CLIPPERS AND WRIGHT SEE THINGS DIFFERENTLY.

Byline: Randy Hill

Lorenzen Wright, the player who told the Clippers he wanted to leave, was the first one to show up.

Thirty minutes before the evening workout, the third-year power forward was practicing moves, tweaking the choreography. The baby hooks and baseline jumpers were given an exaggerated trajectory, as if Wright were facing a best-of-seven against a mountain of expectation that rises when you're the seventh pick in the 1996 NBA draft. On the wall behind him were the words ``Wright Gymnasium,'' but he wasn't acting like he owns the place.

The place owns him.

``My dad put a basketball in my hands when I was born,'' Wright said. ``It's been there since.''

His dad played at Ole Miss. He's in a wheelchair now. His dad was the man in charge at a recreation center in Mississippi when a fight broke out. A shot was fired and Herbert Wright's back got in the way. Lorenzen Wright's dad now lives in Los Angeles, too.

``My family comes first,'' said Wright, the Clipper making $1.925 million this season before the retroactive lockout adjustment. ``To take care of them, I need a commitment.''

That's a move he seemed to have tucked away, the one that would take him to another team. Four hours earlier at the College of the Desert's Wright Gymnasium, Wright and his agent spiced up the Clippers' training camp by serving notice. Trade me. Now.

Oh, he really doesn't want to leave. In fact, after two years as a Clipper and a third on the way, he was willing to re-enlist for another six. That's irony, folks, something for Jay Leno's writers to chew on.

``It's hard sometimes when people refer to us as L.A.'s `other' team,'' Wright said on the night before his agent's attempted press revelation last week. ``I want to stay a little longer; I'm hoping to be here to turn it around.''

Sixteen hours later, Wright told reporters it's time for him to move on. He had been convinced his value to the team as someone capable of holding his own at the power forward and center positions is worth a contract extension of $60 million for six seasons. The Clippers have agreed that Wright is valuable but not that valuable.

In Wright, they see a team leader with a solid future.

They also see a third-year player, a player under contract, who averaged a double-single last season: 9 points and 8.8 rebounds in 29 minutes per game last season.