Donald Sterling

In a continuing exchange of lawsuits and counter-suits, the owner of Oxnard-based KADY-TV is being sued for libel by the former owner of the station, court documents filed Tuesday show. Former owner Donald Sterling filed the libel suit in Ventura County Superior Court, alleging that a press release that KADY President John Huddy issued concerning their legal battles was purposely and maliciously false.

The long and winding coaching search for the Clippers has reached the final stage. The team will be bringing in the two finalists Tuesday for a final series of interviews, a Clippers official told The Times. The candidates are Dallas Mavericks assistant Dwane Casey and former Chicago Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro. If this all sounds vaguely familiar, well, it is. It's a repeat of the intense contest between the two for the Bulls head coaching spot in 2008. Del Negro won that race and coached the Bulls for two seasons, going 41-41 in each and losing in the first round of the playoffs both times.

I for one could picture Donald Sterling, after finally dumping Mike Dunleavy for good, going to his safe and removing a sealed envelope from beneath the piles and piles of cash not spent on building a more competitive team. On the outside of the envelope is written the words "To be opened in the event of Mike Dunleavy's departure from the Clippers." After carefully opening the envelope and removing a neatly folded piece of paper, Sterling reads the message: "I told you so. Elgin Baylor."

Owner Donald Sterling, saying he is as baffled as his front office and fans about his Clippers' current state, expressed emotions during an interview Monday that ran from sadness to frustration to disappointment. But he also said he was resolved to stay the course and that he would do so with his current basketball people, General Manager Elgin Baylor and Coach Chris Ford. "I have great fondness for both," he said. Beyond Sterling's frustration is something even more difficult. Confusion.

The Clippers have played 25 games. Guard Randy Foye has played in only seven of them. The rest he has missed with injuries, and the Clippers (5-20), in turn, have missed a veteran among a young core of players. But Foye, who hasn't played since a Nov. 26 loss at Phoenix, expects to return Wednesday night against Philadelphia now that he's recovered from a strained left hamstring. "The last four or five games, I've been really anxious, just to get out there and play again," Foye said Tuesday after practice.

At quick look, what happened with the Clippers and the Pond of Anaheim was pretty routine Thursday. The deal fell through, the Clippers will stay in Los Angeles, and Clipper fans in L.A. were relieved. All 97 of them. There I go again, making fun of the Clippers. It's such sport. Everybody does it. They are fodder for the fun makers, potshots for the pundits. For years, it has been fashionable to characterize this NBA team in unfashionable terms.

Every article about the Clippers should include a standard paragraph: "Given the choice of paying a good player millions of dollars or keeping it in his pocket, Donald Sterling will keep it. Rather than pay a coach lots of money, or keeping it for himself, same result." Sterling has proven it pays to be a loser. He has ridden the coattails of the Lakers' success into an arena that would've never been built for his team alone. He rides the success of the NBA to greater capitalization of his business.

Admit it, you thought the shaken owner would crumble. You thought Donald Sterling would look around the smoking remains of his once-lavish Clippers team -- two best players leaving, coach steaming, star guard limping -- and he would quit. No more money. No more effort. No more Mr. Rich Guy. Admit it, you thought that this summer, the Clippers were going back to Square One. Instead, on the most glorious July Tuesday in franchise history, they have leaped to Seed Seven. Baron Davis?

We begin this feel-good story with a depressing reminder to Dodger supporters just how far their team has fallen: The Clippers have four more playoff victories than the Dodgers over the last 13 years. "No way," Coach Alvin Gentry said. "I'd have put everything I got down on that and would have said the Dodgers had those playoff wins," and yes, those were the days--decades ago. And how about this interesting question: Who has the best chance to record the next playoff victory--the Dodgers or the Clippers?

Trades have hit snags in the NBA, and even unraveled, but the Clippers were spared additional headaches when the Cavaliers informed them Sunday morning that Baron Davis passed his physical in Cleveland. That was the last piece of the puzzle for the deal to be completed and made official by the league, meaning point guard Mo Williams and small forward Jamario Moon can play at Sacramento on Monday night. The Clippers, who have lost four straight games coming out of the All-Star break, could have used the likes of Williams and Moon in Saturday's loss to the Boston Celtics.