Mike Dunleavy

Welcome to two-stage firing ... Clippers' style. The Clippers put a new twist on that old phrase: They thought Mike Dunleavy was so nice, they fired him twice. Technically speaking, Dunleavy stepped down as coach last month when he seemed unable to penetrate the deep malaise of his players. On Tuesday, the other part of his job description, general manager, vanished with about five weeks left in the regular season. Talk about the long (delayed) goodbye. The news blindsided Dunleavy.

An arbitrator on Friday awarded a little more than $13 million to former Clippers' general manager and coach Mike Dunleavy, who the team stopped paying when he was fired as general manager in March of last year. The ruling was issued about 14 months after Dunleavy filed for binding arbitration. The amount was for everything Dunleavy was owed under his contract, including past compensation with interest and future accelerated compensation, according to people familiar with the ruling but not authorized to talk about it publicly.

Thirteen months and counting. That's how long it has been since Mike Dunleavy was fired as the Clippers' general manager and, not so coincidentally, that was the last time he was paid by the team. His long and winding case finally will be heard in arbitration, starting Monday before Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services in Santa Monica. Proceedings are expected to last several days with additional briefs filed afterward, and the judge could issue a decision by June. There is $6.75 million in unpaid salary remaining on Dunleavy's contract.

The Lakers are slowly reaching out to coaching candidates, contacting Rick Adelman to officially express an interest in him to replace Phil Jackson. The three decision-makers for the Lakers' coaching search — owner Jerry Buss and executives Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak — continued the gradual momentum from their meeting Tuesday in which they drew up an official list. Former Lakers coach Mike Dunleavy and current Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw are also candidates. Former Cleveland coach Mike Brown is considered the front-runner for the Golden State coaching job, though the Lakers are somewhat interested in him too. The Lakers aren't in a huge rush.

Mike Dunleavy, who resigned as coach and was subsequently fired as general manager of the Clippers this season, has filed for arbitration, saying the team has cut off his salary. Dunleavy's guaranteed five-year, $22-million contract, often cited as the reason owner Donald T. Sterling kept him through three difficult seasons, runs through the end of next season. Dunleavy resigned as coach Feb. 4, with the team announcing he would stay as GM. As GM, Dunleavy lasted until March 8 before he was fired, at which point, without announcement, the Clippers cut off his pay. Dunleavy was owed $1.35 million for the balance of this season and $5.4 million for next season, a total of $6.75 million.

Finger-pointing. Allegations of fraudulent inducement. He said, he said. Welcome to the Clippers vs. Mike Dunleavy. The latest curious twist in the battle between the Clippers and owner Donald Sterling and the team's former coach-general manager took a wild turn last week when the Clippers, trying to halt Dunleavy's arbitration claim, alleged that Dunleavy fraudulently induced the Clippers into entering an employment agreement. Dunleavy's lawyer, in an interview with The Times on Thursday, said the lawsuit does not pass "the laugh test."

Whether the blame lies with the coach or his players, it became clear on the Clippers' recent trip that Mike Dunleavy's message was no longer getting through to his team. And that, as much as anything else, led to Dunleavy's decision to step down as the Clippers' head coach Thursday. He remains the team's general manager. "Maybe they're not hearing me," Dunleavy said Friday. "Maybe another voice could do it." He'll soon find out. For the rest of the season, the voice the Clippers will be hearing belongs to longtime assistant Kim Hughes , a former player, scout and player personnel director in the NBA whose laid-back, soft-spoken personality stands in sharp contrast to Dunleavy's.

After 26 years and two winning seasons and one playoff series victory and zero championship credibility, it's finally, wonderfully happened. The Clippers have run out of things to blame. The final sawing of the limb upon which Mike Dunleavy has been sitting for the last month -- the fallen coach is now the felled general manager -- has cleared the last of the thick and messy brush. If Clippers fans look up today, they can see the limit to this team's possibilities.

You still here? Dangled two years ago by owner Donald T. Sterling ("Do you think anybody loves their coach? They're just a necessity") . . . a punching bag for ESPN's Bill Simmons ("In the post-Isiah era, is Mike Dunleavy the single most destructive coach/executive in the NBA right now?") . . . on life support after this season's 3-9 start. Look who's still here, coaching something resembling a team after years of coaching something resembling a discontented MASH unit. All it took was enough people to get well, and, in some cases, to get over it, and a contract that kept Sterling from pulling the plug in the meantime.

Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy declined to confirm Saturday a recent report that said various NBA teams have made trade offers for starting forward Marcus Camby . In the last year of a contract worth $9.1 million, Camby goes into tonight's game against the San Antonio Spurs ranked fifth in the league in blocks (2.1 per game) and sixth in rebounding (11.0 per game). "Marcus has been great," Dunleavy said. "We have a lot of guys that have a lot of interest from a lot of people."

Thirteen months and counting. That's how long it has been since Mike Dunleavy was fired as the Clippers' general manager and, not so coincidentally, that was the last time he was paid by the team. His long and winding case finally will be heard in arbitration, starting Monday before Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services in Santa Monica. Proceedings are expected to last several days with additional briefs filed afterward, and the judge could issue a decision by June. There is $6.75 million in unpaid salary remaining on Dunleavy's contract.

Elgin Baylor testified Monday in his wrongful-termination lawsuit against the Clippers, saying he felt  "insulted and humiliated" after receiving a letter in August 2008 that the team wanted him to become a consultant and retire after 22 years as an executive in the organization. "I felt sick to my stomach. I felt crushed," Baylor said as a seven-man, five-woman jury heard testimony in Los Angeles Superior Court. Baylor, 76, is suing the team, Clippers owner Donald Sterling and President Andy Roeser for wrongful termination based on age discrimination.

The descent started when they lost to a team two days before that had established records for professional futility. On Sunday, the Clippers had a chance to make amends against a Toronto Raptors team that had dropped 16 of its last 17 games. They couldn't lose two in a row to opponents that have struggled so badly, could they? These are, of course, the Clippers. Every time they give a hint that the bad old days are behind them, they show that a culture takes a lot of time to change, one Blake Griffin dunk at a time.

Hey, Donald, grow a conscience!! It might seem unprofessional to heckle Clippers owner Donald Sterling from this column space but, you know, he started it. News broke this week that Sterling regularly heckles his players from his courtside seat, with Yahoo Sports reporting that Baron Davis has been a recent target, and Chris Kaman confirming that the boss yells at everybody. "It happens, sure, but it's cool," Kaman told me yesterday. Kaman is a nice guy who would never rip somebody paying him millions, so, while I appreciate his attitude, I'm not buying his characterization.

Maybe this happened somewhere over Iowa or Illinois airspace. Whatever energy and grit the Clippers showed in Minneapolis must have ejected on the short plane ride here from Minnesota. Lousy basketball turned into epically bad basketball Thursday night against the Pacers at Conseco Fieldhouse. An undermanned Indiana team, no less. No matter. The Pacers, missing starters Darren Collison and Mike Dunleavy Jr., defeated the Clippers, 107-80, extending the Clippers' losing streak to eight games.

Two advance scouts for the Clippers have been locked in a pay dispute with the team. Jerry Holloway, employed since the 2003-04 season, alleged the Clippers quit paying him this spring and breached his contract. Documents filed June 4 in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia County said the Clippers owed Holloway $22,920 in unpaid salary. After the suit was filed, the Clippers settled with Holloway for $20,000, a source familiar with the situation said. Court papers said Holloway asked for nearly $36,000, which included the unpaid wages, liquidated damages and legal fees.

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."

Finger-pointing. Allegations of fraudulent inducement. He said, he said. Welcome to the Clippers vs. Mike Dunleavy. The latest curious twist in the battle between the Clippers and owner Donald Sterling and the team's former coach-general manager took a wild turn last week when the Clippers, trying to halt Dunleavy's arbitration claim, alleged that Dunleavy fraudulently induced the Clippers into entering an employment agreement. Dunleavy's lawyer, in an interview with The Times on Thursday, said the lawsuit does not pass "the laugh test."