BRAND TO SIXERS!!!! STUNNED

by mikey p on Jul 8, 2008 5:34 PM PDT Comment 28 comments

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-clippers9-2008jul09,0,7626268.story

The verbal, five-year deal is believed to be in the $80-million range. Philadelphia was the latest team to join the bidding frenzy for Brand, who opted out of his contract with the Clippers last week. By Jonathan Abrams, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 9, 2008

Elton Brand has reached a verbal agreement to sign a multiyear contract with the Philadelphia 76ers, according to an NBA source who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak on player movements.

The deal is believed to be in the $80-million range and expected to span five years.

Brand opted out of the final season of his Clippers contract last week to become a free agent. He was due $16.4 million had he stayed in the contract.

The deal cannot be finalized until the league's moratorium period ends at midnight EDT on Tuesday.

The 76ers were the latest team to join the bidding frenzy for Brand, joining the Clippers and Golden State Warriors, who have already made five-year offers for Brand, according to the sources.

The 76ers cleared salary cap space Tuesday when they traded forwards Rodney Carney and Calvin Booth and a future No. 1 pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a deal that has yet to be officially announced but was first reported by Yahoo.com.

Brand has not been reached for comment since he opted out of the final season of his Clippers contract last week. He flew to Washington, D.C., to meet with Falk last week and had a medical checkup with Dr. Craig Morgan in Wilmington, Del., the sources said.

Brand missed all but eight games last season with the Clippers because of a ruptured Achilles tendon.

"If somebody asked me whether he'd be healthy or had any ongoing fears, I would say no," it's not a problem, Morgan said Tuesday.

When Brand opted out of the final year of his Clippers' contract, he said Philadelphia would be one of the desirable alternatives. The move would put him back on the East Coast, where he grew up and went to college, with a team that has a strong nucleus of young players.

The Clippers' verbal contract agreement with free-agent point guard Baron Davis is not expected to be altered by Brand's decision, according to the sources.

The Clippers have offered Brand, 29, a five-year, $70-million contract, which is expected to be the highest they can go while still signing Davis. The Warriors have tendered a five-year, $90-million offer.

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Anonymous source, so who knows?

by mikey p on Jul 8, 2008 5:36 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Date on the article

the article is dated July 9th. Hummmmmm

by daclipjoint on Jul 8, 2008 5:43 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Please

Enable the censors. The late George Carlin’s seven words come to mind. W. T. F.

by supac on Jul 8, 2008 5:52 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

He's Gone

This is a significant disturbance in the Force here at Clips Nation.

Kaman, Dunleavy, Mobley, Thornton… this is a lot of weight for Baron Davis to take on. The whole thing made sense when he had a partner.

It’s especially disappointing when you see that Brand is just like anybody else. With all of the money he has made, with the relationships he has tried to build in Los Angeles, a million dollars is a million dollars, and it’s not about winning. We all believed in him, more or less, it was painful to watch him on the sidelines all last year, and we couldn’t wait for him to come back and play alongside Kaman 2.0. And then we dared to give in to true optimism when the Clips aggressively went after a great player, Baron Davis, and they got him.

Sometimes it’s just tough to be a Clipper Fan, and when guys like Elton Brand turn away, especially in circumstances like this, it’s hard to be a fan in general.

EB and Falk got some splainin to do.

by citizen zhiv on Jul 8, 2008 5:57 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Parting shot

Probably near my last words on EB evar:

Assuming the offers were the same, Elton Tyron Brand can Die In A Fire.

That’s it. Nothing more to say. Time to move on.

by John R on Jul 8, 2008 6:35 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Harsh

I’ll go with this: the team never really won crap with him anyway. It wasn’t until a PG got here that the Clips did anything.

by mikey p on Jul 8, 2008 6:40 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

(I was referring to Cassell - he truly led the Clips playoff run)

by mikey p on Jul 8, 2008 6:41 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Character

Where did yours go Mr. Brand? If you wanted to leave the Clips, MAN UP and tell us. We could have sent you to South Beach and gotten that knucklehead Beasley here. Instead, you LIED OUTRIGHT to the team and the fans and B-Diddy. You CRIPPLED the franchise (LOL at “flexibility”). Good job acting like you wanted to be a Clipper and stay a Clipper. And the Oscar for Best Actor goes to…JUDAS BRAND.

Maybe I’m overreacting, maybe I’m not. This situation is making it very difficult to be a fan of the NBA. Faith…in humanity…lost.

by supac on Jul 8, 2008 6:47 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Why blame Brand?

Would we all choose to be a Clipper if we had the choice? No one would. I’m coming close to killing myself though. I hope Davis doesn’t come here. Give us $80 million in cap space if possible. Trade Kaman. Open up more space. Screw it. If we’re going to suck, we might as well suck with a chance at the future.

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." - Sir Winston Churchill

by FlyByKnight on Jul 8, 2008 6:49 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

It's his fault

If I didn’t want to be a Clipper, I would say so. Simple. Don’t lie to the team and the fans and bolt in the middle of the night. Which is exactly what Mr. Brand did.

by supac on Jul 8, 2008 6:52 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't blame him

I blame Elgin Baylor and Donald Sterling for not nutting up ahead of time and offering him what Philadelphia was going to offer him.

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." - Sir Winston Churchill

by FlyByKnight on Jul 8, 2008 6:57 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Perhaps

They would have, had Mr. Brand not given the whole “all for one”, “I watched the Celtics”, “I’ll sacrifice for the good of the team” speech. We got him EXACTLY what he asked for. The hee does the opposite of what he said he would do. Easy to place blame in this situation.

by supac on Jul 8, 2008 7:01 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Dont know what to say

part of me feels betrayed…part of me say good riddance. He doesn’t have to say all the things he said immediately after opting out about getting a proven pg, and taking less money. It was all lies…yes lies…

by Clip Show on Jul 8, 2008 6:53 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

That Marion and Beasley

for Brand and the pick looks really good right now…:(

by Clip Show on Jul 8, 2008 7:05 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

That's what I was just thinking

It’s the deception, and leaving the Clips with nothing.
I would be happy with Marion right now, but Marion and Beasley would be amazing at this moment. If Brand wanted out, why didn’t he just force them to make the deal? It’s all pretty strange.

by citizen zhiv on Jul 8, 2008 7:22 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yes, that is starting to bug me as I think about it

The Clippers could have drafted differently, or done a number of things.

For these reasons I believe that management blew it somehow with Falk and Elton. I suppose we will find out more.

by mikey p on Jul 8, 2008 7:25 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Why assume it's management?

Jax is going to do that anyway, so why bother?

I’m really trying to figure out how management misplayed this, but at this point I just don’t see it. They took Brand at his word that he wanted to win. They made him a big offer. If they saved any money, it was already earmarked for other players, for a stronger roster, one that could compete and win. Brand left because he felt that he deserved the limited money set aside to sign Livingston?

For now let’s not jump to the conclusion that management obviously did something wrong. That’s not obvious at all. The most likely scenario at this point is that Brand changed his mind and wanted to get a fresh start, leave the troubled Clipper culture behind, get away from the shadow of Kobe and the Lakers rather than trying to beat them, get out of the West and back to the East, and take the money in the process.

But he did it like a punk, not like a man. He betrayed Baron Davis, not a guy you want to let down. If he had been forthright from the beginning, then we could blame management all day long, for multiple past and present transgressions, but he wouldn’t have left the Clippers and their fans exposed, bereft, and betrayed. The Clippers could have controlled their own destiny. Instead, they made the mistake of believing in and trusting Elton Brand.

Now he goes to Philly where he’ll fall short and be a loser like he has always been. He had a chance to win, a chance for glory, and he marked himself with the stigma of shame, weakness, and deceit. He chose Andre Miller over Baron Davis. He chose Igoudala over Kaman and Thornton. He thinks that Philadelphia has a rich basketball tradition and he can follow in the footsteps of Dr. J, a champion. We were ready to give Brand the credit of a statesman-like probity and depth of character, but he squandered all of the goodwill over the course of a single week. He’s not Dr. J. He’s more like Iverson and Charles Barkley, great players who goe all out every night, but itinerant mercenaries who never won anything, and never will. Maybe there weren’t a lot of fans like Clipper Steve and the rest of us, but we all believed in Elton Brand. No more.

by citizen zhiv on Jul 8, 2008 8:36 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Blaming management based on track record

Either mgmt blew it or Brand is the biggest jerk ever. We will know the rest of the story soon enough.

by mikey p on Jul 8, 2008 8:59 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Zhiv

As I’ve said to John R, what facts do you have to back up your claims. EB betrayed BD? How do you know that? Come on.

EB is a loser now?

By the way, Iguodala is a great player.

One day you’ll understand.

by Jax on Jul 9, 2008 12:54 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Clip Show and Citizen

That deal couldn’t have been done because the CBA treats any player with an opt-out/early termination option (that’s what Brand has) as untradeable until the decision is made to become a free agent or continue with the contract. So that deal wasn’t actually possible. For checking purposes in case you don’t want to take my word for it. Take Larry Coon’s. I just figured you shouldn’t beat the team up for not trading Brand when they couldn’t.

No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. It's simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get tangled, you tango on

by pookeyguru on Jul 8, 2008 8:20 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks

it really as meant a joke…because we had discussed that proposed deal at length before the draft.

by Clip Show on Jul 8, 2008 9:08 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Again its not official yet

I won’t believe anything I see until it becomes official tomorrow. Until then this is all just speculation that can’t quite be proven yet. Maybe I’m being optimistic or maybe I’m being realistic I’m not quite sure right now. All I know is this is not one of my happier times right now.

by bestclipfan on Jul 8, 2008 7:30 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Drinking on a weekday sounds good now

Hump Day is going to be more difficult than ever with this bitter pill to swallow. Here’s to another 10 years of lottery picks.

by ClipperChuck on Jul 8, 2008 8:23 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

LOL

This is exactly what the all of us at goldenstateofmind were saying after Baron left for you guys.

by 15thefuture8 on Jul 8, 2008 9:33 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

What a jerk

something that everyone can agree on

Playoffs!!??

by PAWarrior on Jul 8, 2008 10:36 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

To be honest

he left for a better situation. He’s going to a team that was in the Playoffs last year, without him, and has no real loss in personnel. Rather, they are stacked with young players that are just getting better. Even if they don’t win this year, the chance to win is going to increase for a few more years.
In LA, yes, Kaman was great this year, but that also meant he was sharing the post up possessions, and the lane is liable to get clogged. Dalembert has next to no offensive game, but is a beast on the boards, and a stellar shot blocker. The perfect mate in the frontcourt. The Clippers added Baron Davis, a top flight PG, but in doing so, lost Corey Maggette, a top flight wing.
With the addition of Davis, the Clippers were one of a collection of teams that would be fighting for the last spots in the playoffs. In Philly, they are gonna win 50 games, and be a three or four seed. What he did was back stabbing, but it did make sense. As far as the lies, I don’t know that they were actually lies. I think he changed his mind when he thought about what it would mean to go to the Sixers.

by rory_sayer on Jul 9, 2008 9:58 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Mental gymnastics

It takes some fancy apologizing to twist saying you are going to do something, having others act on that statement, and then without warning, notification or other, not do that thing you said you would do.

EB Lied.

by John R on Jul 9, 2008 10:03 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I never thought Brand was all that to begin with on the court

But now it’s very obvious he isn’t worth anything off it either.

No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. It's simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get tangled, you tango on

by pookeyguru on Jul 10, 2008 2:35 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs