Is This the Don of an Old Era?

Donald T. Sterling

Sterling World Plaza

Beverly Hills, Calif.

Dear Donald,

You still here?

Just kidding. I know you aren’t going, no matter how much Tim Leiweke wanted you to.

No, I don’t know why Leiweke said he might boot you out of Staples Center, because you guys were deep in negotiations for a 10-year sweetheart lease, which has since been agreed to.

In any case, the bottom line is: We’re stuck with you -- er, you’re here through 2014!

What can I say but yippee! Where else could I get two columns a year? You’ve heard people saying they’re Googling? I’ve got 10 more years of Donalding.

But I can’t be selfish. We have to consider the people who don’t get anything out of your continued stewardship of the Clippers, meaning everybody else around here.

Of course, my thoughts are always with you, but things have been wild around here, what with Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and Phil Jackson splitting up. I know you heard something about it because you almost wound up with Kobe.

Actually, Kobe might have been well advised to sign with you, because you have the better supporting cast and he wouldn’t have had to hear how he ran off Shaq and Phil all the time.

However, he’d have had to take $30 million less, and then, there was you.

Not that you did anything wrong. On the contrary, you did everything right, offering a maximum deal, even impressing Kobe in person. The problem was that $30 million, and your reputation coming back to bite you at the end, when certain key advisors told Kobe to trust the proven organization.

Unfortunately, pursuing Kobe meant putting your franchise on hold for a year. Luckily, that was OK for everyone but your coaches, players and paying customers, because it has been on hold for the 22 years you’ve owned it.

Now for the good news: If this season loomed as another experiment in depression, this team is starting to look like your 2001-02 club that got everyone so excited.

Everyone knew Shaun Livingston had a chance to be special and Chris Wilcox was a comer. No one knew Bobby Simmons was a comer, or that you’d get so much from Mikki Moore, who was best known for his pet pythons, and Quinton Ross, who wasn’t known for anything.

In another surprise, this team has spirit, which Elton Brand attributes to Mike Dunleavy’s buoyant personality. Dunleavy was even OK with drafting Livingston out of high school, a daring move for a Clipper coach in his second season.

Let’s put it this way, of your 11 coaches before him, only four made it back for Year 3.

Now for the really good news: Even you can’t mess this up for the next year or two, because all the top guys, except Simmons, are locked up through the summer of 2006!

There’s just one little problem ...

In another upset, this time it’s not you, exactly.

However, after 22 seasons, you don’t just have a losing record, 590-1,182, you have a culture of losing. That’s hard to change, especially in the absence of leadership from the top.

You always sank the ship all by yourself, by letting players go. (Remember Lamar Odom, Darius Miles, Quentin Richardson and Michael Olowokandi from 2001-02? They’re doing fine and said to say thanks for the memories.)

Nevertheless, there are other pitfalls. Your organization has always had high turnover, with turf wars to settle the real burning issue, which is not, “How do we get better?” but, “Who takes the fall for this?”

This team isn’t there yet, with a second-year project at center, a point guard of the future who just turned 19 and no outside shooting (No. 26 in three-pointers). In the West, a promising young team that needs a couple of pieces can lose 50 games. The Suns, who look so good with one new piece, Steve Nash, lost 53 last season.

So, in the season or two it takes this team to be ready to contend, you’re going to need stability.

Good luck. You’ll need it.

Still here, after all these years,

Mark

Faces and Figures

The Fish Who Ate San Antonio (cont.): Derek Fisher, now with Golden State, returning for the first time since making his miracle shot last spring, was booed by Spur fans every time he touched the ball. “I didn’t want to get too emotional for tonight’s game,” Fisher said, “but when the fans give you a nice welcome like that, it’s hard not to.”

See you: Denver’s Jeff Bzdelik, who dangled for weeks last summer, is now coaching game to game, while struggling Carmelo Anthony fires away at him. Said Anthony after a 20-point loss in Seattle: “I think the game plan was -- I don’t know what the game plan was, to be honest with you.... Once Coach made substitutions at the end, with like five or six minutes left, I knew we gave up as a team.” Bzdelik’s heir apparent is Michael Cooper, whose NBA coaching career should be starting the next time the Nuggets lose three in a row.

Consider the source: Anthony, wearing a T-shirt asserting John Kerry shouldn’t have conceded, said he didn’t vote.

After starting 0-2, including a 34-point loss to Boston in the home opener, the New York Knicks went into panic mode with President Isiah Thomas replacing Coach Lenny Wilkens’ top assistant, Dick Helm, with his own henchman, Brendan Suhr. The newly rearranged staff played musical chairs before the next game, with Suhr taking Mark Aguirre’s seat and what the New York Post called “an icy staredown” before Aguirre, another assistant, found another seat -- in the second row. Suggesting that the Knicks had reached the status of civic disgrace, Mayor Michael Bloomberg noted they’re “going to struggle,” suggesting that corporate owner Cablevision, which is running commercials opposing the proposed West Side sports complex, “would be better off spending their money [on the Knicks] than these ridiculous ads.” The new Gotham favorite is not Stephon Marbury or Jamal Crawford but high-flying rookie Trevor Ariza, the second-round pick from UCLA, who had 14 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals in 21 minutes in his Madison Square Garden debut. “I’m happy about that,” Ariza said of his reception. “They love me like that and I love them too.”

Proving you don’t have to be young to be clueless, Minnesota’s Sam Cassell, 34, is pouting because he didn’t get an extension. Coach Flip Saunders benched Sam I Am at the end of the home loss to Indiana for ignoring his orders.

Then there’s the Chicago triangle of Coach Scott Skiles, 40, Eddy Curry, 21, and Tyson Chandler, 22, in which Skiles keeps zinging the young players. After one game, Curry’s mom and his two new agents (you don’t think he’s a little over-entouraged, do you?) said he wanted out, which Curry denied the next day.

Wrapped-way-too-tight Ron Artest’s annual reformation foundered when he began flipping out at Coach Rick Carlisle, arguing with Pacer teammates and sitting in the stands while out of games. Finally, Carlisle suspended him for two games with pay. Artest said the problem was asking for time off to promote a new album, which, he told the press, “will be out Nov. 23” on TruWarier Records. Artest also is the label’s CEO. Carlisle, bristling at questions about Artest after being routed by the Clippers: “I think I’ve made a statement about it. It’s pretty clear and concise and as much as I’m going to comment about it. This isn’t the Cuban missile crisis. It’s not life or death. It’s not about national security.” Seriously, isn’t it great to have these guys back?