• Our friends at ClipsNation.com are having a big sponsored game night Saturday, April 10th against the Warriors. After reading Steve’s teaser, it’s hard not to get excited. All the information about the event can be found here. I’ll definitely be there – should be a very fun evening.

• Lisa Dillman at the Times introduces you to new new General Manager, Neil Olshey.

• Since Mike Dunleavy stepped down as coach and Marcus Camby was shipped to Portland, the Clippers have had only two games where they’ve posted a defensive efficiency number under 100. Even worse, both were against bottom dweller Sacramento. Remove the head, and the body will still flail around a bit. Remove the head and the body, and what are you left with?

• Adrian Wojnarowski of Y! Sports talks about Donald Sterling: “Donald Sterling has always talked a big game, but he’s never gone after a star GM in his prime. Dunleavy leaves the franchise set up in some good ways, but Sterling doesn’t understand that winning in the NBA doesn’t come from empty words in absurdly worded press-release firings, doesn’t come with throwing red meat to a fan base that wanted the old GM embarrassed and fired on the spot.”

• Bill Plaschke, doing some true California dreamin’: “Now introducing, Clippers forward LeBron James and two of his high school chums as general manager and coach. Crazy, too, but that’s the thing about what happened Tuesday. The Clippers didn’t lose a general manager, they gained a world of possibilities.”

Vincent Bonsignore of the LA Daily News relays a fascinating exchange between Baron Davis and Donald T. Sterling before Wednesday night’s game:

Baron Davis was minding his own business walking around Staples Center on Wednesday when he ran right into Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

It was one of those awkward, boss-employee moments where the boss does most of the talking and the employee just nods his head up and down saying, “Yes, sir. You bet, sir. Absolutely, sir.”

… “It’s coming together,” Davis told Sterling, when asked how the team was doing.

“Baron, I need you to make sure it comes together,” Sterling told him, in no uncertain terms.

“Yes sir. And I believe it will,” Davis reiterated.

“Look, I’m a man who makes things happen, and I need you to make this happen,”

Yes sir,” Davis said, politely. “I’m going to make you smile; I’m going to make the fans smile.”

“You know what would make me smile?” Sterling said. “You scoring 20 points tonight. That would make me smile.”

“Then I’ll make you smile,” Davis promised.

“The thing is, I don’t need you taking 60 shots to do it,” Sterling warned.

“I won’t need that many shots,” Davis said. “So you don’t have to worry about that.”

This went on for a few more minutes, with Sterling telling Davis he has big-shot friends all over town who come to Clippers games just to watch Davis play, and how important it is for him to maximize his talents, realize his skills and pull the Clippers up with him.

Finally the conversation ended, and Davis could breathe easy again.

Bonsignore’s full column is here, and well worth your time.

ESPN the Magazine’s Peter Keating has a lenthy piece about the sordid details of Donald Sterling’s life. We’ve discussed the balancing act Clippers fans — and sports fans in general — have to perform as die-hards for their teams, and Keating’s piece will challenge some in the Naçión to confront the sublimation all of us engage in as we root on players (and by extension, owners) who might not be worthy of our support.

Much of Keating’s report on Sterling has been documented elsewhere, but the broad context in the article is strong, and the revelations indicting. Some of the lowlights:

When Sterling first bought the Ardmore, he remarked on its odor to Davenport. “That’s because of all the blacks in this building, they smell, they’re not clean,” he said, according to Davenport’s testimony. “And it’s because of all of the Mexicans that just sit around and smoke and drink all day.” He added: “So we have to get them out of here.” Shortly after, construction work caused a serious leak at the complex. When Davenport surveyed the damage, she found an elderly woman, Kandynce Jones, wading through several inches of water in Apartment 121. Jones was paralyzed on the right side and legally blind. She took medication for high blood pressure and to thin a clot in her leg. Still, she was remarkably cheerful, showing Davenport pictures of her children, even as some of her belongings floated around her.

Jones had repeatedly walked to the apartment manager’s office to plead for assistance, according to sworn testimony given by her daughter Ebony Jones in the Housing Rights Center case. Kandynce Jones’ refrigerator dripped, her dishwasher was broken, and her apartment was always cold. Now it had flooded. Davenport reported what she saw to Sterling, and according to her testimony, he asked: “Is she one of those black people that stink?” When Davenport told Sterling that Jones wanted to be reimbursed for the water damage and compensated for her ruined property, he replied: “I am not going to do that. Just evict the bitch.”

…Sterling also uses his wealth and power like many other rich and powerful men: to impose his eccentricities on others. When dining out, Sterling has on occasion recommended meals for his guests without ordering anything for himself, forcing them to then share with him. He once invited a draft pick to his Beverly Hills mansion, then conducted the meeting wearing only a bathrobe. He also regularly makes large contributions to charities — like the Special Olympics — and then when the groups honor him, he takes out self-congratulatory newspaper ads. “Sterling desperately wants people to believe he’s a good person, and if they don’t, it drives him crazy,” says a lawyer who knows him. “But he also just can’t get out of his own way.”

In 2006, Sterling announced plans to build a sprawling homeless-services center in the midst of LA’s Skid Row. One newspaper ad for the project showed a vacant-eyed redheaded child, whom locals took to calling Zombie Girl. Another declared that the Donald T. Sterling Charitable Foundation would develop a “state-of-the-art $50 million dollar [sic]” project for “over 91,000 homeless people.” It featured a photo of a smiling Sterling above the quote “Please don’t forget the children, they need our help.” But while Sterling spent $8.4 million to buy several properties at Sixth and Wall streets, he has yet to move forward with his plans to help the homeless. Some advocates now believe that Sterling is waiting for them to foot the cost of the center. Others suspect he may never build it at all, and has bought the land, as he’s done so often, simply because he expected the area to gentrify and its value to rise.

But it’s the people who work for Sterling and live in his buildings who say they bear the worst of his unconventional behavior. For years he has run semianonymous ads (crude design jobs he reportedly mocks up himself) seeking “hostesses” for Clippers events and his private parties. In a Times ad last summer, Sterling’s company solicited “attractive females” to bring a résumé and photo to his address, where employees reviewed their looks. Some of the women who have gone through this process found it humiliating. “Working for Donald Sterling was the most demoralizing, dehumanizing experience of my life,” says a hostess from the 1990s who says she helped set up “cattle calls” to find other women to work the job. “He asked me for seminude photos and made it clear he wanted more. He is smart and clever but manipulative.”

Former Los Angeles Times Clippers beat writer, Jonathan Abrams, has a story in his new outfit, the New York Times, on Elgin Baylor:

Baylor faces an uphill legal battle. Although his authority waned in recent seasons, he was a team executive for 22 years — a span that other general managers could only dream of matching…

The allegations in the lawsuit surfaced only after Baylor left his job. He said he was fired; the organization said he resigned.

After another dismal season in 2007-8, the Clippers’ president, Andy Roeser, presented Baylor with a take-it-or-leave offer to stay for a year as a consultant for $10,000 a month, said Carl E. Douglas, Baylor’s lawyer.

Baylor, who declined to comment for this article, left it.

“They wanted him to basically act like Joe Louis at the Caesars Palace after his career and to basically be a meeter-and-greeter, to take advantage of his popularity in Los Angeles basketball spheres,” Douglas said. “In many ways, he needed the job. He loved basketball. He loved living in L.A. And at 74 years old, his options were not wide and great.”

The lawsuit alleges that Sterling described Baylor as “a token” and wanted the team to be composed of “poor black kids from the South” with a white head coach. In 1988, according to the lawsuit, Sterling told the No. 1 draft pick, Danny Manning, “I’m offering a lot of money for a poor black kid.”

…Sterling’s legal entanglements have involved his team before. Two former Clippers coaches, Bill Fitch and Bob Weiss, ended up in salary disputes after their dismissals.

…In his suit, however, he suggests that the failures were a reflection of the unwillingness of players to sign with Sterling’s team. Despite the team’s dismal record, Baylor did not realize his power had been usurped until he discovered while digging through files early last year that Coach Mike Dunleavy had been granted general manager duties as part of a contract extension.

“The job that I loved was slowly being taken away from me, and there was never an explanation,” Baylor said when he announced the lawsuit in January.

Baylor voluntarily remained on the job at a frozen salary of $350,000 a year, while Dunleavy received a four-year contract extension for $22 million after a rare Clippers postseason appearance in 2006. Baylor told reporters that he held onto his position because few African-Americans occupied executive roles in the N.B.A.

The lawsuit does not explicitly seek compensation, and Douglas said only that he and Baylor were seeking “justice.”

…As an executive from his seats near the baseline, he often derided the play of his team and criticized Dunleavy to nearby reporters, always ending with a quick, “That’s off the record.”

There’s not much new to report here, though it’s a timely reminder that, Alvin Gentry a notable exception, there’s an unsettling record of hostile departures by coaches and executives. At a moment when, by all indications, the Clippers are courting candidates to work beside or in tandem with Mike Dunleavy, that history can’t help the recruiting process.  It’s reductive to dismiss the Clippers’ efforts to bring on talent with “Who would want to come here?” But Baylor, while he may not have a case, is a respected old lion in this league, and crossing him will have a residual cost for the Clippers.  As Jerry West told T.J. Simers, “Elgin Baylor is a good friend of mine and I certainly wouldn’t be one to succeed him.”  West may not have been a realistic — or even the right — choice for the job, but it’s a reminder that burning bridges has consequences beyond the present. Smart people join losing organizations all the time, but they do so with the reassurance that, even if they fail, their eventual departure will be clean and dignified.

From Chris Sheridan of ESPN.com:

NEW YORK — Isiah Thomas is actively seeking work again, and he spoke several weeks ago with Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling in a meeting arranged by current coach/general manager Mike Dunleavy, ESPN.com learned Wednesday.

Several NBA sources confirmed the February meeting between the former president and general manager of the New York Knicks, adding that there were follow-up discussions between Thomas and other high-ranking club officials — but also stressing that no job has been offered.

Sterling is said to be considering adding another executive to the Los Angeles front office to alleviate some of Dunleavy’s responsibilities in his dual role as coach and general manager. Former Lakers and Grizzlies general manager Jerry West was linked to a possible Clippers front office job before he publicly disavowed any interest.

The discussions between Thomas and the Clippers were described by one source as informal yet substantive. Thomas remains under contract to the Knicks for the remainder of this season and two more, but he has the franchise’s permission to seek employment elsewhere. He was fired as Knicks coach and general manager last spring and was replaced by Donnie Walsh in the front office and Mike D’Antoni on the bench.

One source with knowledge of Thomas’ thinking said it now appears he has shifted his focus to pursuing a head coaching position at the college level. The same source said Thomas’ name was discussed at the highest levels of the Grizzlies organization when Memphis fired Marc Iavaroni earlier this season.

Thomas’ stint running the Knicks was as unsuccessful as it was uncomfortable. He hired and then fired Lenny Wilkins and Larry Brown, was a defendant in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former marketing executive that MSG lost and was the object of taunts, protects and chants from disgruntled fans throughout 2007-08.

He has still not commented publicly on the circumstances surrounding an overdose of sleeping pills that hospitalized him last October, but he has not been keeping a low profile. He was spotted two weeks ago scouting the Pac-10 tournament and told The Associated Press: “I’ve still been very active, seeing a lot of games and doing a lot of scouting and looking forward to helping Donnie with the draft.”

I spent more time Wednesday thinking about the Los Angeles Clippers than I wanted to.  Tuesday night’s loss combined with the Sterling incident, and Chris’ bitching have produced a sulfurous funk, what Simmons calls the stench, around the team.  Clippers fans, with rare exceptions, are accustomed to the layer of gloom that hangs over the franchise, but most of it can be managed with a long sigh, shake of the head, and a resigned laugh.  It’s what Clippers fans do.  But something shifted overnight Tuesday, and by Wednesday afternoon, the climate had changed, even for the most patient among us.

There’s a very low threshold of expectation among Clippers fans.  Other than the tail end of Maurice Taylor’s time with the team, the losing has always been tolerable.  Most of those Clippers teams lacked talent, but that wasn’t their fault.  Some of those squads actually overachieved [the 39-win 2001-02 team] given the composition of their rosters.

Wednesday felt like rock bottom, like franchise armageddon, and it triggered a strong sentiment that I’ve been trying to sublimate, even though Kelly Dwyer has made it difficult: This team is loathsome, and nobody — not even Clippers fans — has an infinite supply of resilience.

My thoughts differ from the hard-line fatalism that dominates most public conversations about the franchise.  I find arguments that begin and end with some immutable belief that the team is destined for eternal failure irrational. Any franchise that’s willing to make a material commitment to building a roster can assemble one that can win. For the Clippers, ownership granted its consent for that strategy a few years back.  It isn’t fate that’s sentenced the franchise to failure.  It’s real life events — personnel decisions and performance.  Curses and superstition are facile interpretations of reality.

This doesn’t mean that reversing course is easy.  One revelation of Wednesday is a hardened belief that incrementalism won’t work.  A wholesale approach can sometimes render harsh sentences.  I honestly don’t believe that Mike Dunleavy is a bad tactical coach, but that doesn’t really matter anymore.  It may not be entirely his fault, and it’s possible there aren’t more than a handful of people on the planet who could make this thing work. There might even be situations where Dunleavy could win again, but this doesn’t appear to be one of them.

After Elton Brand’s about-face, Baron Davis is owed a karmic favor, and that should be worth something.  I still believe that Baron is the kind of player who can develop that veteran ability of recognizing physical limitations and employing experience to compensate for any diminishing capacity.  Under a new regime, I think he could make that happen in a Clippers uniform, but he’ll have to try.  Superstars perform regardless of situation, system, or context.  They stake claim to the ten hours of meaningful court time a week irrespective of the fact that ownership is insane, the coach is stifling, and the mood is morose.  Baron could compose a decent narrative for himself if he wants to. My optimism in him might be irrational, but I’m a sucker for charisma even when it’s mercurial.

Apart from that, the Clippers have as many assets as they do liabilities.  The list is familiar, and determining which is which is a matter of some debate.  Wednesday was about something else, an admission that moving forward as a loyalist will demand brutal endurance to outlast the torment, the likes of which even Clippers fans have never suffered.  Sublimation will numb only part of it.  But if the past week tells you anything, it’s that behavior and decisions provoke events, not fate.