A Startling Development: Sterling Makes His Move

Donald T. Sterling

Sterling World Plaza

Beverly Hills, Calif.

Dear Donald,

I’m speechless.

Sincerely,

Mark Heisler

P.S. Well, not completely speechless.

I have to give it to you, you may not be the best basketball owner that ever came down the pike, or one of the top 100,000, but when it comes to real estate development, which is what this was, to biding your time . . . and biding more time . . . and juxtaposing yourself between the dueling titans, Fox and Disney, until you’ve squeezed out the very best package both had to offer, that’s something you can do.

This is a real coup. It’s nothing like what Jerry Buss is getting--a new arena to play in and $50 million to $70 million for 25% of his team--but then Buss had to build the Lakers into one of Southern California’s prime brand names, like the Dodgers or Disneyland. You ran your team into the ground and you’re going to play in the same arena for the same capital investment. In other words, it’s free, free, free!

I hear you even talked them into giving you

$1 million a year in luxury box income, despite the fact that having your team there might sell one additional suite, to Billy Crystal. (I’d love to see the brochure they’ll make up: great shots of Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Rob Blake, and a distant view of your team in action--presumably at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, so there’ll be some people in the seats--so as not to risk the embarrassment of running someone’s picture who has left as a free agent by the time Staples opens. Remember all those Brent Barry ads? Whatever happened to him? Is Bill Fitch still not playing him?)

I can hardly wait for your ’99 opener. Of course, the Lakers and Kings already will have opened, but there should be enough fans who couldn’t get into those, who would come out if it was Crenshaw vs. Manual Arts, to pack the place.

What a sight! What a thrill!

What happens then?

Oh yeah, there’s that. Well, you’re just going to have to field a basketball team.

No, what you have isn’t a team. You have some things that real teams do, talented players other teams would like to get their hands on (and, at your current pace, probably will), a hard-bitten coach who has won elsewhere, dedicated front-office people who live with the embarrassment of being a Clipper and keep coming back, as one said, “because we just want to be here on the day that it’s cool.”

You might remember, I dropped you a note about this a couple of weeks ago. Afterward, one of your employees whom I didn’t know said he wanted to shake my hand. One of your old players left a message on my machine, congratulating me.

Not that I had any illusions about reaching you--but I did try to keep it incredibly simple, so anyone could follow it. Unfortunately, the next time I saw you, you told me, “I didn’t understand what that was all about.”

OK, let’s try it again.

Let’s deal with one fundamental managerial principle: You must instill a sense of purpose in your organization.

Now let’s break that down.

“You” refers to you, Donald T. Sterling, owner of the Clippers.

“Must” means this is necessary.

“Instill” means to impart or put in.

“A” is an article, connecting the next word:

“Sense” means a spirit.

“Of” is a preposition, connecting the next word:

“Purpose” is a reason for doing something, a mission.

“In” is another preposition.

“Your” is an adjective, meaning of you (Donald T. Sterling).

“Organization” means the entire body of your basketball team (the Clippers).

I know this was kind of basic, but we need a starting point. After that, we can go back to our discussions of questions such as: Does playing in a near-empty arena demoralize your players?

(I thought it did. You thought it didn’t, because they’re professionals. I said the other teams have professionals too, who get to play in front of lots of people at home, which makes them feel like they’re doing something important and must be important, themselves. This helps them suck it up and do hard stuff, like try, and listen to Coach.)

But we’ll take up things such as “pride” and offering Jerry West 20% of your franchise later.

Of course, I know your reputation for tenacity. There are gila monsters that can’t hang on like you can. I remember when we had an hourlong debate-stalemate at camp in La Jolla last fall. After I limped off, I told your guys, “I knew I was in trouble when I heard myself saying the same thing for the third time.”

But, I digress.

Congratulations on getting this one right. I feel really good about this. I feel like we’re communicating, at last.

THIS SPRING COULD WE TRY KEEPING OUR EYE ON BALL?

At this time of year, we like to take a deep breath, look back at the season and sigh:

Thank heaven that’s over.

Say goodbye to contrived meaning and poseurs. No more message games, payback, Latrell Sprewell, Wizard arrests, arrested Wizards asking management to acquire Sprewell, Penny Hardaway bulletins (Penny has a hangnail and will miss the rest of the century), Rick Pitino trading someone he just acquired and checking the box scores to see how many of his 30 shots Antoine Walker made, 10 or 12.

No more “respect.” This means you, Nick Van Exel. It isn’t something you can win, you have to nurture it within yourself. Your all-star selection was supposed to be about putting your past behind you. Now it’s your suspension. They hit you too hard, but who said everything was fair? Monty Williams got two games, too, and he never pushed a referee that I heard of.

No more bulletins on one’s plans to attend acting school so one can direct one’s own commercial. That means you, Shaq. (Do they at least have PE classes there so you can work on your free throws between method and free expression?)

No more ruing, “We didn’t come ready,” Lakers. Even people in the organization think you don’t play hard enough often enough, that there are too many nights when you expect the opposition to turn and flee from the wonder of you. If you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of teams out there that have been to the rodeo.

It’ll be only winning and losing. If you win, you can say anything you want (you wrote us off, no one believed in us, we have the greatest character in the history of character, etc.).

If you lose, you can’t say anything, except in the case of some of you, goodbye. This is real. The rest is window dressing.

FACES AND FIGURES

Our annual Iconoclast Awards (Our motto: We might be wrong a lot, but we’re always sure we’re right): MVP--Michael Jordan, Chicago. Karl Malone had a great season and Jordan was sub-par, but I’m with Danny Ainge who says, “Anyone who votes for somebody other than Michael Jordan should have his ballot taken away.”

Coach of the Year--I said I’d vote for Pitino but I have to go for Cleveland’s Mike Fratello, who performed as great a miracle with a younger roster and not only surprised everyone by making the playoffs, but breezed in. Honorable mention in fast company: Pitino, Larry Bird, Phil Jackson, Jerry Sloan, George Karl, Ainge. Special mention: Del Harris, who held up and kept his head up, despite everything.

Rookie of the Year--Tim Duncan, San Antonio. Duh.

Most Improved--Nick Anderson, Orlando. Averaged eight points before the break, 24 after it, keeping the Magic in the hunt. I’d say that was pretty good improvement. Beats Corliss Williamson, Alan Henderson and Donyell Marshall (nice try with the PR agency; maybe they’ll give you a discount on next season’s all-star push).

Sixth Man--It was Bryant at the break but Seattle’s 37-year-old Dale Ellis at the wire. Ellis was unbelievable, at 49.7%, outshooting every guard and all but three small forwards--despite taking almost 40% of his shots from three-point range.

Defensive player of the year--Bo Outlaw, Orlando. Dennis Rodman with fewer rebounds but no suspensions. Didn’t he used to play around here?

First team All-NBA: O’Neal, Malone, Jordan, Grant Hill (note to Bill Walton: Scottie Pippen????) and Gary Payton, five no-brainers.

The Bulls are already breaking up! Trainer Chip Schaefer, who once worked under Paul Westhead at Loyola Marymount, announced his resignation. No word on whether Jordan is willing to return with another trainer. . . . Riley says he’ll match any offer to re-sign Brent Barry but has little use for him now. In a recent five-game span, Barry didn’t get off the bench in four. . . . The price for 11-point-a-game centers just went up: The 76ers say this summer’s first priority is not getting Allen Iverson to extend his contract but re-signing Theo Ratliff, who averaged 11 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.4 blocks--and is expected to get $7 million to $9 million a year. “We love him,” Coach Larry Brown says. “Signing him is a must.”

Background on that rumble in San Antonio: Before the Lakers arrived, the Spurs were called wimps for not backing up the fallen David Robinson in Utah, on talk radio, in letters to the papers, even by Robinson’s father, Ambrose. “I’m very frustrated that nobody took up for him,” Ambrose said. “It upset me more than his being hit. Pat Riley would have fined every player $10,000 for not standing up for him. It doesn’t make any difference if it was intentional or not.” . . . Robinson said his teammates should respond with class, as the Bulls did when they beat Detroit’s Bad Boys. The Spurs can do it too, if they get a lot better or the Jazz gets a lot worse.

Piston locker-room attendant Eddie Rivero, flattered at being included by Brian Williams, who said everyone in the organization shares the blame, right down to him: “I guess I haven’t been mopping the floor right or keeping their underwear clean enough. Brian’s right. I need to work harder. I promise I will be better next year.”