IS VAUGHT NEXT STAR TO LEAVE?

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

In 1990, Loy Vaught, professional basketball player and artist, was commissioned by Donald T. Sterling to give form and color to the shapeless franchise on the corner of Figueroa Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Many have been called, but Vaught was among the few happy to tackle the assignment.

He figured the Sports Arena would be his Sistine Chapel, his brushstrokes creating a bold, new vision of the Clippers. He would usher in a renaissance that would flourish well into the 21st century.

What he didn't count on was the Clippers management would remain so stubbornly entrenched in the Dark Ages. Owner Sterling's benevolent meddling in the day-to-day affairs of the team has made it neigh impossible to lock up the top players or foster an environment conducive to winning. The result is a climate where players bolt as soon as the door cracks open.

Who can forget Danny Manning forcing a trade in 1994 after his contract negotiations with the team disintegrated in a cloud of acrimony? Or Brian Williams, Bo Outlaw, Mark Jackson, Dominique Wilkins, Ron Harper, Ken Norman and Charles Smith all beating a path out of town as free agents, some of them so eager to leave they signed for less money or fewer years than the Clippers had offered?

Malik Sealy, whose rights were renounced by the Clippers, was the second-leading scorer on the team that was swept by Utah in the first round of the playoffs this past spring. Outlaw was the leading shot blocker. When the Clippers open their season Friday at Phoenix, they once again will have a decidedly different look.

The constant turnover in personnel has made it hard for Vaught to find the right consistency for his brushstrokes. He has had to become less an artisan than a house painter who applies a fresh interior coat every year to hide the most obvious flaws.

Not that it matters. Night in and night out Vaught continues to ooze effort until there's nothing left to squeeze out of the tube.

He has led the team in scoring and rebounding for the past three seasons, the first player in franchise history to do so since Bob McAdoo in 1973-76. He has been with the team longer than any player since the franchise moved to L.A. in 1984. He is one of only five draft picks from the 1990s on the roster.

Vaught, 29, personifies all that is right with the Clippers. He also stands to become yet another reminder of what is wrong with the franchise.

The Michigan native is in the final season of a four-year, $12-million contract extension he signed in 1993, a year before his previous contract expired. Unless a deal gets done between now and season's end, he'll be free to leave. The Clippers can ill afford to let him go.

``I'll tell you why we need him,'' said Bill Fitch, the fourth head coach Vaught has played for in his seven seasons with the team. ``You've got to have three guys in double figures (scoring) every night. You know you've got one with him.''

You'd think the mere specter of a season sans Vaught's scoring and rebounding prowess would have scared Clippers officials into action. Clippers general manager Elgin Baylor said he did have conversations with Vaught's agent over the summer about a deal that would have made the power forward a Clipper for life.

That Vaught didn't consider that the same as a life sentence should have been reason enough to secure his services forevermore. That he wasn't demanding new uniforms, a new arena and new pregame music, as Manning reportedly did during his negotiations in 1993, should have sealed the deal.

But the Clippers are nothing if not consistent. With the ball in their court, they again bobbled it. It remains to be seen whether it leads to another costly personnel turnover.

``We'd like to have Loy with this team,'' Baylor said the other day, emerging briefly from behind the doors of the Clippers' closed practice at their facility in Carson. There was a long pause, then: ``Have you talked to Loy?''

Asked if he intended to be with the Clippers after this season, Vaught said, ``That's a good question. It seems like it's been a good fit here. For me to leave would seem like unfinished business, like if you've been working on a masterpiece for years and then you walk away from it. I'm just going to take a wait-and-see approach.''

To be sure, it's disappointing to play in front of thousands of empty seats at the Sports Arena. Of course, it bothers Vaught to turn on the television on the road and hear a talking head say the local team should get an easy win because they're playing - snicker, snicker - the Clippers.

It takes a special person to deflect insults as easily as he does an opponent's shot. It takes a man of steel to get knocked down repeatedly by adversity but keep boxing out for the rebound. It doesn't take a sixth sense to know this is a guy worth keeping.