Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
In case you missed it last night, the Clippers have officially fired Mike Dunleavy. And they did so with a pretty blunt press release:
The team has simply not made sufficient progress during Dunleavy’s seven-year tenure. The Clippers want to win now. This transition, in conjunction with a full commitment to dedicate unlimited resources, is designed to accomplish that objective.
The parting shots at Dunleavy were harsh but fair. And misleading. Over at Yahoo! Sports,
Adrian Wojnarowski highlights the real issue:
Unless Donald Sterling fires Donald Sterling, nothing changes with the Clippers. He has a chance to save his franchise from himself again, but he won’t do it. He’ll never do it. The Clippers want to win now, he says. Unlimited resources available. Just listen to him. He’s said all this over and over through the years, and nothing ever changes because Sterling still hasn’t fired Sterling.
Sports has a lot of bad owners, but in the NBA, the conversation starts and ends with Sterling. What a terrible, terrible, owner. Aside from being cheap, disloyal, and generally apathetic toward fans and employees alike, he’s also been sued by multiple people for racist business practices with the real estate he owns. Woj hits the nail on the head with this line:
Hey LeBron, come out to L.A.
You can pick your GM, your coach, your teammates.
Anything you want to be a Clipper – you can do anything but rent from me.
You see, it's not just that he's a bad owner. He's a bad person. And as long as he's running the Clippers, that team will never be successful.
(photo via Can't Stop the Bleeding)
5 comments
Comments
I dunno man...
…i still think Chris Cohan’s worse!
Poor Man's Commish - newly relaunched!... http://dreamleague.org/blog
by Poor Man's Commish on Mar 10, 2010 6:45 PM EST reply actions
WOW!! Talk about Yellow Journalism.
Come on, he is a Billionaire do you really think he personally discriminates against people living in one of his complexes? Maybe instead of cutting and pasting content from other news sources, you should do some responsible journalism and research and tell your story.
by sqrebck on Mar 10, 2010 7:12 PM EST reply actions
Here ya go
“A judge ordered Los Angeles Clippers owner and real estate mogul Donald T. Sterling to pay nearly $5 million in fees to plaintiffs’ attorneys in a lawsuit accusing him of discriminating against black and Latino tenants.” — http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=nba&id=2225261
by Ryan Hudson on Mar 10, 2010 8:35 PM EST up reply actions
So Sterling personally did this?
The answer would be no, I am sure a billionaire is not involved in the day to day operations of an office / apartment building. Didn’t he win the NAACP man of the year?
by sqrebck on Mar 11, 2010 12:32 AM EST up reply actions
from a clipper fan
he basically bought the NAACP award and he spends more money on advertising it then he does on advertising the clippers. But in all fairness I am sure he is not the only racist owner in the NBA (it comes with the old rich white guy territory) and he has made some encouraging moves recently in showing that he is willing to spend money on the team to make it competitive i.e. signing Baron Davis, matching Elton Brands offer from Miami (Brand was only our second free agent we ever resigned). But the idea that players get underpaid when they play for the clips or that players leave the clippers and suddenly play better is pure stupidity. Out of all of are free agents that left (since moving to LA) only Lamar Odom has gone on to become a good player and none have become all stars on there new teams. And the one all star that the clippers, Elton Brand has played horribly since leaving the clippers.
Also the idea that the owner affects the decision of a free agent is ludicrous, coaches and other players effect free agents decisions. If I was a player why would I care who the owner was, he is paying my check so I don’t really have a reason to question him. The clippers are going to be fine when it comes to free agents, in fact removing Dunleavy completely will help us. Of course our main objective in this summer is to attempt to sign Lebron and now that we don’t have a coach we can say to Lebron “well who do you want to coach you” then we can get that coach, because who is going to turn down an opportunity to coach “The King” to a championship. And now that Dunleavy is gone that coach no longer has to worry about Dunleavy looking over his shoulder and trying to interfere with his coaching.
LeBron or Bust !!!!
by bestclipfan on Mar 11, 2010 2:52 AM EST up reply actions
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