Originally Posted by
Mr KLC
Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO and the owner of the LA Clippers fired Doc Rivers partly because of Micheal Porter Jr.
The meltdown of the Clippers against the Nuggets was not well received by Steve Ballmer. Ryen Russilo and Bill Simmons both heard Ballmer went ballistic after the Clippers blew the lead, and wanted to fire all coaches and players alike.
He had a very highly paid coaching staff, a star-studded roster, and a highly paid analytics team. Doc Rivers and his team did not listen to the analytics team repeatedly telling them to play Zubac over Harrell, which could have been a key difference-maker in the series.
Back in 2018, the Clippers had the #12 and #13 pick in the draft. They ended up drafting Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jerome Robinson. They traded both of them away. Back then, Steve Ballmer had asked the Front Office to draft Micheal Porter Jr. The Front Office were of the opinion that MPJ was ‘undraftable’.
The Denver Nuggets drafted MPJ and we saw how that turned out. Porter Jr is a young star on the rise, and that just further aggravates Ballmer. Ballmer was familiar with MPJ, both being from Seattle.