Baylor was dismissed last fall after 22 years as general manager of the Clippers.

NBA lawyer David G. Gross maintained the league had no authority to hire Baylor, fire him or set up his work schedule. He also said that Baylor's court papers were amass with legal conclusions that were not supported by facts.

The judge disagreed.

"I wish I had a penny for every time I heard that argument," Freeman said. "What are conclusions to one person are operative facts to another."

Baylor's attorney, Alvin L. Pittman, declined Freeman's offer to offer any rebuttal to Gross.

"The court gets it," Pittman said.

Gross said he will bring another motion to dismiss the NBA from the case later.

Freeman also denied a motion by Clippers attorney Douglas L. Walton to strike what he argued in his court papers were "inflammatory arguments and suppositions" by Baylor's lawyers within the suit.

The passages to which Walton objected included one stating that Sterling had a "vision of a Southern plantation-type structure" for the team and that he once told former player Danny Manning: "I'm offering a lot of money for a poor black kid."

Today's court session -- which Baylor did not attend -- was the second since he filed his lawsuit on Feb. 11.

Baylor claims he was "discriminated against and unceremoniously released from his position with the team on account of his age and his race," and that he was "grossly underpaid during his tenure with the Clippers, never earning more than $350,000 per year, when compared with the compensation scheme for general managers employed by every other team in the NBA ."

The NBA is named in the lawsuit as "a joint venturer/partner of condoning, adopting and ratifying this discriminatory practice since the league is fully aware of salaries paid to all of the general managers."

The lawyers told Freeman they will hire a private mediator in hopes of resolving the case without a trial, which the judge set for March 24.

The judge replied that they were wise to try and settle the issues.

"Obviously, this is a very unusual case because of the background of the parties," Freeman said. "But it is very hard on the parties in employment discrimination cases when they go to trial on issues like this, and the results are always unsatisfactory to both sides."

Outside the courtroom, Pittman said he is unsure if Baylor would ever take another job with another NBA team.

"Right now he's overwhelmed by the fact that the NBA could have stepped in and done something about his situation and chose not to," Pittman said.

Baylor, 74, became vice president of Basketball operations with the Clippers in 1986 after a playing career with the Lakers and a brief stint as coach of the New Orleans Jazz.

He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1976, chosen as one of the NBA's 50 greatest players during the league's 50th anniversary celebration in 1997, and named the NBA "executive of the year" following the 2005-06 season.

Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy, now in his sixth season in Los Angeles, added Baylor's GM duties after the Hall of Famer's departure three weeks before the season began. Dunleavy said at the time that Baylor had resigned.