Clipper Darrell: Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan Smart to Nix Support of Fan

Darrell Bailey, an 11-year season ticket-holder for the Los Angeles Clippers and better known as Clipper Darrell, is one of the NBA's best known fans. The Clippers don't want to associate with him anymore, however, and while some players jumped to his defense, they made the right call in backing down.

According to Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles, the Clippers have asked Clipper Darrell to stop using the team name during public appearances and in business ventures. This apparently angered some of the Clipper players, as Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan all tweeted in his defense.

Jimmy Traina of Sports Illustrated is reporting that both Griffin and Jordan have removed their tweets, however. While Traina suggests that the reason for the removal of the tweets is tyrannical behavior by the team's front office, Griffin and Jordan were smart to do so.

All the players and fellow fans see with regards to Clipper Darrell is his passion as a fan. Because of that, it was likely a natural reaction for the players to rush to his aid. What players and fans don't see, however, is the manner in which Bailey uses the Clipper Darrell name.

In a statement released by the Clippers, the team detailed the reasoning behind Bailey's claims that the team wanted to absolve its relationship with him. In the statement, the organization said that it was Bailey's offer to remove "Clipper" from his stage name, and that the team accepted it.

The team also said that Bailey continually used the name to suggest that he was affiliated with the team in some way even though he wasn't an employee. In addition to that, the Clippers hit Bailey where it hurts, as they suggested that despite his red and blue suit and wild antics, he isn't even a fan of the team.

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He is not actually a fan of the Clippers, but a fan of what he can make off of the Clippers.

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Call the Clippers' reaction harsh if you will, but I tend to side with them in this instance. The multi-million-dollar organization is always going to catch a lot of flak in instances such as this one because there is a perception that they are holding down a diehard fan.

While Bailey's act may have started out as that of a true fan, the fact that he is exploiting the organization for his own personal gain is wrong. It's likely that Griffin and Jordan weren't aware of that when they tweeted their support for Bailey. The front office likely explained the situation to Griffin and Jordan, and they subsequently removed their tweets.

Traina may think that the Clippers forced Griffin and Jordan to remove their tweets, but that doesn't hold a lot of weight since Paul didn't do the same. Perhaps the organization educated the players on Bailey's use of the Clipper Darrell name, and they subsequently drew their own conclusions.

In the statement, the Clippers said that they continually helped Bailey by providing him with seats when he needed them. That certainly doesn't sound like a malicious organization that is trying to hold an innocent fan down. People try to make money off things they have no business with all the time in this country, and the Clippers did something about Bailey.

If Bailey had agreed to stop portraying himself as a member of the organization in public appearances, then I highly doubt the Clippers would have had any problem with his shtick. None of us know for sure the extent to which Bailey was using the organization for his own personal gain, but it seems likely that he was.

Jordan and Griffin could have remained defiant and continued to support Bailey, but it would have been bad for their respective relationships with the front office. Ultimately, they likely realized that the Clippers wouldn't pick on Bailey for no reason, and that is something that the general public must come to grips with as well.