Double-Secret Probation Next for Odom?

In the film classic (it says here) “Animal House,” the guys demolish Kent Dorfman’s brother’s car on a road trip, causing Kent, a.k.a. Flounder, to complain to Otter, Delta House’s Mr. Smooth.

“Flounder, you messed up!” replies Otter, or words to that effect. “You trusted us!”

Which brings us to the 2001-2002 Clippers.

It was fun all summer, remembering their second-half highlight show and imagining what could be.

Then the NBA season started. Now you don’t have to imagine.

Before, there seemed to be little downside. They were sure to improve on their 31-51 record. No one would be too upset if they missed the playoffs. Local vacations aren’t planned around Clipper postseasons.

But in real life, there’s always a downside. In a nod to Clipper tradition, they wasted no time finding it.

They started 0-3. That was nothing compared with the Lamar Odom problem, which went from Nagging Reminder to Career Threat.

I don’t want to be melodramatic because the odds are that Odom will have a long NBA career ... somewhere.

Of course, the odds on Donald T. Sterling extending him next summer for seven years at $75 million just went from very short to very long.

Critics (hello) are freer with Sterling’s money than he is (who wouldn’t be?) but in this case, he would be right. An unknown commodity can’t be one of the two big tickets you can fit under your salary cap.

That’s Odom, an unknown.

We know he’s pleasant, has a lot of game, says the right things ... and that there are two of him.

If all you see was all there was, he wouldn’t have had to go to college in little Rhode Island.

After entering, trying to pull out and re-entering the 1999 draft, he still would have gone No. 1 to Chicago or No. 2 to Vancouver, had he just kept his appointments.

He went No. 4 to the Clippers and was a model citizen for almost two seasons, until last spring when he was suspended, reportedly for smoking marijuana.

This was disturbing, but, in the greater scheme of things, not that bad ... until this incident, when he finally acknowledged “experimenting” with marijuana. Indications are this is one of your longer-running experiments.

The drug issue is part PR; he could be a falling-down drunk and the league wouldn’t say a word. But even if his marijuana use is casual, there’s an irresponsibility issue, which keeps coming back.

(The Clippers were accused of enabling him, but forget for the moment it’s the Clippers. He’s a great player in a results-driven subculture. No one would have done otherwise. Look at the slack Phil Jackson cut Isaiah Rider, who was more troubled and of less use.)

Now the polite days are over. Elgin Baylor is boiling, Alvin Gentry has had it and even his teammates have limits.

Clipperdom fairly melted when all of the players came out, unsolicited, to stand with their (again) tearful teammate at his news conference.

Indeed, the feeling these players have for one another, their optimism and disdain for the Clippers’ sad history is the greatest gift the franchise has ever received, offering a chance to break with tradition.

“I think that comes from all of us guys knowing each other, one way or another,” says Quentin Richardson, a linchpin of the young players. “I knew Keyon [Dooling] for a long time from the AAU. I’ve known Corey [Maggette] for a long time since I was younger. I knew Darius [Miles] for a long time. Corey and Elton [Brand] crossed paths. We played against L.O. [Odom] in the AAU and stuff like that....

“I’m just glad I was fortunate enough to be put in this situation with a great group of guys.”

This is enough to make one look around, to see if he’s really inside the Clippers’ dressing room.

When Richardson and Maggette arrived from Chicago, people said they were cousins. (They aren’t.) Richardson and Miles, from southern Illinois, go everywhere together. Maggette was the first player to speak on behalf of Odom at the emotional news conference. As Gentry noted, Maggette battles for minutes, playing behind Odom.

Richardson and Maggette battle for the same minutes too, but they’re cool.

“Like tonight,” said Richardson, after scoring 21 points Nov. 7 against Memphis. “I had a good game. Corey [who started and scored two] was one of the first guys--when I score, I’m running down the floor, I look at the bench, I see him right there, cheering for me....

“We both want to play but, you know, when the other one’s out there, you’ve got to show love for him.”

Well, it’s not like any other time in Clipper history.

If Odom wants to remain part of it, he’ll have to play his rear end off this season, without further incident. Then, he’ll have to understand if Sterling doesn’t lay $75million on him.

The Clippers can pick up Odom’s option for the 2002-03 season and match any offer for 2003-04, before he hits the open market the next summer.

Meanwhile, Brand will, or should, be offered the maximum, seven-year deal this summer. That’s now the Clipper credibility test. If you haven’t noticed, this has already become Brand’s team, by dint of production and personality.

For Odom, it’s no longer enough to be talented or well-intentioned. From now on, he has to be there.

For the organization, the climb to respectability has only begun. The Clippers have had chances before and blown them but may never have one this good again.

Faces and Figures

Third coming blues: Game 2 in Atlanta (TNT): Washington Wizards trail at halftime, whereupon Michael Jordan, who promised to be patient, blasts them. He finishes with 31 points and Wizards win. “I said a little bit so the guys understand what this is all about,” he says. “It’s not about being on TV so all your relatives can see you or you getting tickets for everybody in Atlanta.” Jordan promises he won’t do it very often.... Game 3 in Washington (NBC): Jordan struggles through 38 minutes in a victory over battered Philadelphia 76ers. Coach Doug Collins says they’ll worry about the next night’s game in Detroit afterward. ... Game 4 in Detroit (first one not on national TV): Wizards are blown out. Jordan gets 19 points in 22 minutes. Collins: “There’s going to be a lot of nights like this.” Jordan: “You would have to define what ‘a lot of nights’ are.... Hopefully we don’t have more than three or four of these over the course of the season. If it gets up to 10 or 12, you’re definitely going to see a frustrated athlete.” ... Game 5 in Boston (TNT): Jordan goes 41 minutes, gets 32 points, locks down Paul Pierce, holding him to two in fourth quarter. Wizards still lose.... Game 6 in Washington: Jordan has 32 points again, only to lose to Golden State. Bottom line: Jordan is good, he’s just not what he was. The Wizards are better, they’re just not a playoff team.... Personal to NBC/Turner: Give it a rest.

More friends who told Jordan to just say no: “I was trying to talk him out of it, trust me,” Magic Johnson says. “Even if they make the playoffs, it’s first round and out, and that’s a big if to do that.... I wanted to remember him switching hands on us, the ball in the right switching in midair to the left, tongue everywhere.”

Nostalgia: “It’s time for me to start doing my thing and, at the same time, start talking to other teams,” Rider said before scoring 28 points against Houston on Friday. “That’s what it looks like to me. Or they will keep me. But I’m not into begging or being persuasive. I know what I can do. They know what I can do.” Happily for the Lakers, this season he’s in Denver.... It has already been a long season: Perhaps unaware he’s a long-term project, new Bull Tyson Chandler, who just turned 19, is complaining: “If we were winning and I’m sitting on the bench, I would be fine. I could understand that.... My cousin is a deacon and he gave me a Bible. He called and said, ‘I sense you’re not doing good right now.’ It’s more of a youth Bible and easier to read, so I can look up words like ‘pain’ or ‘frustration’ and it tells you where to go in the book to look for it.”