"You think you were surprised by Blake Griffin's Saturday night hood wink?

Donald Sterling purposely wasn't told until Friday.

"Yeah, I waited to tell my owner until the night before," admitted Clippers President Andy Roeser on Tuesday. "I just thought it was best to not worry him."

What exactly did you tell him?

"I told him that Blake Griffin was going to dunk over a car, and that I had seen him do it six straight times in rehearsal, and it wasn't going to be problem," recalled Roeser.

How exactly did Sterling respond?

"He said, 'You better be right.' "

It is the dunk contest that keeps soaring and slamming, four days now and counting, everyone still talking about Saturday's All-Star spectacular, with the critical eyes now directed at Griffin's employers.

Some folks are asking, how could the Clippers allow their best asset to take a flying leap and risk career-ending injury for the sake of a silly dunk contest? Yet others are asking, how could they not?

I'm one of the others. I thought the Clippers played it perfectly, allowing their best player to stretch his young imagination while quietly ensuring that he didn't reach too far, showing respect while gaining it in return.

You want to build organizational loyalty and plant the seeds for future commitments that would keep a young star from eventually jumping your team?

Nod your head when he says he wants to jump a car.

"My initial reaction was, 'Gee, I don't think that's such a good idea," said Roeser, who first heard about the plan last month. "But then Blake got the message to us that we shouldn't worry about it and, at the end of the day, because he's already done so many unbelievable things for us, we trusted that he could do one more.""