SPORTS ILLUSTRATED examines the state of the Clippers -
- who have had just one winning season under the 18-year
tenure of Owner Donald Sterling -- in a cover story
featuring the header, "The Worst Franchise In Sports History
(And The Man Responsible)." Sterling: "How do I handle
losing year after year? How do I cope with the ridicule?
Let me ask you something: How would you cope with the
ridicule? ... It's very hard. I've suffered. Oh, how I've
suffered. Do you know what it is to truly suffer?"
Sterling: "The pain, the torment, the absolute torture! How
do the owners of the Chicago Cubs get through it? How does
anyone get through a difficult experience? You just keep
going, keep fighting, keep living. Life goes on, and you
hope it will improve." In examining Sterling's ownership
style, SI's Franz Lidz writes that Sterling "doesn't so much
meddle as delay. He hedges. he vacillates. He agonizes."
Agent Arn Tellem, a former Clippers General Counsel, said of
Sterling: "Donald is so angst-ridden and vulnerable, you
just want to hug him." ECHL Greenville Grrrowl Chair and
former Clippers GM Carl Scheer said of Sterling: "I don't
know how important winning is to Donald. He seems more
concerned that his books are balanced, that he runs one of
the few NBA franchises with no debt, that he can bring his
friends to games" (SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, 4/17 issue).
WOULD TEAM NOT BE A STAPLE OF SUCCESS? In L.A., Bill
Plaschke asked if the Clippers "can ... be thrown out of the
league for incompetence? ... Can the team be thrown out of
an arena that they are staining like spilled Coke?" Staples
Center President Tim Leiweke, on the Clippers' lease at the
arena: "They have a six-year agreement, but they have the
right to get out after three. If they have two more years
like this one, my guess is, they'll get out because they
can't afford the building" (L.A. TIMES, 4/12).
