1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Wednesday. “CLIPPERS-CROSSROADS”
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‘CLIPPERS IN CHAOS’
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The Clippers seemed cursed.
If it is not the history of the owner Donald Sterling and all the uncouth things he did running the San Diego Clippers who became the dysfunctional LA Clippers, then it’s this most recent stretch of failure, disappointments and injuries.
You remember the hopeless Sterling leadership days. The lifetime of injuries to Bill Walton. The constant changing of coaches. The low budget rosters. The bad teams. The empty arenas. The hopeless leadership of GM-Elgin Baylor. All that right up to the final days of the racist-sexist comments that led to the NBA removal of the disgraced Sterling.
There is new leadership atop the organizational chart, in Steve Ballmer, who has blazed a trail of great business success. He wants to win, knows how to build good organizations, and has lavished great contracts on the star players he has brought in.
He is building his own arena which the Clippers will move into next fall.
But like so many other years in the past, it has not worked out.
The Clippers were built to win and get to the finals, in the era of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. They got hurt, they broke down, they never got there and the team was broken up.
Fast forward to this hour, the decision to bring home the ex-Spur-Toronto superstar Kahwhi Leonard. The deal to acquire legendary scorer Paul George. And then the deal for James Harden and the acquisition of Russell Westbrook.. All for naught.
And now the Clippers are like the Lakers, at a crossroads, what to do with an injured and aging roster.
The Clippers want to keep their coach Tyronn Lue. They would like to retain their big three, but George can opt out and Harden can leave for another club to test his free agent status at age 35.
And there is the deteriorating status of the chronic right knee of a suddenly old and hurt Leonard.
The Clippers could lose two of the three. They’d have to rebuild from outside with free agent money they’d have. There seems to be no load management strategy for Kawhi.
There are 4-years of frustration now at Ballmer’s front door, for all the right moves they have made, nothing worked out.
What a tough summer ahead. The players could make this work if they re-sign. They could destroy all of Ballmer’s efforts if they exit.
At a crossroads, hoping they don’t head into chaos. Nothing has worked out for the LA Clippers, and things look worse now than they have in years, and that says alot for a team that came thru the error-filled era of Donald Sterling.
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