FanHouse Elginbaylor

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Tuesday, there are 49 days remaining.

There have been many wonderful players throughout history who never won an NBA title -- the modern era is full of them -- but there never has been one greater than Elgin Baylor.

He simply played at the wrong time, butting heads with the dynastic Boston Celtics and their incredible run of 10 titles in 11 years.

Nothing illustrates his futility and frustration more than the 49 consecutive playoff games covering five seasons in which Baylor scored at least 20 points or more. The Celtics won all five of those titles, beating the Lakers twice in the Finals.

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Friday, there are 67 days remaining.

Scoring 100 points in an NBA game was such a phenomenal feat that it may never be matched. Yet that century mark isn't what defined Wilt Chamberlain as the greatest scoring machine in NBA history.

A lot of people can do things once.

Kobe Bryant scored 81. David Thompson had 73. Elgin Baylor and David Robinson each managed 71. Michael Jordan hit 69 and Pete Maravich scored 68.

The magic number is 67.

The Clippers didn't wait long to respond to Elgin Baylor's suit alleging unfair treatment and race-based discrimination. According to Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times, a statement put out by the team denies Baylor was ever treated differently because of his race and actually blames Baylor for the team's decades of losing.

Meanwhile, team owner Donald Sterling (who seems central to most of the allegations) offered up disbelief that Baylor would sue.

The odd divorce between the Clippers and long-time GM/NBA legend Elgin Baylor confused everyone -- not because we believed Baylor deserved to keep his job in perpetuity, but because of the timing and circumstances. A day after the world realized Mike Dunleavy and Andy Roeser had taken over his duties, Baylor discussed the possibility of a lawsuit owing to the conditions of his sacking.

That day has come, as the Los Angeles Daily News reports Baylor has sued the Clippers, with longtime boss Donald Sterling named in the complaint.

When a person leaves a position over a dispute, there is often conflict. Especially when that person has held the position for 22 years.

And when a person works long-term for a struggling organization, things can get a little nutty. Especially when that organization is the Los Angeles Clippers.

The LA Times reports today that a day after Elgin Baylor and the Los Angeles Clippers officially separated from a 22-year relationship, Baylor is considering legal action against the Clippers over how his tenure ended. Apparently one of the key issues may revolve around the fact that, get this, Baylor has been working without a contract since the early 90's, "having been told that one was not necessary."

Oh, boy.

Where to start here? Baylor, despite his living legend status, has often bore the brundt of criticism for the management decisions of the Clippers. And to be working without a contract, regardless of circumstances, is just reckless regarding your financial and legal safety. On the other hand, the Clippers had a General Manager without actually having him under contract. That's equally reckless for your organization. And the fact that this situation seems to have dissolved so quickly and that players were left in the dark about it, that's another black mark.

I have a lot of sympathy for Clippers fans and the organization, being constantly overshadowed by the Lakers. But it's things like this that are the reason there's a well know phase: "Yup, they're the Clippers."

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Hoops Addict. Blogger tries out for D-League team. Blogger gets injured within 30 minutes. Blogger still gets a good story with great video out of it.

2. ESPN.com, via FD. Bill Simmons puts together a great Elgin Baylor column.

3. Rumors and Rants, via BDL. David West vs. a heckler at an Obama rally.

4. Nothing But Net. Our first "I should have stayed retired" joke from Larry Brown is in the books.

5. True Hoop. Abbott wonders, "If there were another Tim Donaghy, would the NBA catch him?" Terrific analys

6. SLAM. That epic Gilbert Arenas interview you've heard about.

Interesting times in Clipper-land, these days. The team's newest star is on the Jenny Craig diet plan (no, I won't let it go, but thanks for asking). The team's other new star worked out with them for the first time today after fighting "flu-like symptoms." First round draft pick Eric Gordon is sidelined for a couple weeks with an ankle injury. And oh yeah, Elgin Baylor appears to no longer be performing his duties as the team's General Manager. Wait, what?

According to the OC Register (via Baller Blogger), Elgin Baylor is out as GM, and the only details we have is that there is a dispute between Baylor and and the Clippers, which Baylor won't speak about because his attorney advised him not to. What we do know is, this has been going on for at least a few weeks, because Baylor wasn't present at the team's practice facility when training camp began, and he was conveniently left out of the club's pre-season media guide -- entirely. No mention or picture of him anywhere.

Baylor has been the Clippers' GM since 1986, and besides being a fixture at the NBA's Draft Lottery proceedings, has done a mostly thankless job over the last 22 years. He did have a few achievements though, including winning the Executive of the Year award in 2006, drafting Chris Kaman, and pulling the trigger on the trade that brought Elton Brand to town. During the offseason though, it was coach Mike Dunleavy who seemed to be the spokesperson for the team's dealings, and sure sounded an awful lot like the real GM while doing so.

It'll be interesting to see what the dispute is all about; hopefully Donald Sterling isn't trying to go all Al Davis on Baylor after 22 years of service.

[Image credit: AP Photo/Gus Ruelas]

Ricky Davis is a Clipper. Say it with me. Ricky Davis is a Clipper. Rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it? Ricky Davis is a Clipper. It just feels so right.

Davis signed a two-year, $4.7 million deal. He can opt out after the first season, but c'mon, this isn't the time to start talking about that, is it? It's a time for celebration! If ever there was a union guaranteed to last forever, well, that'd be Marko and Adriana, but Ricky Davis and the Clippers are a close, close second.

Why were the Clippers so interested in Davis? GM Elgin Baylor explains:

"With his ability to score and shoot from the outside, it's really going to open up the floor for us, particularly our low-post players," Los Angeles general manager Elgin Baylor said.

That's right! Ricky Davis, making his teammates better since ... well, just now.

In all seriousness, Baylor may be onto something: LA's bigs include Chris Kaman and Marcus Camby, a couple of guys who will have maybe five plays called for them all night long. This team can afford bringing a gunner off the bench. With Baron Davis running the point, the Clippers should be getting up and down the floor in a hurry, and Davis is certainly athletic enough to keep up.

Peter May of the Boston Globe spends his Sunday column discussing the affairs of the Clippers, and he's got some good stuff, including the revelation coach Mike Dunleavy and owner Donald Sterling are still not speaking, months after their blow-up. But the best passage is this passed-on rant from Sterling from last Monday night:

Then, when the conversation turned to the Clippers' terrible performance, Sterling went off on coach Mike Dunleavy. It was pretty similar to what he said a few weeks back, blaming Dunleavy for the selection of players and saying that Dunleavy, not general manager Elgin Baylor, had the final say on every player on the roster. Every single one. Why, Sterling wondered, if the players were picked by the coach, did they not play for the coach?

It's a tough position for Sterling -- he's too mad at Dunleavy to be happy with the state of his franchise, but he's too cheap to do anything about it. The real problem, of course, is that the Clippers have no plan whatsoever. May passes on that Sterling killed a deadline deal for Mike Miller, one which involved the Clippers first-round pick. If Dunleavy pursued Miller, it sort-of shows the problem with Dunleavy. What on Earth is he doing, if he is in fact in charge? (Previously, he had intimated he was not in charge on player personnel by virtue of everyone killing all of his deals.)

If I am Elton Brand (I am not, FYI), I get the Hades out of town, even if it means a brief pay cut. This team's going nowhere until a strong GM comes in and puts Sterling in his place.

Ah, the Clippers. As if a season full of injuries and a 12-25 record weren't bad enough, we now have the team owner and head coach going at each other pretty hard through the media. Yesterday Donald Sterling was talking win or go home for his coaching staff -- a fairly ridiculous proposition, all things considered -- and not surprisingly, Mike Dunleavy fired back with some strong statements of his own.

Mike Dunleavy came out swinging, telling Donald Sterling, you want to make a change in coaches, "Be my guest."

"It would be the biggest mistake you ever made." ... "Where we are today as far as making the playoffs, nobody in their right mind would bet on that."

No one who has followed the Clippers over the years would ever confuse Sterling with a sane person, so Dunleavy's side in this little battle has to be taken here, almost without question. There were several other interesting comments by Dunleavy in this piece, none of which would have come out had Sterling not initiated the attack.

One thing that Dunleavy revealed was the fact that the Clippers had a deal in place with Dallas to swap Corey Maggette for Jason Terry, but Sterling refused to approve the trade. Another frustration for the coach came when he was all for signing Beno Udrih, but a Clippers' VP decided that financially it wouldn't be worth it.

So I came away with two things after going through all of Dunleavy's comments: One, that the coach has at least as much say in player personnel decisions (if not more) than Elgin Baylor, the current figurehead in the General Manager position. And two, the Clippers organization is a complete mess at this point. But we already knew that, didn't we.