Livingston, He Presumes, Is Clipper Star in Making

He might not be worth the price of admission quite yet, because we are talking NBA prices here, and the Clippers at that.

But if Shaun Livingston’s thrilling first-half non-scoring performance Monday night against the World Champion Detroit Pistons is indication of what is to come in Staples Center, the entertainment capital has another star in the making.

Livingston, who celebrated his 19th birthday in September and who was still in high school watching the Pistons make chumps out of the Lakers in the NBA Finals, played 10 minutes in the first half, was 0 for 5 from the field and picked up three personal fouls.

You’d expect that from Devean George, but lost in the deceiving stats was Livingston’s end-to-end play, in one sequence throwing up an airball, chasing down a loose ball, making a Magic Johnson-like drive to the hoop with a scoop shot that was blocked, and then sprinting to the other end to block a shot. He missed a short jumper, the ball going in and out, jumped up to play defense and took a charge.

He had the fans on their feet, which is tough to do at a Clipper game, supporting Coach Mike Dunleavy’s prediction before the game that if the kid puts on a little more weight, the folks here might be watching another Scottie Pippen in the making on defense.

For now, he still looks like the ball boy, but his enthusiasm is contagious -- the Clippers running out to a 43-42 halftime lead on the World Champions. That’s when I went home. Why stay and maybe ruin a good story?

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THE SAINTS’ game with the San Diego Chargers was blacked out here Sunday. Since New Orleans is the team most likely to move to Los Angeles in 2008, it was good practice.

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THE SCARIEST words a Laker fan can read these days appeared in a headline in The Times on Monday: “George Getting Closer to a Return.”

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KAREEM RUSH is 0 for 7 shooting this season. If he was thinking, “I’ll show them,” after the Lakers didn’t pick up his option for next season, well, he has.

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CNNSI.COM RELEASED its first bowl projections, and it has UCLA playing Northwestern in the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31.

Only one problem: the Bruins still need one more win to become bowl-eligible, and it will probably take the greatest pregame pep talk in college football history from Coach Karl Dullard to inspire wins over Oregon and USC to put the Bruins in the Sun Bowl. A sign of life might at least give them a chance to beat Oregon.

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ESPN’S HEISMAN poll gives the edge to Oklahoma freshman running back Adrian Peterson, followed by Oklahoma quarterback Jason White. That well-known Oklahoma bias. The poll has my choice, USC’s Reggie Bush, sitting fifth. Forget for a moment that I’m the Trojans’ No. 1 fan, as they do, and I suggest his versatility -- and that punt return against Oregon State, put him a notch above everyone else.

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GM PAUL DEPODESTA didn’t return a call, making him no different from Kevin Malone or Dan Evans, although I don’t think Malone and Evans would’ve been so silly as to allow Sammy Sosa’s name to be linked to the Dodgers this long.

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THE FOLKS at XTRA Sports 690 & 1150 pay me, but not nearly enough to go on the air with former NBA benchwarmer Olden Polynice, charged twice for impersonating a police officer, and with Vic the Brick Jacobs, who impersonates a journalist. I agreed to go on Monday with Steve Hartman once they shut the police impersonator’s microphone off. I’d say it’s shocking to see who XTRA will put on the radio these days, but then that’s hitting a little too close to home.

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BY THE way, the guest for Sunday’s 9 a.m. father-daughter radio show on XTRA will be Clipper owner Donald Sterling. And when was the last time Sterling did a radio interview? “Not in my 13 years on the job,” said the team’s media director, Joe Safety. I guess there’s always a first time for everything, beginning right now with the mention of “first” and “Clippers” in the same sentence.

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THE BULLS paid Eddie Robinson $10 million not to honor the final two years of his contract, and now several publications suggest the Clippers are one of the teams interested in him. Robinson is considered uncoachable. So was Kobe Bryant, and they tried to sign him too.

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HERE’S MY concern about Arte Moreno trying to make it the L.A. Angels. I know he’s been talking to the folks at the NFL, teased by the prospect of getting involved with football in Orange County, and the NFL would insist on a team based in Anaheim being called the L.A. (Whatevers). He might be trying to set the precedent with his baseball team and might try to win Anaheim city approval with the promise to work on bringing the NFL to town. Something to watch.

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KEN GIBSON, 17, suffered a serious injury while making a tackle for Damien High in La Verne on Friday night, and Michael Duran e-mailed asking that word be passed on to the Gibson family that the entire Damien Spartan community is wishing his family well and keeping the young man in its prayers.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from John Awad:

“I am curious as to why you continue to denigrate, humiliate, and excoriate a gentleman like Karl Dorrell by continually printing his name as Karl Dullard. Is there something personal that he has done to you? Isn’t he at the very least allowed the dignity to be called by his proper name? Is it because he is African American that you feel you can continually abuse him in this fashion?”

No, it’s because he’s dull.

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Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.