Did a clash of egos keep the Clippers from winning a title?
By Cody Rivera
Matt Barnes thinks a clash of egos prevented the Los Angeles Clippers making the NBA Finals.
Times have changed dramatically in the last few years, but during the early parts of the 2010s, the Los Angeles Clippers were one of the best teams in the Western Conference and a legitimate contender to reach the NBA Finals.
It never happened, though. During their best years, roughly from 2012 to 2016, the Clippers had a core three of Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan — all in the primes of their careers. And most of it took place before the emergence of the juggernaut Golden State Warriors; the team to beat in the West at the time was the San Antonio Spurs in the final years of Tim Duncan’s Hall of Fame career.
Yet, the Clippers never even came close to sniffing the NBA Finals. They never even made it to the Western Conference Finals, and those contending Clippers teams have long since dissolved, with Griffin now in Detroit, Paul now in Houston, and Jordan now in Dallas.
Is it possible that the Clippers never reached their full potential because the egos of their players got the better of them? It’s definitely possible, because to win championships in the NBA (and in any sport), your superstars have to be on the same page, unless you get lucky with a Shaq-Kobe kind of situation.
Matt Barnes, who spent 14 seasons in the NBA bouncing around from team to team but landed with the Clippers when they were emerging into the spotlight, believes egos were what held them back. He shared his thoughts during a radio interview on “Lunchtime with Roggin and Rodney,” as reported by NBC Sports.
“We really had one of the most talented teams that never won a championship in L.A.,” Barnes said, “and I think it was our own fault. We were in our own way. Just too many egos, young acting. We thought we were going to be the Warriors right up until they won the championship. We knocked them out of the playoffs the year before they came back and won, so we had a very talented team. We just couldn’t get on the same page.”
For most of history, the basketball scene in Los Angeles has revolved around the Los Angeles Lakers. They last won a championship in 2010 with Kobe Bryant, and after LeBron James joined them this offseason, the Lakers are once again the talk of the town.
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But for a few years in between, the Clippers took over the city with a team talented enough to win a championship, but they could never get further than a game away from the West Finals. Their core three is now long gone, and the window for the Clippers has closed — a real shame for the loyal fans who have been waiting nearly 40 years for a championship.