Baron Davis best remembered for sunroof assist to Blake Griffin

Unfortunately for Baron Davis, his most memorable moment during 21/2 forgettable seasons with the Clippers was throwing a pass through a sunroof to Blake Griffin. …

Not even Donald Sterling could heckle that. …

Two games into their stretch run, Pau Gasol and the Lakers have put the Calamity in Cleveland behind them. …

Clippers announcer Mike Smith, during Wednesday’s telecast, said that Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets should have been the NBA’s most valuable player in 2008, noting that 2008 MVP Kobe Bryant should have won “three or four” other times. …

Bryant, a distant second to LeBron James two years ago, never finished higher than third in the voting before 2008. …

Their failure to land Carmelo Anthony worked out remarkably well for the New Jersey Nets, who wound up with a more valuable player in point guard Deron Williams. …

Or, as Nets Coach Avery Johnson told reporters in New Jersey, “Very rarely are you able to trade for somebody who is arguably — arguably — the best at their position.” …

The impressive resolve shown by Jonathan Quick and the Kings during a gruelingly long trip bodes well for the playoffs, provided they continue pushing and bull their way in. …

Is this the year James Loney finally shows some sock? …

NCAA investigators have given Tennessee fans yet another reason to think unkindly of Lane Kiffin. …

North Carolina was only 8-5 last fall but had 12 players invited to the NFL Scouting Combine, more than any other team. …

With Andrew Luck back in class at Stanford, Missouri’s Blaine Gabbert and Auburn’s Cam Newton are generally considered the top two quarterback prospects in the draft. …

Amen to former NFL running back Tiki Barber, who says in favor of a rookie wage scale, “Too much money is wasted making millionaires out of young, unproven players who never contribute to their team, much less the game as a whole.” …

Saturday’s San Diego State-Brigham Young showdown might be the most highly anticipated college basketball game in San Diego since 1975, when UCLA topped Kentucky at the San Diego Sports Arena to win its 10th NCAA title in John Wooden’s final game. …

Kyrie Irving of Duke, sidelined since early December because of a toe injury, is unsure whether he’ll return for the NCAA tournament but tweeted recently that he is “op(toe)mistic.” …

No offense to Ed and Charles O’Bannon, reader Robert K. Oates of Manhattan Beach e-mails to suggest, but the greatest brother act in college basketball history was Dick and Tom Van Arsdale, identical twins who each averaged 17 points and 10 rebounds a game at Indiana before launching remarkably similar 12-season NBA careers. …

Jim Brown was the greatest athlete ever to wear No. 32, according to a USA Today reader survey. …

First runners-up: Magic Johnson, Sandy Koufax. …

The National Hot Rod Assn., celebrating its 60th anniversary, demands attention simply because it has given us so many wonderfully colorful nicknames: Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen, “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, Shirley “Cha Cha” Muldowney, etc. …

The Sacramento Kings, mulling a move to Anaheim, are nothing if not well traveled, morphing from the Rochester Royals to the Cincinnati Royals to the Kansas City-Omaha Kings to the Kansas City Kings before landing in Sacramento in 1985. …

They won their only NBA title, in Rochester, 60 years ago. …

Good luck to Courtney Conlogue of Santa Ana, an 18-year-old former amateur champion making her debut on the elite Assn. of Surfing Professionals’ world tour this weekend in Australia. …

“There’s nothing more silent,” reader Jim Parsons of Canyon Lake e-mails to suggest, “than talk of when Tiger Woods is going to break Jack Nicklaus’ majors record.” …

Oliver Eslinger, whose Caltech basketball team this week ended a 310-game conference losing streak, was scheduled to serve as honorary coach of the Washington Generals on Thursday night against the Harlem Globetrotters. …

He must have felt right at home because the Generals, who last defeated the Globetrotters in 1971, took a 13,562-game losing streak into the game at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario.

jerome.crowe@latimes.com