The Players' Tribune- Let’s just say that free agency wasn’t what I expected it to be. I thought it was going to be fun. I thought it was going to be like when I got recruited during college. But as it turns out, deciding what your future is going to be like is mostly a headache. For a second, the attention felt good, but after you think about everything and get out all the glitz and glamour from the process, you kind of start to think about what’s really best for you as a player and as a person — on and off the floor.
As everyone knows, I struggled with it. It was nine or ten days of intense pressure. Every night I would have a different scenario in my head, of the city and team where I thought I would fit best. I had several meetings with teams and even more conversations with my family and friends. I kept thinking about what it really meant to be “home” and I would go back and forth. It seems crazy, but I’m actually the “oldest” Clipper — I’ve been here for seven years. When I was a rookie we went 19-63. We were really bad. It’s a terrible feeling to lose 63 games in a season. Then we got Blake and things started to turn around. We became a destination where people really want to come and play and contend for a championship. When we traded for Chris, it was on. I love Chris, man. Chris is a big brother to me. When you play sports, you’re competitive — especially when you play them at as high a level as we have these last few years. And of course, yeah, we all bump heads during the course of the game. But we know that whatever criticisms or arguments we have on the floor, they’re about one thing: winning. Don't take this the wrong way, Clippers fans, because I love DeAndre Jordan. Not only that, I know he made the right decision not only for him, but for the future success of the franchise. With that said, I don't think it's a stretch to say that he is, at best, highly impressionable, or at worst, a mental midget. Jesus Christ DeAndre. You can't become the star of the biggest free agency show, potentially in sports history, then complain about the publicity you get from it. Especially when the payout from one episode is $88 million dollars over the next four years. Don't tell me that all the casual viewer saw was the glitz and glammer of you being wined, dined, and pampered for a week when basically all that happened during that week was you getting wined, dined, and pampered. DJ pretty much sounds like he is giving an 'E!: True Hollywood Story' on himself, except the low point of the show was when he had to make a decision on who would pay him over 80 million dollars. Not the most tear jerking episode if you ask me. Free agency IS fun. That's why all players look forward to making it to that point of their careers and exploring all their options. However, it is stills boils down to making a decision on your future. Just because you couldn't look past the lavish gifts and promises made by Mark Cuban doesn't mean you had to incur some unforeseen level of stress while choosing a career path. That's the tradeoff for having a bunch of teams treat you like a God for a few days. I compare DeAndre Jordan's original decision to being on a gameshow. The host basically offered DJ a car or whatever is behind door #2. Sure, the car is functional, durable, and will get you where you want to go, but whatever was behind door number two was the unknown. For a period of time, that unknown was too intriguing for Jordan to say no to. However, no one is going to feel bad for the person that passed on the car then reconsidered. I don't think there are too many people out there that don't understand why he did what he did, but it doesn't mean that they have to like it. Especially if they aren't Clippers fans, or if they are a fan of literally any other team in the Western Conference.
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