Doc Rivers’ departure from the Los Angeles Clippers surprised the NBA on Monday.

The Clippers had been contemporary off a vastly disappointing finish to a season that began with championship expectations. However the choice felt drastic contemplating Rivers’ fame as considered one of basketball’s most revered locker-room leaders.

Whereas some sports activities partings are extra amicable than others, they’re hardly ever if ever a results of a “mutual” choice, as this one was portrayed. One celebration units a separation in movement, and the opposite doesn’t resist. On this case, the celebration to immediate the cut up was Ballmer. And he did so after consulting the workforce’s two stars.

Steve Ballmer reached out to Clippers stars on Doc

ESPN’s Ramona Shelburn and Ohm Youngmisuk reported Tuesday on Ballmer’s course of and the steps that led to Rivers’ departure, which was in the end sealed when the 2 sides couldn’t come collectively on a imaginative and prescient for subsequent season.

A type of steps concerned consulting with stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

From the report:

Earlier than a last choice was made, sources stated Ballmer known as a number of key gamers — together with George and Leonard — to get their opinions. Nothing the gamers advised him, sources stated, modified Ballmer’s thoughts about transferring on from Rivers. Finally, the choice to half methods with Rivers was Ballmer’s.

Nothing the Clippers stars stated to Steve Ballmer swayed him from his choice to maneuver on from Doc Rivers. (Scott Varley/Every day Breeze through Getty Photographs)

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We would by no means know what Leonard and George advised Ballmer when requested about Rivers. However given the selection as a participant to take the accountability for such a monumental collapse or let the blame lie elsewhere, it’s not arduous to think about neither making an impassioned plea to retain a coach that they’d labored with for only one season.

Coming into subsequent season with the clear slate of a management change and an excised scapegoat makes for a extra manageable narrative for a workforce that fell nicely in need of lofty expectations.

Huge stakes for Ballmer

For Ballmer, the stakes are even bigger than these for Leonard and George. The Microsoft billionaire purchased the franchise with the intent of rewriting a long time of ineptitude capped by the ousting of a racist proprietor.

He mortgaged the way forward for the franchise to amass the core constructed round Leonard and George. Each stars have participant choices after subsequent season, and the haul of first-round draft picks the Clippers parted with to construct this core aren’t coming again.

The Clippers had been assured two years to make this occur, with a championship as the one acceptable final result. For Ballmer, one thing needed to change after the huge disappointment of yr one.

Nothing he heard from Leonard or George swayed him from that perception.

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