Vincent Bonsignore of the LA Daily News relays a fascinating exchange between Baron Davis and Donald T. Sterling before Wednesday night’s game:
Baron Davis was minding his own business walking around Staples Center on Wednesday when he ran right into Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
It was one of those awkward, boss-employee moments where the boss does most of the talking and the employee just nods his head up and down saying, “Yes, sir. You bet, sir. Absolutely, sir.”
… “It’s coming together,” Davis told Sterling, when asked how the team was doing.
“Baron, I need you to make sure it comes together,” Sterling told him, in no uncertain terms.
“Yes sir. And I believe it will,” Davis reiterated.
“Look, I’m a man who makes things happen, and I need you to make this happen,”
Yes sir,” Davis said, politely. “I’m going to make you smile; I’m going to make the fans smile.”
“You know what would make me smile?” Sterling said. “You scoring 20 points tonight. That would make me smile.”
“Then I’ll make you smile,” Davis promised.
“The thing is, I don’t need you taking 60 shots to do it,” Sterling warned.
“I won’t need that many shots,” Davis said. “So you don’t have to worry about that.”
This went on for a few more minutes, with Sterling telling Davis he has big-shot friends all over town who come to Clippers games just to watch Davis play, and how important it is for him to maximize his talents, realize his skills and pull the Clippers up with him.
Finally the conversation ended, and Davis could breathe easy again.
Bonsignore’s full column is here, and well worth your time.
16 Responses
sterling is a doosher, i can picture him boning some secretary with his coffee mug in hand. Baron should have just walked past sterling and ignored him
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Asperis Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 8:20 am
Well at least Sterling cares lol. Not sure what he was saying was for the right reasons but IF it were, then it was a good little talk.
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Posted on February 25th, 2010 at 7:57 am
He should have started gutting a fish right in front of him…
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Posted on February 25th, 2010 at 8:17 am
Looks like they are trying to keep Baron on his toes, (Steve Blake trade) and the boss periodically keeping in touch. Got to love the Donald II
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Posted on February 25th, 2010 at 9:06 am
What a pleasure it is not having to see the looks on Dunleavy’s face every couple of minutes!
If the team hadn’t played so poorly this season and lost any chance to be in the playoffs, they probably wouldn’t have made the personnel changes that have made them a competitive team.
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Posted on February 25th, 2010 at 10:51 am
Personal vendetta towards Sterling and loyalty to Lakers runs deep in this town. KCAL9 Sports Center is only a public face of it.
If Clippers keep losing, they are basically a happy sheep-herd. If they keep winning, their head will turn; nose will turn red; hands will shake profusely and they’d say with nervousness: “Finaclal motives may be the reason; heck they have no reason to win like this”
Unbelievable. Do we really have to put up with these rotten souls?
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Posted on February 25th, 2010 at 11:01 am
i can kind of see where sterling is coming from. no im not a super douche like him or as bill simmons calls him “Mr. Billionaire Housing Discriminator Who Owns The Clippers,” but they gave boom 64 mil to do what he did in GS. but so far we’ve gotten the baron davis that looks like a rookie who needs more coaching and maybe in a couple years he’ll be able to play some solid minutes, which isn’t what we needed. so i can see DTS being pissed baron was just lucky he didnt get yelled at
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Posted on February 25th, 2010 at 11:05 am
Read this introspective article on Huffington post about how the Clippers made this Indian guy a better Hindu.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/varun-soni/how-the-la-clippers-made_b_474713.html
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Posted on February 25th, 2010 at 11:46 am
“You know what would make me smile?” Sterling said. “You scoring 20 points tonight… “The thing is, I don’t need you taking 60 shots to do it.”
wow.. and I thought Sterling only cared about scoring efficiency with hookers.
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Posted on February 25th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
and he scored 10 …
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Posted on February 25th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
Hilarious post. I had to google the Bill Lumbergh reference, spot on! Love that movie. “Um, so Baron, if you could just hit 20 tonight, that’d be great…..”
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Posted on February 25th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Sterling is actually looks like he might actually give a hoot about the team lately. Letting Dunleavy stay on as GM and letting him make the moves he did. People forget that Dunleavy is not a bad GM. He brought that team together that made a serious playoff run. So he tried doing it again, using Baron as the Sam Cassell and drafting Griffin to finally fill the hole Elton Brand left. It takes time to get this stuff together. If I were in charge, I wouldn’t bother going after Lebron. Sign back Blake, Butler and Craig Smith first. They are playing excellent now. Let Kim Hughes come back next year, have the basically same team and finally get some stability in this franchise.
It is a slim chance that those guys would want to come back to a bad team, but its a slimmer chance of getting Lebron or Wade. Stars can’t carry a team and if they do, it ends terribly every time. Keep the team together, sign em all back and make an attempt at building a franchise instead of just trying to sign a player to sell seats.
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Clippersmarch Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Agree. They can still add few more pieces by replacing Novak, Brown and Skinner.
And re-sign Butler & Smith if their asking price is reasonable.
We have to retain Drew Gooden to back-up Griffin & Kaman. And Outlaw to back-up
Eric Gordon. Gooden fits in perfect here because we value skills rather than hang & bang s
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Posted on February 25th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
realistically the only superstar we have a chance at getting is dwyane Wade and we already have the guards. I believe with griffin in the mix this team will win +10-15 more games.
resign smith, butler, and gooden sterling!!!
also what do u guys think of trading up to get Evan turner if whoever gets second doesn’t need him?
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Posted on February 25th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
We need Gooden very bad he’s been good for us his per rating is 16.43
On Court- 13.14
Steve Blacke is 11.73
On Court- 0.08
Travis Outlaw is 14.94
On Court- 0
Our per rating has improved to +2.38
Our On Court Rating has improved to
47.86 Thanks to Duleavy GM and to Drew Gooden keep gooden he’s going to help us win next year with his rebounding and defense with pick n roll and defend the orthodox big men
Our problem for this season was- Starting Small Forward, backup point guard, and Starting Power Forward now that we have em we can now compete for a final playoff spot in the western conference.
We used to have
Al Thornton which was 12.62
On Court- -7.16
Marcus Camby which was 18.12
On Court- -2.06
Sebastian| Telfair which was 10.04
On Court- -8.31
Kareem Rush On Court- -7.34
Ricky Davis On Court- -9.77
On Court was -34.64
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Posted on February 26th, 2010 at 8:46 am
Stars don’t carry teams? Has anyone seen Cleveland play? Lebron is personally worth about 40+ wins to that team.
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Posted on February 26th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
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