After being booed each time he touched the ball by the home crowd in the Staples Center against the Memphis Grizzlies, free-agent-to-be Michael Olowonkandi had some choice words to say in retaliation, putting the crowd down and making it clear that he wouldn't be playing for their team next season.

"I think sometimes they want to find a scapegoat," Olowokandi said after scoring six points and grabbing ten rebounds. "I've been here for five years, and I did publicly state I wasn't going to be back next year, which I still will publicly say. I'm not going to be back here next year, so they can go ahead and boo. It doesn't matter."

"We can't really worry about that," he added of the booing. "The NBA is all about `What have you done for me lately?' "

Clippers GM Elgin Baylor and coach Alvin Gentry were nothing short of disappointed in the way Olowonkandi handled the situation, saying their center should focus more on playing the game than what the crowd is doing.

"I don't want to get into this," said Elgin Baylor Olowokandi's postgame statement that he wouldn't be playing for the team next season, "So if they want to boo, they can go right ahead and boo."

"He should play basketball and give his best effort every night and every afternoon. That's what he gets paid to do, play basketball. He should be thankful the fans are still coming out. [Despite] the way we've been playing, they've stuck by us. The way we've been playing I wanted to stand up and boo us."

"He needs to learn to keep his mouth shut. It certainly doesn't help the situation. If he plays well, the fans will respond to him. They have been very positive in the past."

Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Times writes that, according to one locker room witness, Gentry had asked Olowokandi not to say anything to reporters about the fans' jeering of him.

"I would have preferred that he leave it alone," Gentry, who also praised Olowonkandi's efforts in his post-match address, said. "He's a grown man, but I don't know what good could come out of it. You put a huge burden on yourself when you start talking to the fans. If I responded to all the fans said about me, I'd be a basket case."

Olowonkandi was fined $50,000 by the team last season after speaking out about how the uncertainty of several players eligible to become free agents was tied to the team's selfish play at times.  The fine was later rescinded after Olowonkandi apologised.