The LA Clippers are into the second round of the playoffs, but Chris Paul, Blake Griffin or DeAndre Jordan could come up in trade rumors over the summer to teams like the Houston Rockets, NY Knicks or Chicago Bulls if owner Donald Sterling is not forced to sell his team after his lifetime ban from the NBA for racist comments and on top of that, Doc Rivers may not return after the scandal has engulfed the franchise in the 2014 postseason.
The Clippers won their first round series against the Golden State Warriors in seven games despite dealing with the distraction of the Sterling scandal and players like Paul, Griffin and Jordan all stepped up in the series to get things done, but that doesn't mean their futures are all certain now, as Sterling still owns the team. This isn't a situation that is likely to play out, but ESPN.com reports that the team could have to deal with players being asked to get traded if Sterling remains the owner and that could happen if he decides to fight the NBA in court after everything that has happened.
ESPN wrote a nice play by play of what happened as the story came out and it described the Clippers players wondering about what the Sterling story would be after they heard that TMZ was publishing something. Clearly that came out for everyone to see and once the racist comments went public, it was all the Clippers players would hear about from family and friends and that totally took the out of things heading into Game 4. The team rebounded to win the next game at home before losing Game 6 on the road and now they are into the second round against the Oklahoma City Thunder and that should be another tough series.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver suspended Sterling for life after the comments and also fined him the highest amount he could, but that doesn't mean the whole situation is over. According to ESPN.com, the owners are starting the process of forcing Sterling to sell, but that could come with some challenges, as the LA Times notes that the owner loves to get into the courtroom and it is very likely that he will challenge the situation.
Adding to that is the fact that the players may not want to play for Sterling anymore of he still owns the team. Sure, did the players know there were some issues with Sterling before? Yes, very likely and while they may have ignored those situations a bit, it wasn't as in their face as this audio recording was and that could lead to players asking for trades. This is the situation the NBA hopes to avoid, but it could happen at some point if Sterling tries to keep his ownership of the team. Jordan has become a breakout star and with Griffin and Paul superstars already, teams like the Rockets, Knicks and Bulls would be jumping all over them like wildfire.
David Stern did the Clippers and Sterling a huge favor by steering Chris Paul there instead of the Lakers and now the team may have to pay the price for their horrendous owner and the man who enabled him all these years.