I’ve been doing my best to ignore the tweet-by-tweet coverage of the Donald Sterling legal proceedings, but one tidbit of news caught my attention this week:
The interim CEO of the Los Angeles Clippers testified in state court Tuesday afternoon that coach and team president Doc Rivers has told him on multiple occasions that he doesn’t think he wants to continue as coach if Donald Sterling remains owner of the team.
There’s ZERO chance Doc Rivers resigns if Donald Sterling remains owner. ZERO.
Doc is doing his best to pressure the league to somehow influence the process and get the Clippers out of Sterling’s racist mitts.
The comments about Doc, along with the lack of movement on the coaching front by one particular organization, has spawned a silly conspiracy theory:
Amid all the unanswered questions who the Lakers will hire as their next head coach and when, two team sources strongly disputed that any delay stems from waiting out to see if Clippers coach Doc Rivers will become available because of embattled owner Donald Sterling prolonging a costly litigation battle.
ESPN’s Bill Simmons and Jalen Rose each brought up that prospective theory on why the Lakers have gone three months without hiring a coach since Mike D’Antoni’s resignation on April 30. Clippers interim Chief executive Dick Parsons also testified in court Tuesday that Rivers does not want to continue to coach if Sterling still owns the team next season.
Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak stood before a bunch of microphones, tape recorders and cameras, but his presence on Wednesday at the team’s practice facility in El Segundo hardly cleared up the uncertainty on where the team stands with its coaching vacancy.
Let’s play along and say Doc quits his current gig with the Clippers. A gig that includes total control of basketball operations on a championship caliber team.
You want me to believe that he would take a demotion with the Lakers – a team with a bumbling owner and aging, overpaid superstar that’s headed for a major overhaul?
No freakin’ way.
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