DeAndre Jordan for the first time addressed the fact that he rejected the Dallas Mavericks to re-sign with the Los Angeles Clippers in free agency, with a story and video for the Players’ Tribune. No one will ever forget this the saga featuring the Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks and center DeAndre Jordan. After agreeing to sign with the Mavericks early on in the period, Jordan had a last-minute change of heart and stayed in Los Angeles. He also tried to downplay the reported rift between him and Clippers point guard Chris Paul:
“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.
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.
Ultimately, I made the right decision for me, and now I have to own that. What’s important to me now is to explain how it all happened.
I decided to stay with the Clippers because I’ve been with this team for seven years and being on one team for my entire career was definitely important to me, I’ve been here since I was 19, so this is what I know. I love this city, I love the fans, I love my teammates and I love this organization.”
Here is the video below:
