Talk about playing in pain. For more than a decade the NBA has been the unrivaled champion of sports marketing. It has created a succession of superstars who, like Elvis, need only one name. It has transformed the slam-dunk into the pinnacle of athletic achievement and captivated the world with its Dream Team. But there is another side of the NBA, somewhere north and west of Shaq. This NBA netherworld isn’t hyped on highlight films, doesn’t show up on network broadcasts and would require an actor of Olivier’s caliber to say convincingly, “I love this game.” It’s the plethora of lousy teams (expansion will add two more, Toronto and Vancouver, next fall) with minor-league talent that seem destined to eternal failure.
The Clippers are hardly the only example; last week there were nine NBA teams with winning percentages below .375. (The National Football League, by contrast, had four out of 28.) But the Clippers are the best example with but a single winning season in the last 15. And the current version may be the worst Clippers team ever – quite possibly, says a chorus of NBA writers, the worst in NBA history. The ordeal has already exhausted coach Bill Fitch’s supply of metaphors – from a dental drilling without Novocain to the Bataan death march – and tested his faith. “If you’re a God-fearing man,” said Fitch before last week’s three-games-in-four-nights stretch in the snow belt, “you got to believe there’s a reason for everything – and it’s all for the good.”
Fitch, who is in his first year with the Clippers, is considered a first-rate teacher. That reputation has enabled him to last 22 years as an NBA head coach. (His current 12-man squad combined has just 25 years experience.) But all his experience won’t overcome a fatal lack of size and speed. “All I can tell the kids is, “Do your supermarket shopping once a week instead of every day’,” says Fitch. “You take less [fan] abuse that way.” Still, Vaught says, even a sense of humor can’t prepare a player for the shouts of “Clippers suck!” as he walks down the street. “It’s really tough to come fromwinning college programs to a place where you’re in the basement consistently,” says the former Michigan star, in his fifth season with L.A. “It’s especially hard when you’re convinced you’re a winner.”
The Clippers have repeatedly squandered talent in bad trades and personnel decisions. Three years ago, after a young Clippers team went 45-37, management balked at spending big money on long-term contracts. The coach, Larry Brown, fled to Indiana, and the team’s top seven scorers are all playing elsewhere in the NBA. Dominique Wilkins describes his departure as going “from the outhouse to the penthouse” – and that’s from his new “lofty” perch with the 16-26 Boston Celtics. Clippers executive Elgin Baylor, who has presided over the team for nine seasons, says his team is starting from scratch and this time will do it right. “No quick fixes,” he proclaims in one breath before, in the next, coveting the chance to draft a quick fix such as Shaquille O’Neal or David Robinson. L.A. point-guard Pooh Richardson says winning and losing should be secondary now to developing an organization that treats its players first-class – from salaries to training facilities to postgame food spreads. “The only way to build is step by step,” he says. “First step, you got to change your reputation so word gets out and people actually want to play here.”
At least the Clippers always play hard. Two nights after the debacle in Cleveland, L.A. outhustled the Celtics for a rare road victory. They also secured a measure of revenge, holding Wilkins, their pop-off former teammate, to a paltry two points. Vaught didn’t have much time to linger over that memory. The next night the Clippers played the bigger, faster New York Knicks and lost again, this time scoring just 74 points. Afterward, coach Fitch stood outside the locker room, praising the play of 6-foot-8 Charles Outlaw, the smallest center in the league. But effort goes only so far, Fitch noted, adding, “I keep feeding him and he just won’t grow.” Still, any week with a victory triggers some optimism. “There’s got to be light at the end of the tunnel,” says Vaught. But as the team headed off for a midnight flight to Washington, that oncoming light still looked like it was attached to an oncoming train.
PHOTO: The NBA netherworld: The lowly Clippers hustle their way to a rare victory
