Elgin Baylor Steps Down as Clippers GM, Replaced by Mike Dunleavy
By Brian Kamenetzky | What I See, Los Angeles Clippers, Column
For years, many in the basketball media wondered aloud A) How Clippers GM Elgin Baylor kept his job, and B) Why he kept his job. Since 1986, he’s held one of the worst jobs in professional sports. During most of Baylor’s tenure, the ludicrously tight purse strings of owner Donald Sterling made it damn near impossible to succeed. That said, Baylor didn’t exactly shine in those areas he could control. He selected precious few impact players over his near two-plus decades of drafting (his problem), and those that did manage to make a mark in the NBA generally did on another team (back to Sterling).
Things improved over the last few years- remember, for the Clippers, it’s all relative- but despite Baylor’s Executive of the Year Award in 2006, it can be argued whatever optimism the team generated had more to do with the influence of Mike Dunleavy within the organization than anything the Hall of Famer did from his post.
Well, it’s all a moot point now, as Monday afternoon the Clippers announced that Baylor has stepped down from his post as GM, to be replaced by Dunleavy. The LAC categorized Baylor’s departure as a retirement, though the LA Times reports the parting may not have been on the best of terms. From a practical standpoint, this won’t have much impact on anything the Clippers do. Dunleavy had by most accounts been serving as a de-facto GM, handling personnel issues and managing the team’s salary cap. He was at the center of the Elton Brand and Baron Davis negotiations, and all the other fun stuff the Clips did this summer.
From a personal standpoint, it’s a sad way for Baylor to exit. On the one hand, in any other organization he’d have been fired at least a decade ago. On the other, he suffered under work conditions no exec with an interest in winning, certainly not one with as decorated a history in the game as Baylor’s, should have to endure. That, at the very least, is worth a bundt cake and a gold watch, rather than what looks like a potentially contentious divorce.
I managed to have a few basketball conversations with Baylor over the last few years, and always found him to be gracious, if relentlessly private. My most enduring memory of Baylor comes more in observation. Walking around the media dining room or courtside, he was always incredibly fidgety. Restless. Maybe that’s what that much time with Mr. Sterling does to a man.
Either way, the Clippers are probably better off cutting out the middle man and letting Dunleavy do officially what he was doing anyway. Baylor, though he appears to be a little ticked, is better off as well, if for no other reason than he can now be again seen as one of the greatest players in the history of the NBA, rather than the steward for one of its worst franchises.
Brian Kamenetzky hosts the Lakers Blog and Blue Notes: A Dodgers Blog for the LA Times.com. He’s a contributing writer to ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com. Write him at bk@sportshubla.com.
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5 Responses to “Elgin Baylor Steps Down as Clippers GM, Replaced by Mike Dunleavy”
- 1 Pingback on Oct 8th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
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Maybe it was just a matter of Corey Maggette being gone, so Dunleavy and Sterling have nothing left to fight over. And if that’s the case, why not cut out the middle man?
AK
The NBA has been full of ex-Clippers making their mark on the league. I’ve always viewed the Clips as the NBA’s pioneer of the D-League. Still a testament of Baylor’s drafting and Sterling’s lack of money.
The fidgeting is interesting that you noticed. He used to do that on the basketball court.
I’ve a been a Clipper fan for years, and I for one don’t have empathy for Elgin Baylor and him being dismissed by the team. Now granted working for Donald Sterling is never easy, but a stronger, more assertive and agressive basketball exec working under not-so great ownership would have done more with a lot less. For me, looking in from the outside as a fan, it just seemed like Elgin didn’t care too much about the job, other collecting a paycheck. Despite Sterling and Andy Roeser’s meddling, Elgin should done to convince them to invest more into the franchise (strangely and ironically, it’s something that Mike Dunleavy has been able to do).
As for these guys “making the mark” after leaving the Clips…other than Ron Harper (a role player with the Bulls and Lakers), Brent Barry (again, as a role player in Seattle and San Antonio), Sam Cassell (piggybacking off of KG, Allen, and Pierce for another ring), and maybe Lamar Odom (even after nine-plus years in the league, the jury is still out on him), I can’t think any other past Clipper that has done jack-squat after leaving town. Those are just four exceptions to other guys, out of countless other players, that have either failed to live up to the hype, or worst yet…completely disappear off the face of the earth. I can’t think of anyone else…can you?
Shawn-
In a lot of ways, I agree. Like I wrote, most execs who did the work Baylor did as GM would have been fired a decade ago. (Most of his drafts were disasters) Or quit. (For obvious reasons.) All I’m saying is that given the amount of time he spent with the organization, he deserved a more dignified sendoff, and it’s another indication of how the Clippers can never quite get anything right from an ownership/PR standpoint.
As for Sterling, while he’s to be commended for finally paying for players, something he never used to do, some of the spending (especially earlier in the “Clippers revival” wasn’t so much him finally seeing the light, or being led to it by Mike Dunleavy, but making signings because if he didn’t the payroll wouldn’t meet the NBA’s salary floor.
Sterling might now want to be seen as a good owner, trying to win… it’s just hard to break many years of habit.