Clippers Organizational Problems Exposed
Mr. Sterling is the only one smiling in Clipperland. Picture courtesy of LA Times.
The Los Angeles Clippers are the longest running joke in the NBA and maybe in sports history. A recent article published in Fanhouse by senior NBA writer Sam Amick described the reality that management has not paid former employees for the remainder of their contracts and will continue to be embroiled in a challenge with former head coach Mike Dunleavy over the question of whether he was fired or if he quit.
I don’t know how much more hits this organization can take. I mean, doesn’t it just get to the point where it is embarrassing and you don’t want to be seen in public if you are working for Donald Sterling. The man has clearly found the formula for making money without spending any to put out a good product and when he does act like he cares, he signs off on horrible moves and blames it on his GM.
The Clippers have had 2 winning seasons in their history in Los Angeles. 2 WINNING SEASONS!!!! They took Michael Olowokandi with a No. 1 overall pick. They let a major part of their core in Elton Brand backdoor them in the 2008 off-season. Blake Griffin hurt his leg before he played even one regular season game. The Lakers toy with them every year and they are considered the basketball wasteland of the NBA. Players either go to Clipperland to let their careers die or play themselves for the next big ticket out of hell…
What is most frustrating about this situation is that its not like this team has not had talent. Remember the days of Odom, D. Miles, Q-Rich, Dooling, McInnis, Maggette and the high flying young kids who looked like they were gonna be the next generation of basketball in Los Angeles after the Kobe-Shaq dynasty?
People say this team has talent, but I’m not buying it. Baron Davis looks like he wants no part of it. Chris Kaman constantly questions the team’s management. Blake Griffin tries to see the positive but I see something different. I see a guy knowing that he has 3 more years left on his rookie contract and then he can get out if it doesn’t work out. I see Eric Gordon the same way. I see a bunch of low to mid level talented players that have peaked with the exceptions of Gordon, Griffin and Kaman. Baron Davis still has not recovered from the fact that Elton Brand screwed him over and he looks like he’s more into his post-basketball career than his current occupation.
Donald Sterling has created a depressing atmosphere for his employees yet he’s still profiting and he’s still being allowed to conduct this nonsense under David Stern’s look the other way stance. I’m sorry for all the actual hard-core Clipper fans in LA but if you want to really make a statement to Sterling, then stop going to his games, stop watching his games and protest everything he does to the point he’s so embarrassed that he’ll have no choice but to sell the team. Destroy his properties (don’t really do that), call him every low blow name in the book, call him a racist, call him a snake, call him an a–. Do everything in your power to get him to sell the team. Run him out of town. I mean, come on LA, you guys know how to get rowdy. I’m talking region-wide protests from Downtown to the old Anaheim Pond. Get rid of him!!! I don’t even care about the Clippers but I’m sick of their fans being subjected to horrible ownership.
