Behind the scenes for the Clippers, the power struggle is real.
There is a great divide in the Los Angeles basketball franchise's front office, with the major issue being between head coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers and Gillian Zucker, the team's president of business operations, according to TMZ Sports.
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Clippers owner Steve Ballmer brought in Zucker last November to control all of the team's business efforts while Rivers was set to be involved in everything else with the franchise and its goal to win a championship. The two have reportedly been at odds with Zucker getting involved in the basketball side of things, including player development and playing time decisions, according to the report.
Bill Simmons said the culture in the Clippers organization is "as dysfunctional as ever" and it appears as though even the players are frustrated and confused as to who is in charge. There are also reports that an unspecified player was so fed up with the issues that he opted not to re-sign with the team this offseason.
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Rivers and Zucker reportedly don't see eye-to-eye on many different things and her increasing involvement outside of just the business aspect of the team has led to a divide. While many people like Ballmer as the owner, they feel as though he needs to handle the situation before it explodes. As for Zucker, she claimed she didn't know anything about a divide.
"This is the first I've heard of this," she told TMZ. "I think the lines between [basketball and business] are very clear."
Zucker has a background in NASCAR as she spent nine years as the president of the Auto Club Speedway, but it's said she has a lot to learn in her transition into the NBA.
Publicly, the Clippers are looking to downplay any issues that have arisen since Zucker's hire.
"When you have new ownership, there's a learning curve," Clippers V.P. of communications Seth Burton told TMZ. "Things are new and things change. In terms of what players think, I don't know. I don't know of anything directly that would affect the players in a negative way."
Los Angeles is coming off of a season where it finished 56-26 and lost in the second round to the Rockets in seven games.
The Clippers will look to expand on that success, but if there truly is a divide off the court, it will be interesting to see how that translates onto the hardwood.
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