I can recall a time a few years ago, I would read the sports section of the L.A. Times every Sunday morning. One of the writers whose name I can’t recall, would periodically write open letters to the owner of the Clippers, Donald Sterling. Most of the content consisted of how terrible an owner he was and how he should sell the team. Me, always rooting for the underdog and wanting the Clippers to “shock the world” always thought the writer was being a bit unfair.
Oh what a difference access to information makes. In a Yahoo report, it was revealed that Donald Stern has been heckling Baron Davis during recent games.
“Why are you in the game?”
“Why did you take that shot?”
“You’re out of shape!”
I know that Baron Davis hasn’t panned out the way Clipper Nation envisioned but how unprofessional is it that you have the team’s owner yelling insults courtside?
What sort of message is this action sending to superstar-in-the-making Blake Griffin? Not that he probably hasn’t already been plotting his escape but is it a far reach to think that he may not have been bitten by the “losing bug” yet? If anything, it says this place is will never escape the label given it because it sucks from the inside out.
Donald Sterling doesn’t care about putting together a winning environment. He obviously doesn’t care how future free agents view the landscape of Clipperdom. The Clippers are an asset that isn’t losing it’s value or money. Quite the opposite in fact, Sterling makes quite a profit of the Clippers so any hopes that he’ll sell the franchise to someone that actually cares about the game are fairy tales. It’ such a sad situation because there are times (and right now is one of them) that the Clippers have the pieces to put together a nice team and give the Western Conference some fight. Alas, they looked doomed to forever dwell in failure.
My heart is heavy for Clipper Nation and even worst for “Clipper Darell”. He’s an actual season ticketholder.
::sheds a tear::
