Yahoo sports-Clippers and Mike Dunleavy are still fighting and still funny

Thu Aug 05

Clippers and Mike Dunleavy still together, still fighting, still funny

By Trey Kerby

The Clippers and Mike Dunleavy were made for each other. The Clippers are constantly bad, usually confused and always good for a laugh, and so is Dunleavy. And while Vinny Del Negro seems to be all those things too, he'll never be half the perfectly terrible coach that Dunleavy was in his 6 1/2 seasons as Clippers head honcho. It's a shame that pairing of franchise and leader couldn't gone on forever-ever.

Thankfully, their business relationship continues, giving us all a chance to enjoy a few more jokes before Dunleavy rides off into the sunset. Courtesy of Liz Potocsnak at Courthouse News, we get wind of the ongoing legal battle over Dunleavy's money.

The Los Angeles Clippers and their owner want to stop former head coach Mike Dunleavy from arbitrating his claim that the team still owes him $6.75 million of a five-year, $22 million contract. [...]

In June [Dunleavy] filed an arbitration claim against the NBA team and owner Donald Sterling, claiming he had been fraudulently induced into signing the employment contract. [...]

The team and Sterling claim they were the ones fraudulently induced into hiring Dunleavy, who knew full well that he would not fulfill his term as head coach.


So perfect. The Clippers, not wanting to pay Dunleavy his money, claim they were tricked into giving the coach a long-term contract even though he knew he wouldn't fulfill the five-year deal; meanwhile Dunleavy, wanting the money owed to him, claims he was tricked into signing such a long deal. Classic Clippers.

As ProBasketballTalk's Kurt Helin points out, this whole mess is really just because Sterling is a cheapskate. He thinks that because Dunleavy is no longer employed by the Clippers, he shouldn't be getting any money from the team. Only catch there is that that isn't really how contracts work. They're usually the opposite, actually, specifically for situations like this. Nice try though.

No matter what happens, this whole thing is bittersweet. Yeah, it's fun to constantly revel in the hilarity of a Mike Dunleavy/Los Angeles Clippers pairing, but this is the last go-round. After this, we'll have nothing but memories. Cherish these moments, friends.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ba...-Dunleavy-still-together-still?urn=nba-260478