The Doc Rivers to the Clippers deal was on and off, several different times before it was finally agreed to.
What finally nudged the Clippers over the hump, and allowed Donald Sterling and management to pull the trigger on the deal?
Well if you believe Bill Simmons and the crew over at GRANTLAND, then it was a threat from star point guard Chris Paul that finally pushed the Clippers to make the deal.
According to Simmons, Paul threatened to sign with the Clippers if the team didn’t make the deal for Doc Rivers.
To Chris Paul, who basically told the Clippers that after they squashed the first incarnation of their Doc Rivers trade. Chris didn’t like that. He let them know he was heading to Houston to team up with Dwight. And he wasn’t kidding. For about 36 hours, Morey probably felt like all 11 guys in “Ocean’s Eleven.” You know what happened next: The Clippers blinked, the Doc trade got revived and finished, and the Clippers were offering Chris 107 million reasons to play for him. Crisis averted. The lesson, as always: Chris Paul runs the Clippers.
Would the Clippers really have called Paul’s bluff?
I think the old Donald Sterling would have told Paul to go to hell. I’m really not sure how Daryl Morey and the Rockets could have afforded Paul at anywhere near a max deal.
Dwight Howard could definitely take lessons from Paul on how to quietly go about getting what you want.