OMG!!! What the hell was that, Brand?

Ok, so I thought that none of the Big names this year would be talked about that much on this space. Well I was wrong. This is my Sad-Angry-Brand Rant. Ever since before he entered the league, in '99, I loved to watch Elton Brand Play. I never wanted Duke to win so bad. When Chicago picked him, I kind of secretly rooted for Chicago. He's just a great player and a nice guy and he's fun to watch, and he clearly wants nothing more than to win. That's why, when the Clippers Drafted Tyson Chandler and promptly traded him for Elton Brand, I was ecstatic! More than ecstatic, I was in near Nirvana.

When we came one Tim Thomas 3 pointer away from an L.A. - L.A. Hallway Series in the Playoffs a couple of years ago, I cheered my heart out for a player who was everything that, historically, the franchise was not. Even when he missed about 65 games in a season, but came back for the last 10 or so, I was impressed to no end. I mean, who has a guaranteed contract and still does that? There was no way the team was going to win a Championship - Hell, they were 20 games out of the playoffs with 10 to play. Three teams' entire rosters would have had to have fallen off the face of the earth simultaneously to even consider putting them in the playoffs. But There was Elton Brand, Second Game of his season, playing like it was game 7 of the NBA Finals.

And if that wasn't enough to make me love him, when he opted out of his contract on June 30th, he and his agent played it to everyone like it was an act of charity (presumably, Brand was going to give up about 2-4 million dollars in order to provide the team the financial flexibility to bring in Baron Davis. See, Baron Davis also opted out of his contract unexpectedly on June 30th, then quickly committed to a verbal agreement with the Clippers on July 1st. All I saw were pictures of Baron and Elton together (they are both friends and movie producers who it would make sense to have together in Los Angeles). I even told several people myself, "Elton Brand, Chris Kaman, Baron Davis, Al Thornton... The Clippers are going to make some noise next year." It was that much of a slam dunk. But there was one thing that I forgot. The Clippers are the Kwame Browns of NBA Franchises. The Ryan Leafs of the sports world. Even a slam dunk can clang off the back of the rim and bounce 3000 miles away.

See, I understood when he signed that offer sheet with Miami in 2003. It made sense then. The Clippers said that they would match any offer, but who really believed them? Their entire history had been a business school lesson on running an NBA Franchise - Successful Failure 101: How to make money without winning, EVER. But then the unthinkable happened. They matched offers for two players resulting in the spending over 130 million dollars that summer. Now they were for real! Now, they were going to matter! Now, they had one of the best low-post presences in Basketball locked up for 5 years!!! And they continued their commitment to trying to WIN through this summer by letting Maggette go ONLY so that they could add Baron Davis to the bunch. What could go wrong?

But the player who played just for the sake of playing; the player who almost added "Generous" to a list of adjectives to describe him that already included "Ferocious", "intense", "Committed" and "Hard-Working"; the player who made us all believe it was possible for a Clippers team to be good; he left. Why? Because Philadelphia offered him more money. Considerably more money than the Clippers could after agreeing to terms with Davis. And I understand all of this. Hell, if somebody offered me an extra 2 dollars an hour right now, I would put in my two weeks notice tomorrow morning. But it's about the way that he left. Players leave all the time. Lamar Odom Did it a few years ago when he signed with Miami and told the organization "Please don't match the offer". Maggette is probably signing a contract with the Warriors as I type this. I understand all of this and wished them both the best when they left. But this... This is Carlos-Boozer-esque.

The problem isn't that he left. It's about HOW he left. I was content before he came loving the Clippers from a distance, unconditionally, no matter how many games they lost. I was happy content having something to root for in the lottery every year. But then he came and made me think that something speacial was going to happen. That there was a chance. I don't remember a summer since he got here when I thought "The Clippers are going to be Really bad next year"... until he left and toook the franchise's hopes and dreams with him.

I never thought that I would or could ever feel like this, but I want Elton Brand to Lose. A LOT. I wish he weren't going to Philly. That's a respectable franchise. That's the franchise of Allen Iverson, Charles Barkeley and so many others. I wish he were going to Oklahoma where they have no franchise to sit around and not even exist for the next 5 years. I don't wish any particular harm as far as his well being, but as far as his basketball career goes, I wish him no good. None whatsoever.