The Los Angeles Clippers are reportedly having some issues behind closed doors, and a recent hire from team owner Steve Ballmer may be the reason for that.
In a series of tweets last month, Bill Simmons insisted that the Clippers are just as dysfunctional now as they were when Donald Sterling was running the show.
“Steve Ballmer seems like a nice enough guy. Donald Sterling was one of the worst human being who ever owned a pro sports franchise. With that said — since last summer, the Ballmer Clips have been just as much of disaster behind the scenes as the Sterling Clips were,” Simmons wrote. “Ballmer has shown ZERO evidence that he knows what he’s doing. And it’s been the best kept secret in the NBA for 15-16 months.
“The Clips organization has been as dysfunctional as ever — not just the team but especially off the court. It’s a laundry list of things.”
TMZ is now reporting that a lot of that dysfunction centers around president of business operations Gillian Zucker, who was hired by Ballmer in November to handle all things business-related within the franchise.
In addition to being the head coach, Doc Rivers is also the president of basketball operations for the Clippers. He is supposed to be in charge of building teams and handling on-court stuff, but apparently Zucker is trying to influence Doc’s side of things.
But we’re told Zucker has been increasingly more involved on the basketball side … inserting herself into things like player development and playing time decisions … and it’s leaving many people confused, since she’s often not on the same page as Doc.
The way it’s being described to us … it’s like if you have 2 bosses telling you to do 2 different things — who do you listen to? People feel like their allegiance is constantly being tested.
In fact, we’re told one player was so frustrated with the power struggle, he actually made the decision not to re-sign with the Clippers because it wasn’t worth the headache
Another point … Gillian comes from a NASCAR background, she was president of the Auto Club Speedway for 9 years — and players tell us it’s painfully obvious she doesn’t understand NBA culture.
Zucker told TMZ that she feels the lines between basketball and business are “very clear” within the Clippers organization.
One thing we know for sure is that there has been no shortage of drama in LA this offseason, headlined by all the stuff that went on with DeAndre Jordan and his supposed rift with Chris Paul.
Now that Jordan has returned, the Clippers have the talent and coaching needed to make a run in the Western Conference. Could an internal power struggle ruin their chances? I guess we’ll find out.
