Brand Takes It to Next Level

As campaigns go, the Clippers’ effort on behalf of Elton Brand’s All-Star candidacy rivaled the big boys.

Not the big boys like George W. Bush and Karl Rove. With Brand running sixth among West forwards, it was more like Al Gore and John Kerry.

Happily for the Clippers, their anxiety is just one more leftover from their grisly past, when they might not have been able to get Michael Jordan on the All-Star team.

Brand is a lock. They aren’t the old Clippers (yet) and he isn’t the old Brand who merely got 20 points and 10 rebounds his first six seasons in the league.

“Every night you can pencil in 20 and 10 and now all of a sudden you can pencil in 25 and 11,” says former coach Alvin Gentry, now a Phoenix assistant. “You know, that’s a pretty big jump for a guy like him that’s already putting up massive numbers.”

The difference is Brand’s new, mid-range jump shot. As a 6-foot-8 post player, he got by on sheer warrior attitude against bigger players, so opposing coaches such as Portland’s Mike Dunleavy put even bigger players on him, such as 7-3 Arvydas Sabonis.

The Warriors now call rookie Ike Diogu, a smaller low-post powerhouse at 6-7, “little Elton Brand.” Meanwhile, Brand has become “little Karl Malone.”

When Dunleavy came here, he suggested Brand move his game outside as Malone did in his 30s. Brand has anything but a picture release -- ball back in his palm, flat trajectory -- but after taking thousands of shots in practice, a lot more began going in. Now he can make a living from 15 feet, obliging opponents to come out so he can beat them off the dribble too.

Dunleavy also suggested that he slim down as opposed to bulking up. Of course, if everyone charged off and did what Dunleavy said he could save a fortune on antacids.

“You talk to a lot of guys about doing a lot of things and it goes in one ear and out the other,” Dunleavy says. “In his case, about a week later he started working on stuff and changed his whole body. Didn’t miss a workout the whole summer.

“And voila, here he is.”

Brand is on everyone’s early list of MVP candidates and a cinch for the 2008 Olympic team under his college coach, Mike Krzyzewski, who’ll appreciate having at least one player who won’t complain about the three-year commitment and his playing time.

Brand is the kind of star coaches dream of, not to mention fathers. You could call him low maintenance, if he required any.

“He’s no maintenance at all,” Dunleavy says. “Almost the other way. You’ve got to stop him from working too hard at times. ‘What are you doing here? Shut it down already.’ ”

A stand-up guy, Brand always talks after losses, learns reporters’ names and greets them personally. In Peekskill, N.Y., the economically depressed blue-collar town where he grew up, he was a local icon like George Washington. His high school coach, Joe Panzanaro, once said, “One day I’d like to be as mature as Elton was when he was 14.

“We have at Peekskill at times struggled with academic eligibility,” Panzanaro said. “During the year they have to have a 70 average to play. During three of the four years that Elton was there, the team had a 90 average. We’ve never had that, before or since.”

Clipper history, such as it is, began to turn -- slowly -- when Elgin Baylor acquired Brand from Chicago in a draft-day deal in 2001. Of course, they almost blew it.

In the summer of 2003, after owner Donald T. Sterling opted to let Brand become a restricted free agent rather than extend his contract, Brand signed an offer sheet with Miami -- one of seven Clipper free agents who tried to leave.

Brand even called Sterling and reportedly asked him to let him go.

“The truth is, I called him to see what he’s going to do, if he’s going to match,” Brand says. “Because I heard he was going to match, but I didn’t believe he was going to match.

“So I asked him and he said, in his own way, ‘Yeah, I love you.’ ”

What’s love got to do with it? Brand had to return to a 27-win team that had just lost five of the seven free agents, matching on him and Corey Maggette, committed to five seasons (Brand’s six-year deal had an opt-out after five) in Clipper red, white and blue, or as Ron Harper once put it, “in jail.”

Being Elton Brand, he never complained.

“I just thought I was still a young guy,” Brand says. “I thought, ‘I’m still young and we can still turn this thing around.’

“I really, truly believe that. I understand salary caps. I understand talent levels. I understand teams don’t win with just young players.”

Six-plus seasons in the NBA and he hasn’t finished .500 yet, so this is the chance he’s waited his whole 26-year-old life for.

He’s the Clippers’ through 2008. May all the tides turn and they finally prove worthy of him.

Faces and Figures

Sir Walter Raleigh threw his cape across a puddle for a lady, but if he played in the NBA and went into the stands for her, David Stern would suspend him too. New York’s Antonio Davis just got five games for going into the stands to protect his wife. With everyone mindful of last season’s fracas in Auburn Hills, Mich., Knick President Isiah Thomas called it “just.” ... Davis, a respected veteran, was applauded until videotape showed his wife, Kendra, who had previous spats with Chicago GM Jerry Krause, Latrell Sprewell and a Toronto writer, standing over the fan who was supposedly threatening her, 22-year-old Michael Axelrod, who was the one who called security. Axelrod threatened to sue but said he’d settle for an apology. Antonio and Kendra said they’d only apologize if he did, although Kendra admitted the main problem was another fan, who intervened, not Axelrod.... Too bad Stern can’t bar Kendra, instead. Antonio winds up sticking up for her by taking the rap.... On behalf of the Laker and Heat press corps, thanks to Bill Russell for getting Shaquille O’Neal over his snit at Kobe Bryant. Russell learned his lesson the hard way: Despite what he told O’Neal about his warm relationship with the late Wilt Chamberlain, they had a feud a lot worse than this one. Russell and Chamberlain were close friends until Russell, about to retire, told a sorority group in a speaking engagement at the University of Wisconsin that Chamberlain should never let an injury force him out of their last meeting in Game 7 of the 1969 Finals. They then went 25 years without talking before finally making up.... Utah’s Carlos Boozer, who hasn’t played since Feb. 14, asked Olympic team boss Jerry Colangelo to consider him. Said a Utah insider: “If there’s an injured list at the Olympics, Carlos wants to be on it.”

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Forward thinking

Voting through Jan. 19 for the Western Conference forwards for the NBA All-Star game on Feb. 19:

Tracy McGrady, Houston...1,571,867

Tim Duncan, San Antonio...1,269,683

Kevin Garnett, Minnesota...1,203,726

Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas...530,291

Pau Gasol, Memphis...517,161

Carmelo Anthony, Denver...343,038

Elton Brand, Clippers...317,426

Amare Stoudemire, Phoenix...218,782

Shawn Marion, Phoenix...217,157

Lamar Odom, Lakers...179,681