DeAndre Jordan Shared His Second Thoughts About Departing To Dallas
By Keith Rivas
After enough time to process the whole situation, DeAndre Jordan finally felt ready to speak his mind and share his final thoughts on the decision to switch back to the Los Angeles Clippers after verbally agreeing to join the Dallas Mavericks in an interview with The Player’s Tribune.
One of the hardest things to go through as a fan base is to have your heart ripped out because of something a player does to your team, city, or shot at a championship.
Sometimes it’s serious blunders — calling an imaginary timeout, not watching your footing and going out of bounds, or not making that one last pass to a teammate and instead trying to be the unnecessary hero.
And then there’s what DeAndre Jordan did to Dallas.
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So multiply the feeling from those above situations and multiply it by ten and you might be getting close to how they feel.
After making the verbal agreement with representatives of the Dallas Mavericks to join their team as soon as free agency allowed him to officially sign and do so, the Los Angeles Clippers went into full on mission impossible mode and pulled out all the stops to bring Jordan back.
And somehow, it worked.
What followed was a Twitter war fought with emoticons over what would convince Jordan to stick around.
Then came his new decision.
On top of getting talked to by guys like Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and Doc Rivers, it’s reported that Rivers’ own daughter, Callie Rivers, might have had something to do with swaying him back to LA.
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At the end of the day, though, I’m not so sure that every single Clippers fan cares about the reason why he came back — they’re just glad he changed his mind and they don’t have to worry about falling into an immediate slump.
Because, as is more and more evidently clear as the regular season draws nearer, the Clippers’ window for a championship worth remembering is closing.
And they might just now have all the pieces to the puzzle they need.
But this time, there’s no room for excuses.
Jordan’s decision to reverse his original play call was something we have not seen ever in professional sports or free agency — but it was great, at the end of the day, in its own right.
It’s a great thing because we got to see the truly human side of players we too often put up on a pedestal.
Sure, a lot of professional athletes are role models for younger kids, there’s nothing wrong with that, but we’ve got to remember that those same athletes were once kids with big dreams too.
And sometimes what it takes to make their dreams come true don’t line up with your interpretation.
That’s just how it goes.
One final thing worth noting from this whole experience is that DeAndre Jordan’s ability to wait out some of the overwhelming reaction to his decision was a mature move.
Knowing that fans have had the Summer League to focus on and not just him gave Jordan just enough space to clear his mind and be able to share his thoughts and conscience clearly.
Bottom Line: DeAndre Jordan did what was best for him.
Because the last thing any of us should’ve wanted at the end of the day was for Jordan to feel uncomfortable in his own skin — whatever that might be by the time the slipper fits.