No-Win Situation

By MARK HEISLER

March 9, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Some teams have a rendezvous with destiny. With the Clippers, it’s a rendezvous with misery.

For another team in their position--two losses away from tying the NBA record for the worst start and with a schedule that puts 0-24, the record for the longest losing streak, within sight--it would be a catastrophe.

For Donald T. Sterling’s Clippers, it’s more like the fate they’ve been rehearsing for all their lives. This isn’t a catastrophe as much as it is the season they just put everything together.

This isn’t a franchise but a gloom-enshrouded way station. In the 10 years between 1988 and 1997, they had the top pick in the draft (Danny Manning), two No. 2s (Danny Ferry, Antonio McDyess) and don’t have a single player left to show for it, not the originals or any of the eight they traded them for.

Only one Los Angeles Clipper has ever re-signed a multiyear contract, Loy Vaught, who has since gone to the Detroit Pistons, noting as former Clippers always do, “It’s just a night-and-day difference as far as the way the operation is run.”

Sterling has rehired only one coach, Bill Fitch, who got a $4-million extension and was fired a year later, before it even kicked in. (The money was guaranteed, which was one reason Sterling waited until January to put Fitch’s successor, Chris Ford, on the payroll.)

What is remarkable is how obvious the problems are, and how long standing. Players who came through from ’88 to ’97 all say the same things. They all finger the same man and it isn’t General Manager Elgin Baylor or any of their six coaches.

But for a victory over the Kings in last season’s keep-the-car-running-honey-I’ll-be-right-out finale that broke a 10-game losing streak, they’d already have smashed the league record for consecutive losses.

Whatever happens, it’s been coming for a long, long time.

Manning’s Travails

Danny Manning was supposed to be the cornerstone.

He had just led Kansas to the NCAA title when they drafted him in 1988.

His agent, the late Ron Grinker, promised Manning would leave from the day they signed--after an impasse that ended only after Commissioner David Stern told Sterling enough was enough--a vow that hung over the franchise like a rain cloud.

In 1994, with Manning months from free agency, Sterling, who had always insisted Manning would stay, let Baylor trade him. Now a Sun, Manning wishes the Clippers well. Not that what followed was any surprise to him.

“I played with a lot of players I like and I still have great friendships with today,” he says. “I met a lot of wonderful people. My two children were born here. But it can be frustrating on that side of town. . . .

“I like the talent they have, but you know, when I was there--and before me and after me--they always had players with talent but most of the time, the players were young. . . . We had a lot of young talent when I was there, a lot of first-round picks. But we didn’t have a lot of experience. We’re out on the court, in a certain situation, we can’t look down the bench to a veteran or have a veteran step in, say, do this or do that. There’s nobody there.”

Nevertheless, Manning was torn about leaving. Before his last season, he started negotiating for a long-term contract, but Grinker broke the talks off angrily, blaming team vice president Andy Roeser.

The irony, insiders say, was that Roeser had actually gone far beyond what he had been authorized to offer, putting a $25-million deal on the table.

“There were a couple things I wanted them do to,” Manning said. “I wanted them to sign back Ken Norman and Ron Harper. At the time the new arena was going up in Anaheim, the Pond. I thought that’d be a nice move for us.

“Sterling came back with, ‘You sign first and then we’ll take care of all those things.’ So that was that.”

Manning was almost traded the next fall for Glen Rice, but Sterling arrived at camp at UC Irvine that day and talked Baylor out of it.

Says Manning: “They told me not to practice. Then, I was in the training room and Sterling came in. He looked at me and said, ‘I’m not trading you. . . .’ ”

“I think he [Sterling] has been the only constant. . . . A lot of people want to fault Elgin or Andy or the coaches or the players and, to a certain extent, they are to blame, but everything trickles down from the top. He’s been the one constant.

“And I think there have been times where he’s really wanted to do something special with the organization. And I still think every now and then, he does feel like that, but, I don’t know, somehow it does not translate from the top on down.”

Dominique Comes, Goes

Dominique Wilkins was just passing through.

He was not only 34 when the Clippers got him; like Manning, he was only months away from free agency.

He was an immediate hit, scoring big numbers, leading the Clippers to several victories, even drawing big crowds. But they settled back into their rut and when Wilkins asked for a $10-million deal, they let him go.

“[Getting traded] was like damn!” says Wilkins, now with Orlando. “But you know, I gave it the benefit of the doubt. I thought, ‘Well, maybe it will change, maybe a new atmosphere will change it.’ Instead, it was a nightmare. It wasn’t professional at all.

“For the first month or so, it was good. We had some crowds. There was a good atmosphere. And then it got bad, real bad. I’d have to call it the worst time in my career. . . .

“Management, that’s the problem there. And until that organization makes some changes, it’s going to stay that way. They’ve got major, major, problems, and I’m not talking just on the court. . . .

“Over half the team was thinking that way [about getting out]. It was just such a bad situation, and they [the organization] make it that way. It’s too bad, because potentially it could be a great, great place to play. I mean, it’s L.A.”

Short ‘Hip to Clip’ Era

Olden Polynice came through at a good time, arriving in 1992 as the Clippers went on a 23-12 season-ending roll under newly arrived Larry Brown to make the playoffs for the first time since moving to town in 1984.

The Lakers were in their post-Magic Johnson slide. Everyone said this was the Clippers’ town now. It was “hip to Clip.”

Although not for long.

“When we made the playoffs, I thought they were going to build then into something positive, and it never happened,” Polynice says. “So that did surprise me. . . .

“A lot of guys kind of like use the Clipper situation to catapult themselves to something else. They’re kind of just biding their time until something better comes along. I remember the quote Ron Harper had about being in jail. . . .

“He [Sterling] is content and as an owner, that’s his right. I think unless they seriously make some drastic changes, they’re always gonna be that way because now the stigma is there. It’s there and it’s gonna stay and I doubt they’ll ever get rid of it because they’re in a city against the Los Angeles Lakers. . . .

“It all starts at the top. That’s the perception that’s out there, that it’s all within the organization, how it’s set up, and that it filters down to the players. Elgin still has a job and Elgin takes the heat, but I don’t think Elgin makes all the decisions. I think that’s a big part of it. The fact that coaches bounce in and out. . . . Guys forget who their coaches are sometimes.”

Barry, Barry Bad

Brent Barry was their glamour boy.

They got him in 1995, trading draft rights to McDyess to Denver for Barry, Brian Williams and Rodney Rogers. Williams, however, had an out clause in his contract the next summer and departed.

Barry showed dazzling talent and after he won the dunk contest as a rookie, was splashed all over the team’s advertisements, even as he languished in Fitch’s doghouse.

Penciled into the lineup for his third season, Barry played well but was traded at midseason, when it became obvious he, too, wouldn’t stay.

“I never really heard about them too much until I found out I had a chance to go there,” says Barry, now a Chicago Bull, “so I didn’t hear how bad things were. But I wasn’t there too long before I figured out there were a lot of greener pastures. . . .

“We made the playoffs that one year [1996-97]. That team probably wouldn’t have won the NBA title the next season, but when we came back, there were three players gone [free agents Bo Outlaw and Malik Sealy and Loy Vaught, who was hurt.] We felt like we had a chance to build something and we had a lot of camaraderie. . . .

“No matter what you do there, it’s like water under the bridge. That’s the Lakers’ town. . . . That’s why it would have been good to move to Anaheim. That’s why David Stern wants them to move that franchise. . . .

“I feel bad for guys like Lamond [Murray], Darrick [Martin], Pike [Eric Piatkowski]. They’ve got a lot of young players that people are licking their chops for.”

That’s your Clipper history for you. It’s like running water into a tub, with the drain open.

“The drain’s pretty big there,” says Barry. “The drain there seems to be extra large.”

Oh yes, they traded Barry for Ike Austin, another upcoming free agent. He left too.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

LOST CAUSE

LOSSES IN ROW: 15

Record: 0-15

RECORD LOSSES TO START SEASON: 17, Miami 1988-89

CLIPPER LOSSES TO START SEASON: 16, 1994-95

IN L.A. (Before 1999)

Seasons: 14

Below .500: 12