Los Angeles Clippers president Andy Roeser, who was hired 30 years ago by disgraced owner Donald Sterling, will be taking an indefinite leave of absence, the NBA announced Tuesday. Only Sterling and announcer Ralph Lawler have been with the Clippers longer than Roeser, who was hired in 1984 when the franchise moved from San Diego to Los Angeles and became president in 1986. Roeser served as alternate governor for the Clippers, filling in for Sterling when the owner was not available for
Mark Jackson is out as coach of the Golden State Warriors, creating a plum vacancy. Jackson met Tuesday morning with management, and both the San Jose Mercury News and Yahoo! Sports reported he would be let go. The team later made it official. Jackson spent three seasons with the Warriors, his first coaching job of any kind after a successful run as an analyst for ABC/ESPN. Golden State made the playoffs each of the last two seasons under Jackson, its first consecutive
Chris Paul returned to the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday. We don’t want to be party-poopers, but it probably should be pointed out that the Clippers were better without him. This does not mean that GM Gary Sacks should start exploring trade possibilities for a top-five player. And it doesn’t mean that coach Doc Rivers should go with the hot hand at point guard at the end of games. But it does mean that if the Clippers want to win a championship this
Mitch Kupchak shouldn’t be playing hardball. In his desire to trade Pau Gasol, the GM of the Los Angeles Lakers should not have insisted on receiving Dion Waiters or a first-round pick from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Nobody has overpaid for a rental since Ernie Grunfeld sent Ray Allen to Seattle for Gary Payton — and that was a long time ago. Kupchak should have lowered his demands to match the team’s expectations. The Lakers are done for this season and should be
Phoenix Suns guard Eric Bledsoe has a sprained right knee and will miss at least a week. The Suns made the announcement Saturday. If Bledsoe sits out just one week, he will miss games Saturday vs. Milwaukee and the first three games of a five-game road trip – Tuesday at Chicago, Wednesday at Minnesota and Friday at Memphis. Bledsoe was a late scratch from Thursday’s home loss to Memphis with the injury, which left at least one NBA gambler unhappy. The Suns are
The NBA admitted Thursday that Blake Griffin should not have been ejected from Wednesday’s LA Clippers-Golden State game. “After a league review of the Clippers-Warriors game, we have come to the conclusion that Blake Griffin should not have been ejected from the game,” NBA president of basketball operations Rod Thorn said in a statement. “A common foul should have been called on Griffin for initially attempting to dislodge the Warriors’ Andrew Bogut and a technical foul should have been assessed to Bogut
Kobe Bryant returned to the court tonight, eight months after tearing his Achilles tendon. So of course, there had to be an accompanying commercial from Nike. Yes, that’s Ice Cube on the voice over.
Rudy Gay, who has one of the most overbearing contracts in the NBA, reportedly has been traded for the second time in less than a year. Yahoo! Sports reported Sunday night that a seven-player deal is being finalized that would have the Toronto Raptors send Gay and the $37 million remaining on his contract to the Sacramento Kings. The report said the Kings would also get deep reserves Aaron Gray ($2.69 million) and Quincy Acy ($790,000), both of whom have deals that