There is a big smile on Quentin Richardson’s face as he pulls up in a new Cadillac Escalade that glistens in the sunshine of a 76-degree “winter” day.
Fellow Clippers rookie Darius Miles of East St. Louis, “Mr. Basketball” among Illinois high school players last season, was also struck with Escalade fever.
Teammate Corey Maggette, a former Fenwick standout, has the same kind of luxury car in his garage, along with a Range Rover.
The three friends who played together during summer vacations and dared to dream of ascending to the basketball summit have done just that. They’re injecting new life into one of the sorriest franchises in all of professional sports . . . and they’re well paid for their efforts.
Miles, 19, was the third choice of the June draft, the highest pick ever for a high school player. His contract calls for him to earn $9.1 million his first three years. Maggette, 21, dealt from Orlando to the Clippers after being the 13th pick in the 1999 draft by the Seattle SuperSonics, will make about $4 million for his first three years. Richardson, 20, chosen No. 18 last summer after two years at DePaul, will earn $3.3 million.
That they wound up in NBA Siberia doesn’t matter to these youthful optimists. They see themselves transforming the moribund Clippers into the hip, rapper-cool, Kids-R-Us choice of the younger generation.
Kobe Bryant aside, the Lakers are suddenly your father’s team.
The locals see Miles skywalk for a spectacular alley-oop dunk and line up to buy his No. 21 jersey–Staples Center souvenir shops list Miles and Lamar Odom jerseys as their top sellers. Maggette’s explosive moves to the basket rev up the crowd, and Richardson’s relentless style of play has Southern Californians believing it may soon be chic to profess loyalty to L.A.’s NBA stepchild.
Losing a legacy
Imagine a bigger loser than the Cubs and you have the Clippers–they’ve had one winning record, three playoff appearances and three first-round exits during their 16 seasons since moving from San Diego. After numerous false starts, longtime General Manager Elgin Baylor set about changing the image with an all-out commitment to youth in last summer’s draft.
First he chose high schooler Miles with the third pick. Next he took Keyon Dooling, an athletic sophomore point guard from Missouri, with the No. 10 pick obtained from Orlando in a deal that also brought Maggette. Then he grabbed Richardson with the No. 18 pick.
“We have so many young guys who don’t know any better, but they’re excited to be in the NBA,” said Clippers forward Eric Piatkowski, a seven-year veteran who is the team’s elder statesman. “They’re going a million miles an hour, dunking in warm-up lines. They’re fired up when a new PlayStation game come out.”
Being impetuous is the calling card of the young, and Maggette, Richardson and Miles play hard all the time because they want the Clippers to be good now. None considers holding something in reserve for the 82-game season.
The Clippers are 13-24 after Wednesday night’s victory over Denver, which had won five straight games. They beat the Lakers 118-95 Sunday night for the first time in 17 tries and need just four more wins to equal last season’s total.
Maggette played only one season at Duke, and the Magic said he was a better athlete than a basketball player in justifying the trade. The Clippers are satisfied with his progress–he’s averaging 7.8 points and 3.8 rebounds and shooting 43.7 percent in 15.6 minutes per game.
“Maggette seems to play at one speed–hard and very aggressive all the time,” Baylor said. “The one thing he has to work on is slowing down and letting the game come to him. His defense, rebounding and outside shooting have really improved. He’s also making better decisions on offense, but he still has to concentrate on that.”
Richardson has been the most consistent, averaging 8.6 points and 3.5 rebounds in 19.8 minutes while starting 19 games. At 6 feet 6 inches, 223 pounds, Richardson creates matchup problems for opponents when the Clippers use him at shooting guard.
Richardson, who had 14 points against Denver, arrives three hours before every game to work on his outside shooting and ballhandling.
“I learned from Michael Jordan that everybody can always get better,” he said. “Karl Malone comes out early, and so does Reggie Miller. If I didn’t do it I’d be shortchanging myself.
“Making the switch to [shooting] guard was tough at first. But the more I played it, things became smoother. I have to play against guys like Kobe Bryant and Vince Carter, and I’m doing OK.”
In a 110-97 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 2, Richardson posted up Carter three times and scored on him, finishing with 11 points and four rebounds. Maggette had nine points in 14 minutes, and Miles lit up a Staples Center crowd of 18,037 with 26 points and 10 rebounds. He hit 12-of-19 shots, including four emphatic dunks.
That was the third straight game of double-figure scoring and rebounding for the 6-9 Miles, who made his first start at power forward after “bulking up” to 217 pounds from his high school playing weight of 190.
“We’ve got a little taste of how he can excite the crowd with one leap,” said Odom, 21, the Clippers’ leading scorer whom they acquired with the No. 3 pick of the 1999 draft. “He makes people go crazy with his skills. I’m really looking forward to having [us] together three or four years from now.”
Miles is averaging 8.3 points and 6.1 rebounds and shooting 48.6 percent in 23.5 minutes.
“The NBA is everything I thought it would be and more,” he said. “It’s a lot more physical than I thought. Before I got here, I thought I knew a lot about the game. I didn’t know anything.”
Hometown advice
Each of the young Clippers has imported a support system from back home. Miles’ includes his mother, Ethel, affectionately known by the players as “Mama Miles” for her home-cooked meals. Odom, point guard Jeff McInnis, Richardson and his older brother Lee Jr., and Maggette and his older brother Jimmie joined 17 friends from back home at her table for a Christmas feast.
“There weren’t many leftovers that night,” Ethel Miles said with a laugh. “I have to make sure these boys eat right. Corey and Jimmie come over all the time and ask me to make them something special.”
The Maggettes come from a close-knit family, and Mama Miles’ presence has eased the absence of Marguerite Maggette, who still lives in Orlando with her husband, Jimmie Sr.
“Mama Miles is like a mom to all of us,” Jimmie Maggette said. “When you’re away from your parents, you need that motherly support.”
The Maggette brothers live in a two-bedroom condominium in Marina del Rey. The Richardsons live in a five-bedroom house in Encino, about a half-hour drive from downtown Los Angeles. Darius Miles, Mama Miles and her fiance, Darrell Dunn, live in a three-bedroom townhouse in Marina del Rey.
Jimmie Maggette, 25, and Lee Richardson Jr., 26, have been entrusted with watching out for their younger brothers. Jimmie cooks–pasta and chicken are his specialties–does the household chores and makes certain Corey packs the right clothes for the road.
“I don’t think Corey gets too homesick because he has me to lean on,” Jimmie Maggette said. “The first couple of months we had a hard time being separated from the family. We’re so used to the support from mom and dad.
“We know it’s just us two, and we have to lean on each other. It’s like we have a stronger friendship now. We have to take care of each other, do things for ourselves and remember what mom and dad taught us.”
While Clippers veterans frequent nightclubs on the road, the youngsters can be found playing video games in their hotel rooms. Richardson good-naturedly teases the Clippers’ ballboys, who are closer to his age than some of his teammates.
“We have a lot of fun hanging out with each other, acting silly and trying to be cool,” Richardson said. “All three of us are single guys–no girlfriends. Corey and I like to be around Darius because he gets all the girls.”
Making a name in this celebrity-driven town of movie stars and musicians, of Kobe and Shaq, may take awhile. But the signs are encouraging–the Clippers’ attendance has averaged 14,705 over the last nine home games, up from 13,652 last year, and the team has had four sellouts.
Miles, Richardson and Maggette are featured on a Clippers television commercial, and a film producer is shooting footage for a planned documentary. Maggette and Richardson went bowling recently, and it seemed every other patron in the place stopped them for a photo or an autograph.
“We’re starting to have an impact on the L.A. scene,” Maggette said. “More fans are coming out for Clipper games, and we’re starting to earn some respect in this city.”
Richardson had a message for the folks back home.
“A lot of people said all three of us were making a mistake coming out early to the NBA–[we] weren’t ready,” he said. “There was probably some jealousy there, and everyone underestimated all three of us.
“Look around the league and we’re doing better and playing more than most other rookies. If you could see us out here doing well, having fun together and living our dream, you’d be happy for us.”
