. Thanks a lot.

Your faithful correspondent in good times as well as bad, I guess,

Mark Heisler

*

Things must be changing. We’re used to seeing one of the local teams slouch through the season, but it was always the Clippers, not the Lakers.

We’re used to exciting, high-wire ball too, but it was always the Lakers, not the Clippers.

This is a new experience for the Clippers, even if it’s not quite this exciting every night and their record (11-23) shows how far they have to go.

The difference is, now it’s not impossible.

The NBA’s three-year rookie scale, which had prospects such as Brent Barry and Lorenzen Wright formulating escape scenarios by year two, is now five years so Michael Olowokandi is here until 2003, Lamar Odom and Corey Maggette until 2004 and Darius Miles, Quentin Richardson and Keyon Dooling until 2005.

Then there’s their impressive talent level, which is part coup, part accident.

Orlando, which had to dump Derek Strong’s $3.5-million salary to make room for two free agents, was obliged to donate Maggette and the pick that became Dooling to the Clippers too.

Then the long-embattled Elgin Baylor made the right choices.

The normal dud rate, even in the lottery, is about 50%. Indeed, top picks such as No. 2 Stromile Swift of Vancouver, No. 4 Marcus Fizer and No. 8 Jamal Crawford of Chicago, No. 6 DerMarr Johnson of Atlanta, No. 9 Joel Pryzbilla of Milwaukee and No. 11 Jerome Moiso of Boston are barely playing.

Meanwhile, all the Clipper picks look great.

Miles, whom Baylor plucked out of the drooling mouths of the Bulls in a surprise at No. 3, is a show-stopper, even if he’s raw as sashimi. (Asked how the just- turned-19-year-old’s jump shot is progressing, one of the coaches noted, “He made one four games ago.”)

Dooling, the No. 10 pick, is a 6-foot-2 point guard who’s being brought along slowly but delights in dunking on big guys and looks right at home.

The surprise is Richardson, the shoved-down-to-No. 18 pick, a 225-pound fireplug who’s listed at 6-6, looks more like 6-3 and is now a starting guard, anyway. He was part of a package with Miles, because they’re David Falk’s clients and that’s how the mighty Oz works. However, Clipper officials say Baylor liked Richardson anyway, and now you can see why.

Richardson is genuinely tough, as opposed to all the young guys who act tough. The bigger the challenge, the harder he goes at him. Last week he posted up Vince Carter and scored on him three times almost before the last notes of the Canadian anthem died out.

Even rarer, Richardson is a natural leader, which is great for Miles, his buddy, who’s naturally young. Richardson is also a cousin of Maggette, another raw, massively talented hard worker, and the kids are tight. The Clipper atmosphere now is as different as joy is from sorrow.

“It feels way different,” says Eric Piatkowski, that rarest of all species, a seven-year Clipper veteran.

“We have so many young guys who don’t know any better, they’re just excited right now to be here in the NBA. They go out and they want to work hard. They’re going a million miles an hour. They’re dunking every time in the warmup lines. . . .

“Everybody keeps calling me old. I’m only 30. I’d be average on most teams. I’ve got to remember, sometimes, they’re 10 years younger than me, and that’s amazing.

“The things that get them fired up don’t really get me too fired up. They’re fired up when there’s a new PlayStation coming out. . . .

“I try to think, when I was going to college, what were these guys doing? Then you think to yourself, ‘My gosh, maybe I am getting old!’ ”

When Piatkowski was a freshman at Nebraska in 1989, Miles was 8 and probably still had to bend his knees to get the ball up to the rim.

Of course, it’s hard to be young in the NBA, on the court, anyway, as their record confirms.

In the NBA, when they say you have to crawl before you walk, they don’t mean for a season or two. As good as they are, Shaquille O’Neal didn’t win a title until Year 8 and Kobe Bryant needed four, even playing with Shaq.

Last season, Chris Ford coached the Clippers, officially anyway, but whatever heart and belief he had left seemed to fade in that Maurice Taylor-Derek Anderson, I’m-outta- here, latest installment of the Clipper Blues.

Now they have Alvin Gentry, an upbeat young man who took a pounding when he was hired instead of a bigger name (with a higher price), but that’s the Clipper way, fantasize about stars and then hire whomever.

In this case, whomever is a great fit. Gentry is so enthusiastic, he even suggests to reporters that Sterling has been right all along.

None of Gentry’s predecessors ever went that far. The most charitable, Larry Brown, who’s still close to Donald, thought Sterling got bad advice. The other coaches limited it to discreet silences, sighs and eye rolls.

Of course, here comes the tricky part: Donald still has a role to play.

He has to build on this momentum or risk losing it, after which, well, you know how that goes by now.

Right now, the Clippers are getting a two-season respite as the league transitions to the new rookie scale, but after that, important players will start coming up again.

These kids may be young, but they’re not dopes. The most common question they get on the road is: Will you stay? The New York media practically considers Odom, a Queens native, a Knick territorial draft choice in 2004.

On the Clippers’ last trip, the media swarmed all over the young players. Odom, who’s usually more diplomatic, told Bloomberg News that Sterling had promised to spend whatever it took to build a winner, but added:

“He might’ve been caught up in the moment. I’m not going to say I don’t believe him, but time will tell.”

And Miles said, “If the Clippers keep Lamar Odom, the Clippers will keep all of us. If they let Lamar go, I’ll be gone two years after that.”

Actually, it would only be one year, but Miles is new and doesn’t know the bargaining agreement inside and out yet.

The good part for the Clippers and Sterling is, not only do they have this exciting nucleus, they’ll also be at least $10 million under the salary cap.

What they need is a big-ticket veteran the kids can lean on, who can get them to the next level, which, in their case, is the .500 mark. Someone approaching free agency, like Atlanta’s Dikembe Mutombo or Toronto’s Antonio Davis, whom they should start trying to get now on a sign-and-trade.

Offering one young prospect and the disappointing but still 7-0, 275-pound and athletic Olowokandi should get them in the ballpark. Olowokandi still has an upside, but they have quite enough kids to develop without him.

Of course, this would mean being aggressive, not to mention making $100-million guarantees.

What they don’t need is the usual weak, half-hearted, frugal, indecisive stuff.

If they’re ever going to have a time, it’s just starting.

(Oh, Falk is Mutombo’s agent too.)

FACES AND FIGURES

What’s the difference between a billionaire and an idiot? It’s easier to get the idiot’s attention: Dallas’ out-of-control owner, Mark Cuban, went off on the referees again, ordering a replay frozen on the scoreboard TV screen to show how the Mavericks were most recently cheated in a home loss to the Detroit Pistons. Commissioner David Stern, who had fined him $5,000, $15,000 and $25,000, decided it wasn’t working and kicked it all the way up to $250,000. Typically, Cuban, who may become the first man to have the last word at his own funeral, didn’t get it.

“Actually, I’m glad the fine was for $250K rather than, let’s say, $50K,” he wrote in an e-mail to NBATalk.com. “It will generate lots of press and, sure, the sports columnists will start off by calling me crazy or stupid, but the reality is, the majority of articles will . . . go on to talk about how well the Mavs are doing and in doing so generate a lot more Mavs awareness and fans across the country.”

OK, he’s crazy. The Mavericks are doing well, although that has much more to do with Don Nelson, Michael Finley, Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash than it does with Cuban. Suggestion for Stern: This is fun. Let’s take a million next time and see what he says. . . . Meanwhile, Nelson underwent successful surgery for prostate cancer and is expected to convalesce for six to eight weeks at his Maui home. Nelson joked all the way into the operating room, even about the medication that made him ill. “They want you to feel worse before the surgery,” he said. “So you feel better when you come out, no matter what.”

Phoenix Coach Scott Skiles, on Kobe Bryant: “He’s got a level of commitment to his game and to wanting to be the best that few guys have. Nobody on our team has that commitment, that’s for sure.” . . . Cavalier guard Trajan Langdon, formerly of Duke, on the Rockets’ Steve Francis, a Maryland alum: “The knock against him in college was his outside shooting. He could hit them every now and then, but now he’s really knocking them down from out there.”

San Antonio’s Steve Kerr got a rare start, what with Avery Johnson and Antonio Daniels out, but the other four guys couldn’t find him to huddle up before the opening tip. “I don’t know the routine,” Kerr said. “The last time I started a game was in Cleveland in 1992. Eight years. That must be some kind of record.”

Seattle’s hard-partying Gary Payton, whose durability is legendary--he has missed two games in 10-plus seasons and is always among the leaders in minutes--scored 15 points total in two SuperSonic losses, slowed by a groin injury. “I told him that injuries will take a little longer to heal,” said Coach Nate McMillan, Payton’s former teammate. “He has to take care of his body. I told him things will change. Injuries that used to take a day to heal will take a week. Injuries that used to take a week to heal will take two or three weeks. He still thinks he can play through them.”

Chicago’s Brad Miller, on being called for a foul for going over Tim Duncan’s back: “I can’t help it if I can’t jump.”