Jul

13

You Lost Dunleavy, Get Over It!

Posted by Jeff Sack under NBA Free Agents, SDC COMMENTARY 

I admired Mike Dunleavy Sr. as a NBA player, he did not have a lot of athletic ability, or talent but he got the most of out of what gifts he had. He was a gutty kind of player, a guy you knew who would go through walls for you if he could. I would rather have someone on my team like Dunleavy with limited skills, but a great attitude, than somebody who was the opposite (I’ve covered players like that, no names please.)

I have never really had the same admiration for Dunleavy as a coach. Yes, he took the Los Angeles Lakers to the NBA Finals but lost in five games to the Chicago Bulls. But other than that what has he truly accomplished??He ran the whole operation with the Milwaukee Bucks in the mid-nineties and ended up getting fired. He had tons of talent in Portland, and ended up with “Team Dysfunctional.”? After he got fired? by the Blazers in 2001, some of my fellow media members in Cleveland?were campaigning for Dunleavy to be hired as coach of the Cavaliers. My thoughts were if he could not win with talent in Portland, what chance did he have with the lack-lustre Cleveland team? Instead he was hired by the Los Angeles Clippers, where he has been at best a mediocre coach.

You may remember him getting into an argument in the media with Clippers Team owner Donald Sterling last season. Sterling basically threatening, Dunleavy, and General Manager Elgin Baylor with the possible loss of their jobs if the team performance did not?improve. Dunleavy fired back that if Sterling thought he could get someone better than Dunleavy as coach to go ahead and do it. Sterling’s bluff called he backed off, Dunleavy, and Baylor are back in good graces. And you know what, that’s the way things should be it’s almost poetic. A mediocre coach for a mediocre team.

Historically, the Clippers have always been one of the lesser lights in the NBA. For years Elgin Baylor would draft?quality players, and they would then leave via free agency, as Sterling kept expenses low. That has changed over the last few years, but the Clippers usually can be counted on to land in the Lottery. July 1, it looked like things were about to change for the better for L.A.’s second NBA team. But as the late great John Lennon said “Life is what happens while we are busy making other plans.”??

Clippers forwards Elton Brand and Corey Maggette each opted out of the final years of their contracts, thus making them free agents. Golden State Warriors point guard Baron Davis also opted out of the final year of his contract. All indications are, that Brand convinced Davis to make a verbal commitment to the Clippers. Brand said he would take less money, in the hopes that Davis could make? the Clippers contenders. Davis agreed, and made the commitment. But a new element came into the picture.

The Philadelphia 76ers made an offer to Brand, and Brand was intrigued. Philadelphia without Brand gave the Detroit Pistons all they could handle in the first round of the NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs. With the veteran, the Sixers?would become instantly a dominant team in the East. Brand and his agent David Falk, agreed to a deal, and next season Brand will play in a Philadelphia uniform.

Dunleavy went ballistic! He told ESPN that Falk had poisoned Brand’s mind against the Clippers. No Coach, the truth is Brand after suffering in purgatory since 2001, wanted to finally?be on a?contender. The Sixers have a much greater shot of going further next season than the Clippers even with Baron Davis. The truth is Coach you sound more like a spurned lover, than someone who lost a player to a better deal. Coach life is unfair, you either deal with it, or you give up. But please stop whining and get over it, you lost plain and simple.

? Copyright 2008 thesackattack.net??



Comments

Leave a Reply