Yesterday the big news around the NBA was that the Clippers parted ways with Coach Vinny Del Negro. Clippers’ vice president of basketball operations said, “This was a difficult decision, but we feel this is the best decision for our franchise moving forward.” So what happened?! Rumors are flying that Chris Paul was not a fan of Del Negro and it was a Clippers recruiting pitch to Paul. Yikes.
Report after the jump…
Via SBNation:
One piece of the Los Angeles Clippers’ decision not to re-sign Vinny Del Negrowas point guard Chris Paul’s refusal to back his head coach, reports CBS Sports’ Ken Berger and Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski.
All along, it was widely believed that the Clippers would put a great deal of weight in Paul’s opinion in the matter, and Paul’s apparent lack of confidence in Del Negro might’ve been one of the biggest keys to the Clippers’ decision, which was reported by Wojnarowski on Tuesday.
As a free-agent-to-be, Paul’s decision to stay with Los Angeles appears likely, though the team certainly helped themselves by deciding not to re-up on Del Negro, who went 128-101 in three seasons with the Clippers. The decision also wasn’t helped by Del Negro’s failure to coach his talented squad past the first round of the playoffs this season — they lost in six games to the Memphis Grizzlies despite winning the first two games of the series.
Paul will certainly be in touch with Donald Sterling and the Clippers’ front office as they search for a new head coach.
(Story Continues..)
