Those Back Stabbin’ Clippers!
One dream and life style was shattered yesterday as Darrell Bailey, widely known as “Clipper Darrell” was asked to remove the oh-so-mighty “clipper” tag from his nickname. A nickname Darrell claims he didn’t even create.
Clippers claim that the guy is making a fortune using the “Clipper” name without consent from the team. I suppose given how horrible the Clippers have been for the past billion years the amount of profit Darrell is receiving is financially crippling the Clippers organization.
Now, people make money off of sports teams all the time. Tons of people made money off of USC from the sanctions by creating shirts that read “You Can’t Sanction the Endzone” and “Bowls are for Salad”. Also, who can remember the infamous “FUCLA” shirts?
On a much larger scale mini shirt entrepreneurs have been making bank of of “LakeShow” and “Black Mamba” shirts for years. Lakers don’t mind. Why should the Clippers.
Can you imagine painting your house, spending $12,000 to refinish your car, buying a custom colored team suit, buying season tickets for a decade of your favorite team just to be called by them asking you to stop being their biggest fan?
Darrell Bailey can.
Darrell stated on his website:
“I have been told by Clipper management they no longer want me to be Clipper Darrell, a name that was given to me by the media because of my unwavering support and team spirit,” he wrote. “I am devastated!”
While Clippers players showed their support in Tweeting:
Chris Paul - ”WE GOT YOU!!!”
Blake Griffin - ”Bring back #ClipperDarrell”
DeAndre Jordan - ”I love you Clipper Darrell&#ClipperDarrell.”
To me its just kind of sad that the Clippers look at this dude as a financial threat and a constant menace to their team. Before Chris Paul, Billups, and hell even Griffin showed up this guy was the only fan the Clippers had! If it wasn’t for this guy buying season tickets for a decade the Clippers wouldn’t have been able to continually operate as a ball club!
Instead of saying no thank you Clippers, you should be saying thank you. This guy single handily promotes and gets the Clippers basketball name out there by showing up at birthday parties, painting his house and car those ridiculous Clippers colors, and you don’t even have to pay him!!!
Here are some pics of his ridiculous car that he spent $12,000 converting into an ugly “Clipper Mobile”:
