Aug. 9, 1999
SportsLine wire reports

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Clippers held onto promising forward

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	T O P   N E W S

Tyrone Nesby, matching an offer sheet made earlier Monday by the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs.

The Clippers had 12 days to match the multiyear offer, which reportedly was a three-year deal worth $8.9 million, but needed just a few hours to make up their minds.

"There was never was any question that we would re-sign Tyrone Nesby and doing so was one of our top priorities this summer," Clippers vice president of basketball operations Elgin Baylor said.

The Spurs were looking to fill the void created by the illness of starting forward Sean Elliott, who needs a kidney transplant and likely will miss the 1999-2000 season. They will have to do it with someone other than Nesby, who was the Clippers' best rookie last season.

It is a huge raise for Nesby, an undrafted rookie free agent who made the league minimum of $287,500 last season after spending the 1997-98 season in the CBA.

Under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, free agents with less than three years experience are restricted and subject to offer sheets, which the player's most recent team has 12 days to match. The Clippers waited less than 12 hours.

Nesby, 23, was one of just two Clippers to play in every game last season. He averaged 10.1 points per game, more than center Michael Olowokandi and forward Brian Skinner, the team's two 1998 first-round picks.

The 6-foot-6 Nesby also averaged 3.5 rebounds. He shot 45 percent from the field and 36.5 percent (35-of-96) from 3-point range. He scored a team season-high 30 points in a season-ending loss to Seattle.

An alumnus of Nevada-Las Vegas, Nesby is the second free agent the Clippers have re-signed. On Friday, they re-signed guard Eric Piatkowski to a reported four-year, $12 million deal.

Guard Sherman Douglas is the only remaining prominent free agent for the Clippers, who opted not to re-sign guard Darrick Martin and forward Rodney Rogers while working sign-and-trade deals that sent swingman Lamond Murray to Cleveland and forward-center Lorenzen Wright to Atlanta.

The Clippers finished last season with the second-worst record in the league at 9-41 and missed the playoffs by 14 games. They used the fourth overall pick in the draft on swingman Lamar Odom, who remains unsigned.