Some nice highlights here, though I would have moved Blake Griffin’s reverse dunk up a few spots and swapped #2 for #1, but I’m nitpicking. Take a look…
Tag: Blake Griffin (Page 5 of 8)
The first dunk is amazing enough, but wait until you see the second one…wow.
Funny read by the T.J. Simers of the L.A. Times, who interviewed Donald Sterling at a recent team event:
A couple of months ago this was going to be the summer of all summers for the Clippers, a fresh start, a chance to hire a new coach, $17 million in cap space to go after LeBron or other big names like him and make a huge splash.
And so they signed Randy Foye and Ryan Gomes.
Or, as Sterling put it, “If I really called the shots we wouldn’t have signed Gomes and what’s the other guy’s name?
“You know, they told me if we built a new practice facility we’d attract all the top players in the game,” Sterling adds. “I guess I should have doubled the size of this place.”
Good stuff. Simers asked Sterling about how the public dispute with former coach and GM Mike Dunleavy might have affected LeBron’s decision:
Sterling says he can’t understand why LeBron didn’t listen more intently to the Clippers’ overtures, which included $100 million and unstated things being done by Staples Center to enhance the L.A. invite.
But picture LeBron sitting there, free agency yet to begin, and reports out of Los Angeles the Clippers are pinching pennies and embroiled in a public dispute with their former coach and last two GMs.
“If you resign from The Times, what rights do you have?” Sterling says. “The lawyers say [Dunleavy] quit.”
He says the NBA deals in litigation every day, missing the point the Clippers cannot afford such messy nonsense when trying to rehab a horrendous reputation.
“In the overall picture,” Sterling continues, “[Dunleavy’s] situation is not that important.”
Reminded again he’s in charge of the Clippers, as well as the lawyers, and he owns almost every building on and off Wilshire in Beverly Hills — why not just take care of Dunleavy and avoid such a public embarrassment?
“And not listen to the lawyers?” he says.
Sterling has a reputation for being a penny pincher, but he has been willing to spend of late. Still, the organization is a joke. In the last 34 seasons, the Clippers have made it out of the first round of the playoffs once — once! — and during that span, they’ve only made the playoffs four times. In a league that rewards poor play by giving teams early picks in the draft, that level of ineptitude is mind-boggling.
However, there is hope in the form of Blake Griffin, who looks like he can be the real deal if he can only stay healthy. It’s going to take a superstar with a big heart (a la Kevin Durant) to drag this franchise out of the doldrums and back to respectability.
Is Griffin that guy? Only time will tell?
“What’s the other guy’s name?”
Classic.
Anyone outside of his entourage who claims to know what LeBron is going to do is being disingenuous. He loves the fact that he’s the center of attention even though the playoffs are still in full swing. He often speaks of July 1 in grandiose terms and that’s because, like most superstars, he has a very high opinion of himself.
That said, I found myself rooting for the Celtics in their series with the Cavs because as a writer, Cleveland’s early exit throws LeBron’s future to the wind. He could land any number of places.
Though the LeBron Tracker makes me a little nauseous, I thought I’d take a stab at handicapping where King James might end up. I’ll include the six teams that ESPN deemed worthy of making the top banner and add the Mavs for good measure. For each team, I’ll outline why he’d sign and why he wouldn’t. I’ll also rank (on a scale of 1-10) how he fits from a personnel standpoint.
In terms of fit, I look to the last few premier wings who have broken through and won at least one title as the best player on their team. I’m talking about Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, Dwyane Wade and Michael Jordan. What do they have in common? Kobe, Pierce and Wade all played with top notch big men — Gasol, Garnett and Shaq, respectively — while Jordan had Scottie Pippen. In other words, they all got to play with another All-NBA (Top 15) caliber player when they won their title.
They also enjoyed good coaching. Jordan and Kobe had Phil Jackson, Wade had Pat Riley and Doc Rivers did a great job of coaching the ’08 Celtics. They were also all surrounded by good shooters who could make teams pay for double-teaming their respective superstar.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at the major players in line for LeBron’s services and try to handicap their chances of signing the league’s most valuable player.
CAVS (25%)
Why he’ll sign: Loyalty, comfort, familiarity. He’s from the area and he doesn’t want to leave town after an early postseason exit, as it would effectively destroy basketball in the city of Cleveland. Shaq will be gone and there’s an opportunity for an upgrade at head coach.
Why he won’t sign: Too much baggage. The franchise has had seven years to build around him and they’ve made just one Finals appearance. Suspect flexibility with the roster.
Fit: 5/10 The Cavs have a pretty good shooter at power forward (Antawn Jamison) and a good shooter at point guard (Mo Williams), but neither player is even average on defense. There are a lot of solid-to-good players on the roster, but no one approaches the Top 15 sidekick that helped the aforementioned wings win their titles. It’s tough to find that kind of player via trade, but that’s how Gasol, Garnett and Shaq came to play for the Lakers, Celtics and Heat. Cap-wise, if they re-sign LeBron, they won’t have any cap space to speak of until the summer of 2012 when Jamison’s salary is off the books.
FOLLOW US!
CATEGORIES
© 2026 The Scores Report – The National Sports Blog
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑