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)