Kobe Bryant may not be the only guard pushing guys (or keeping them out of) Los Angeles.
With DeAndre Jordan packing up his locker and heading to Dallas, news is beginning to emerge as to why Baby Dre himself decided to leave Lob City. According to ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz, the story seems to first and foremost focus on Chris Paul and his ‘barking and petty gestures’:
He was tired of Paul’s constant barking and petty gestures, like distributing high-fives to the three other guys on the floor following a timeout but somehow freezing out Jordan. Optics aside, the biggest issue for Jordan was that, despite the leaps and bounds he made to be named first team all-defense, the Clippers always treated him like the player he was when he arrived in the NBA, and never like the player he’d become.
To be fair though it didn’t seem like CP3 was the only perceived problem for Jordan. The issue for the former Clips big man may resonate back to 2008 when he was passed over as a top 10 player and fell to the second round. Even then the rumor was Los Angeles wanted to take Mike Taylor instead of Jordan at the 35th overall spot.
Needless to say, things worked out for the better in LA with Jordan, at least for a little while.
It seemed as though Jordan, who believed he the Clippers though he was a total project from the start still believed that to the very end. Instead of becoming a more intricate part of the offense, Doc Rivers always kept Jordan out of the total offensive scheme despite consistently putting up 20-plus a game and seemingly proving himself during Blake Griffin’s absence in February and March.
Whether or not that’s all totally true I guess doesn’t matter much anymore. Jordan is gone and the Clippers as much as anyone else have to move on.
h/t: ESPN, The Big Lead
