Brand Losing The Blame-Game

Remember in "Jerry Maguire" when Cush (the star football player) and his father met with Jerry (the agent) in their living room and Cush's dad said that he doesn't sign contracts, but he shook hands with Jerry and said, "what you have is my word, and it's stronger than oak"? And just as the two shook hands, they flashed to a closeup of the hands coming together and you got the feeling that everything was going to be ok - or it was going to go horribly wrong - but there was no in between.

And then later, Cush's dad signed a contract with Jerry's arch-enemy Bob Sugar the night before the NFL draft. And Cush said that he was suffering from Cush-lash because he had been seeing his own picture everywhere he went. Right now Clipper fans are suffering from Cush-lash.

In the he-said-they-said battle of what really happened the week before Elton Brand signed with the 76ers, we may never know what really happened, but we can't stop hearing about it. When Brand signed, he was a little vague about what had happened but it seemed to be that he had wanted to stay a Clipper, but that he didn't hear from them, and that there had been no verbal deal made.

Clipper head coach Mike Dunleavy was adamant Thursday that the Clippers had gone out of their way to contact Brand, that they offered more money than Philly, that they were willing to offer one more year to the deal, they did not offer a take-it-or-leave-it deal, that they had upheld their end of the handshake deal they'd made and went out and gotten Baron Davis, and most importantly he was adamant that there had been a handshake deal...and Brand and his agent wouldn't return their calls. He went so far as to show that he had text messages on his phone from Brand confirming how excited his was for next year and said that other players had similar texts.

How can these sides, which had been so close and friendly only days earlier, be so far apart on what happened? The common thought right now is that just like Cush would probably never have turned his back on Jerry if not for his dad's interference, Brand would likely not have turned his back on the Clipper without his agent's interference.

The problem with this theory is that Brand wound up signing the cheapest deal offered to him. Sure agents want to get their names out there and Brand's agent did that by making this story blow up as big as it did. But they also want to get their names out there showing athletes that they will make a lot of money if they sign with him. And since the agent gets a percentage of the deal, they will go for the biggest deal possible. Why would the agent have hurt his own rep and taken a smaller cut?

I am ok with a guy deciding to go to a team closer to his home to raise his family. I am ok with a guy going to a team on which he feels he has a better chance to win, despite that his new team is worse than the one he left. Those are the two big reasons that Brand supposedly left. The problem I have is that Brand never gave those reasons, reporters suggested them.

Baron Davis was charming and laughing and said a few times in his Clipper press conference that he never thought of backing out on the Clippers because he had given his word. He even looked directly into the camera and said it with a wink. Davis got where he wanted and made the money he wanted, so he can't be too upset, but at the same time, he got screwed by his friend just like the rest of us did.

Sports is business and Elton Brand did not owe anybody anything. He can move his family any place in the world that he wants. People change their minds. But for him to say that there was no verbal deal and that it isn't his fault is insulting to Davis, to the Clippers and to the fans. He's always been a good buy and now it is backfiring because he doesn't have the a-hole in him to just come out and say, "I did tell them I was going to come back, but I decided that I didn't want to be there anymore and changed my mind."

Davis spoke his mind and explained his story. Dunleavy emotionally spoke his mind and explained the Clippers' story. Brand hasn't said a word besides almost blaming the Clippers for not bowing down far enough in reverence to him. They let their leading scorer go without a goodbye and signed the one free agent Brand had said he wanted, then offered him a more lucrative and longer deal than the team he went to did. How much more respect could they have shown?

Screw Elton Brand

This is the second time Elton Brand tried to leave the Clippers. The first time they matched the Heat's offer and and he was stuck with the contract that has just now expired. This time he said he wanted to stay if they went out and got help and they went out and got the best player available. So he bolts for more money anyway.

We all always thought Brand was somehow different. Classier. A team guy. Turns out he's just like the rest of him. Screw him.

People will blame this on the Clippers' management, which generally speaking deserves every bit of criticism it has ever received. But in the last six years, that old frugal perception is just not there. They have tried to spend the money on the right players. They have drafted well (mostly). They have made some great personnell moves (mostly). They upheld their end of the bargain here and Brand screwed them.

So they just lost 40 points from their starters with Corey Maggette leaving as well. Baron Davis is good, but he isn't that good and at this point, I wouldn't be shocked if he backs out of his verbal agreement like Brand did.

So much for following the NBA next season.

Brand New Era For The Clippers?

Tomorrow is the fateful day when we will find out if I will watch any NBA next season. With the Clippers being led by Corey Maggette and Dan Dickau last year, it was a little tough to handle, even with Chris Kaman and Al Thornton playing well. But last week there was this momentous day when it was revealed that the Clippers had come to terms with Baron Davis and Elton Brand had opted out of his contract so that he could sign back for less, allowing the Davis deal to happen.

It was huge news in Los Angeles. It wasn't the Lakers signing Ron Artest, but it was huge news. Both major sports talk stations did seemingly 24-hours of Baron Davis-talk. How good would the Clippers be? Clearly they'd be a playoff team, but what seed? 7? 6? 5? Might they even host a playoff series? One station even went so far as to recreate Ozzie Osbourne's "Mama, I'm Coming Home," inserting Baron Davis returning to L.A. as the theme - "Baron is coming hoooo-oooo-oooome..." They called it "Baron Davis Day" on ESPN radio.

We only had to wait till July 9 before teams could officially announce any deals and then it would be all sunshine and happiness until next June.

Then the next day the Warriors offered Elton Brand a max-contract. No. That couldn't happen right? Why leave LA (a dismal franchise with a suddenly bright immediate future) for Golden State (a dismal franchise)? Could the money be that worth it? Doesn't he love it here and have movie-industry aspirations? No, Elton was staying.

But little by little, as the week has worn on, more teams have come out and made huge offers to Brand. Could you turn down $100 million dollars? I mean are the Clippers really title contenders? It is not like Brand-Davis-Thornton are Garnett-Allen-Pierce, right? ESPN's Marc Stein wrote Monday night, "the Philadelphia 76ers are again 'actively involved' in the Brand hunt -- and now are a very serious threat to tempt him away from L.A." I can already see the headlines with "Elton" and "Philadelphia Freedom" references galore.

As I write this, there are about 8 hours until July 9th and I am not quite as confident about that 4-seed as I was last week...to say nothing of the fact that even with Davis and Brand, we Clipper fans will be relying on the near miraculous recoveries of about half of the team, bolstered by the signing of a guy who makes Grant Hill look like Cal Ripken Jr., on a franchise that has seen devastating injuries to perhaps its two greatest new additions, Danny Manning and Ron Harper.

Laker fans are mad because the team came up 39 points short of Game 7 of the NBA Finals. The Clippers were about 39 games short of Game 7 of the NBA finals! So the good news is that whatever happens tomorrow, rooting for the Clippers is nice because it doesn't hurt all that much when they lose and if they finish a season .500 it feels like they won the Finals, Super Bowl, and World Series!

Andre Ethier Is A Potty-Mouth

Last night I worked as the censor for KCAL's Dodgers broadcast. Basically, I sit in a tiny closet off of the Master Control room that has four chairs, 12 computer screens and 6 TVs and wear headphones and listen to the game. I watch a live feed of the game and the one you see at home is on a five second delay. If I hear any bad language, I press the little gray button that mutes the feed (I like to call this the Larry Bowa button). If Justin Timberlake runs into the booth and pulls out Vin Scully's boob, or if Brad Penny does a Ned Braden and does a striptease on the pitcher's mound, then I press the giant, red, "no whammies-no whammies" button that cuts the video and audio feeds. I only had to hit the mute button once: Andre Ethier was a little upset after a terrible swing at a terrible pitch struck him out.

It is decent work during baseball season. I have to listen pretty closely because Dodger fans are the same people who root for the Raiders, so the ambient crowd noise is generally pretty foul. But listening to Scully makes it OK, even when I have to watch an utterly uneventful game between a team I don't care about and one I can't stand...with an hour and fifteen minute rain delay. Just think if I had to listen to Charlie Steiner! I would have thrown myself off of the building by the second inning.

I have done this for the Lakers as well and it is awful. There is infinitely more swearing at basketball games, probably because there are more microphones closer to the players and fans. Plus I have to listen to Stu Lantz, who every year seems to be just getting the hang of English like he'd just learned it in the off-season. Plus, if I wanted to see that much whining, I wouldn't watch Kobe, I would just go home and talk to my [this joke was editing for my own well-being, I love you, honey].

Rapid fire on Wednesday's news:

-This site had way more hits in West Hollywood than anywhere else in the world. [Insert joke here] I will keep a running tally on this because I like stats and am a loser. West Hollywood, thank you. I am also 83 cents richer thank to you folks clicking the ads. Hawaii here I come!

-Elton Brand is back! Woohoo! He looked good and he fired them up when he was on the bench. Too bad this didn't happen at home, but a road win is a great thing for the Clips! Congratulations to one of the really good guys in sports! Welcome back.

-Dodger fans, enjoy Andruw Jones. Sure, he is only 2 for 10 on the season, but will improve. After all, he hit .222 in his contract year last year. And he made a few nice catches last night. He also blew a play, making Andre Ethier look like a doofus, allowed a run to score and possibly cost them the game. Oopsies!

-Screw Hung Chi Kuo for flipping his bat when he hit that home run off of John Maine last year. He should have been beaned.

-Kansas City is the best team in baseball. Detroit blows.

-MLB needs instant replay on homers, foul balls, and catches.

-The force-out is now legal in the NFL, but you can't pick a guy up and carry him out of bounds. This will make for some awesome highlight hits on sidelines. Well done NFL owners.

-Attendance at the Marlins' opener was 38,308 (105% of capacity but don't ask me how that's possible...I guess people were going piggyback or sitting on shoulders). Game 2: 15,117. Game 3: 13,720. Just move them to Portland and get it over with.

-Former Marquette men's hoops coach Tom Crean was hired by Indiana. Great for Crean! Strange by Indiana because he is neither a jerk, nor a crook.

-Considering the existence of the goal from the 1996 NCAA Tourney game between Michigan and Minnesota that is at 1:02 on this highlight reel, no hockey goal seems all that great, but Sidney Crosby's last night was pretty awesome (I can't find a link...watch SportsCenter, it will be the play of the week).

-Speaking of Canada (kinda), this is a great story about how angry Americans get when they thought their town was handed over as a Canadian territory.

-April 2 is the anniversary of the death of my dad's all-time favorite ballplayer, Gil Hodges. During last night's telecast, they came back from a break early so Vin Scully could mention the date and say, "Gil Hodges is the perfect role model of all the players I have ever met." And Scully has met a lot of players. Are you listening Cooperstown?

I'll be out of town through Sunday. Be strong without me.

Elton Brand Is Back...I Think

Being a Clipper fan is a strange experience. I certainly think I get to enjoy the good times more than most sports fans do, because they are few and far between. But rooting for this team has not been easy over the years.

Drafting Danny Manning should have changed the franchise. Then he blew out his knee. Signing Ron Harper should have changed the franchise. Then he blew out his knew. Sean Livingston should have changed the franchise. Then he blew out his knee. Elton Brand did change the franchise. Then he blew out his ankle.

Sure, a lot of the blame over the years has to fall on management and ownership. They have made some terrible moves, but every organization has. No organization has this kind of luck. So the Cubs haven't won in a while. How many times has their franchise savior suffered these types of injuries?

Now they are winding down another dismal season that had glimmers of what could be, or maybe what could have been. The light at the end of the tunnel is that Elton Brand is possibly going to make his season debut Thursday night. I would give you more information about it, but when I go to Clippers.com, it opens with a screen about the dance team, and I really just can't get past that. I think the normal Clippers' home page is still there somewhere, but it is hard to read the words on the screen, so I don't try.

Out of curiosity, I went to Spurs.com, just to see if this dance-team-on-the-home-page thing is league wide. Guess what the Spurs have on their team home page? Basketball news. Same with the Lakers, Rockets, Celtics, Jazz, Suns, Mavericks, etc. The Hornets, Warriors, Hawks and some of the other rare playoff qualifiers have playoff ticket pre-sale screens on their homepages.

But with all the bad luck and losing, there are some perks to being a Clipper fan (besides the dance team even!). Tickets and parking are cheaper than Laker games. Better seats are always available. Ralph Lawler is the best in the business (besides Marv Albert). As I said, the good times are so much sweeter. I am not disappointed with a 30-win season, because I remember three 17-win seasons, a 15-win season and a 12-win season. Who doesn't love hating Danny Ferry. Loy Vaught was awesome. And best of all is Clipper Darrell (and if you have not been to a Clipper home game in the last decade, yes he is real and yes he is really loud).