Clippers Coaches
Doc Rivers, Ty Lue
Whether it’s been Rivers or Lue running the show, there have been complaints about the team’s competitive spirit. Rivers himself decried his team’s lack of intensity during his stint as head coach. During Lue’s, it was Paul that was miffed by the team’s aloofness. He “raised concerns about the team’s culture — noting the lack of conversation in the group text chat and the lack of time the players spent together off the court.”
Rather than listen to Rivers, they fired him. They did at least replace him with a person with a reputation of being liked by his players in Lue. Yet, Lue’s not so much of a player’s coach that he was willing to take Paul’s advice, despite him being much more accomplished and successful in the NBA. To that point, normally coaches would take the input of a 12-time All-Star, 11-time All-NBA and nine-time All-Defensive selection to heart. You know, the player with the second-most assists (12,552) and steals (2,728) all-time?
Instead of accepting Paul’s input, they forced the legend into early retirement. The fact that he entered the season believing it was his last makes their actions even more distasteful. Factoring in Paul’s history with the franchise, it was truly the wrong way to go about it. After all, the only crime he’s guilty of is being vocal about wanting everyone to play to the best of their ability.
Unfortunately, Lue’s pride got in the way. He was more concerned about his coaching staff being shown up than his coaching staff showing up the right way. His comments about why he hadn’t reached out (h/t Shelburne) to Paul also unmasked a certain amount of childishness in his personality.
“Yeah, well, he hasn’t called me either.”
Jeff Van Gundy
Clippers lead assistant Jeff Van Gundy let his ego block his view, too. Him giving Paul the cold shoulder was shameful in and of itself, frankly. No 64-year-old man should be displaying the social skills of a 14-year-old. His behavior after accusing Paul of changing the defensive coverage without his approval was nonsensical. After Van Gundy was told by other players that Paul didn’t alter the coverages, they sent the future Hall of Fame point guard to the principal’s office.
The irony is that Van Gundy is a lot like Paul. Both are highly opinionated, to the point of being abrasive, but they’re generally well-meaning. They were also pretty successful when leading the show. Perhaps this is what made them clash. Instead of mixing oil and water, it was like combining fire with fire. Eventually, the flames that were supposed to ignite a championship run started to burn the house down.
All of that being said, Van Gundy hasn’t accomplished anything that should have had him acting like that. He’s never led a team to a championship. He was out of the coaching game for 18 years prior to L.A. hiring him last season. While was gone, Paul was challenging for the mantle of the best point guard of all-time.
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