Apparently Steve Ballmer Wanted To Fire And Trade Everyone Because He Was So Pissed After The Clippers Lost And Because They Refused To Draft Michael Porter Jr.
[Source] - As highlighted in a recent conversation between Ryen Russillo and Bill Simmons on the Ryen Russillo Podcast, Ballmer came out of the whole situation wanting to trade all the players and fire all the coaches.
Ballmer invested in a pricy analytics department to help make data-driven decisions on how to play. Rivers ignored that department – most notably when he opted to use Montrezl Harrell over fellow center Ivica Zubac despite the latter being a more efficient option.
According to Simmons and Russillo, the Clippers owner was also very irritated with the decision not to select Michael Porter Jr. in the 2018 NBA Draft.
Look at Steve Ballmer! Who would have guessed that this guy is such a lunatic after losses?
Advertisement
Okay, maybe everyone thought that. But it is interesting to hear this report from Russillo about the stuff behind the scenes. It's no secret that the Clippers docs were the ones who said Michael Porter Jr. was undraftable due to injuries. So they did the smart thing and took Jerome Robinson with the 13th overall pick. Remember, they had 2 first round picks that draft and got Shai Gilgeous-Alexander too. Not too shabby! He was the center piece to get Paul George. But Robinson was a REACH at 13 and went exactly one spot before Michael Porter Jr. MPJ looks like an offensive star in the making for the Nuggets and on the Clippers he could have been hidden defensively with Kawhi.
That's not exactly shocking. What I do find interesting is how analytical driven Ballmer is and how much that pissed him off. Montrezl Harrell, who won Sixth Man of the Year, was fucking awful against the Nuggets. Yet Doc kept playing him. It's the downfall with Doc. He believes in his own system and it's why he blows 3-1 leads all the time.
Fucking Ballmer man. What a wild card. Love having him in the league.