Maggette Activated for Game

Ninety minutes before the Clippers played San Antonio Monday night, swingman Corey Maggette was told he would be activated for the game by Rob Brown, assistant director of communications.

Maggette had been placed on the injured list after suffering a concussion caused by an elbow from Atlanta center Dikembe Mutombo on Jan. 13. The five games that he sat out extended over a two-week period.

“It’s great to be back,” said Maggette, who averaged 7.5 points and 3.5 rebounds in 35 games. “Our team has been playing hard, but we haven’t been executing at the end.

“I just want to get back in shape, which probably will take a while. But I think I can bring energy and do what I always do.”

To make roster room for Maggette, the Clippers placed backup point guard Earl Boykins on the injured list. Boykins, who provided the Clippers with a spark off the bench since being activated on Jan. 7, averaged 6.5 points and 3.2 assists in 10 games.

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Before the Clippers hired him last August, Coach Alvin Gentry served a few weeks as an assistant under San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich.

“I was really looking forward to being in San Antonio,” Gentry said. “I just thought it was a good situation. My wife is from there, and we have a home there. It has a good comfort level for me.”

Gentry was able to accept the Clipper job as easily as he did because of his close relationship with Popovich, whom he got to know when he was an assistant at Kansas and worked with Popovich for nearly a season.

“[Popovich] was all for me being with [San Antonio], but he also knew I wanted to be a head coach and never stood in the way,” Gentry said. “He always said, ‘If you can get the head coaching job, don’t worry about getting out of your contract here.’ ”

Gentry, who after being fired by the Detroit Pistons before the end of the 1999-2000 season also had a chance to become an assistant with Atlanta before accepting the Clippers’ job, said it’s all part of being a coach in the NBA.

“Very few guys get to stay at one place up to 10 years,” Gentry said. “Like [Utah Coach] Jerry [Sloan], that doesn’t happen very often. One of the things about being an NBA coach . . . more than likely, you will be moving around.”