Baylor’s Parting Words Have Stuck With Odom

Lamar Odom returns tonight to the scene of his “basketball hell.”

That’s how the versatile forward described his four seasons with the Clippers before signing a six-year, $65-million offer sheet with the Miami Heat.

When the Clippers decided not to match the offer and let Odom walk without compensation in August -- exactly what Odom wanted them to do, of course -- General Manager Elgin Baylor fired back. In an extraordinary statement, he said the decision had been “based on issues of character and other risks involved.”

Never mind that, up until the day he signed with the Heat, Odom was still in the Clippers’ plans. They had offered him a three-year, $24-million contract.

At that price, the Clippers were willing to overlook his immaturity, frequent tardiness and what they have described as a lack of professionalism, not to mention two suspensions for violating the NBA’s drug policy and injuries that derailed his last two Clipper seasons, limiting him to 78 games.

At nearly triple the price, however, and with his searing rebuke of the franchise still ringing in the ears of Baylor and owner Donald Sterling -- Odom said he had been “running in muddy waters” with the Clippers -- he became a “character risk.”

Of course, the Clippers’ penny-pinching history being what it is, their message was not interpreted exactly as they had hoped, at least in some circles.

“Translated from Clipper-speak,” wrote a Miami columnist in August, “ ‘character issues’ is another way of saying, ‘We’re really, really cheap.’ ”

Five months later, with the Heat due in Staples Center to play the Clippers, an uncomfortable Baylor declined to talk about Odom’s departure.

Asked Thursday whether he ever envisioned how Odom might have fit in this season under new Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy, he said, “I don’t even think about it.”

Oh, no?

In his hands, Baylor carried a printout of a Miami Herald article, published Thursday, that carried the headline “Odom a changed man.”

In it, Odom made clear that the events of August still are in his thoughts and that he hasn’t forgotten Baylor’s stinging words.

He revealed that in his money clip he carries a worn laminated card, given him by Heat President Pat Riley, with messages on each side.

One side reads, “Warriors do not live in the past. The past is dead. Life is now and the future is waiting.”

The other: “(Character) and other (risks).”

“I kind of walk around with it all the time,” Odom told the Herald, adding that the message also was posted in his home. “This is just a reminder. Remember what they said about you, what they think, what they feel.”

What the Heat feels about Odom is good. His character has not been questioned, Coach Stan Van Gundy all but declaring him a role model.

After Thursday night’s loss to the Utah Jazz at Salt Lake City, Odom was averaging 16.9 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3.9 assists.

“He’s like the queen on a chessboard,” Dunleavy said, referring to the 6-foot-10 Odom’s Magic Johnson-like ability to play a variety of positions. “You have this guy you can put into a number of situations to hurt other teams.”

Dunleavy, of course, would love to have coached him. When hired in July, the coach sat down with the restricted free agent, telling Odom over lunch how he planned to use him in a lineup that, Dunleavy hoped, also would include Elton Brand, Corey Maggette and free-agent point guard Gilbert Arenas.

But after matching offer sheets to retain Brand and Maggette, the Clippers were surprised by the Heat’s level of interest in Odom and, while taking their time deciding whether to match the offer, lost out on Arenas too.

Odom and the Clippers parted ways, the invective flying.

*

TONIGHT vs. Miami, 7:30, Fox Sports Net 2

Site -- Staples Center.

Radio -- XTRA (690/1150).

Records -- Clippers 16-19, Heat 15-24.

Record vs. Heat (2002-03) -- 2-0.

Update -- Quentin Richardson, who has sat out two of the last three games and played only 15 minutes in the other, is questionable because of a sprained right hand as the Clippers begin a stretch of three games in four days. “I think he’ll play this weekend,” Coach Mike Dunleavy said Thursday. “I’m not sure if it’s [tonight], Saturday [against the Lakers] or Monday [against the Sacramento Kings], but one of those games he’ll play for sure. I think he’s pretty close.”

Tickets -- (800) 462-2849.