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LOS ANGELES – Tyronn Lue will take up his new job as coach of the Los Angeles Clippers fully aware of the pressure to bring the long-suffering franchise to the first NBA championship. As if Lue needed a reminder, owner Steve Ballmer proclaimed, “My personality is about winning.”
It has been almost two years since Lue worked as a head coach. He was fired in Cleveland after an 0-6 start to the 2018-19 season and used the downtime to work on himself before joining the Doc Rivers staff in Los Angeles last season.
“I lost 35 pounds, changed my diet. That was the main thing, to focus on myself,” Lue said Wednesday (Thursday Manila time) via Zoom. “After Cleveland, I had the entire season to reflect on what I could have done better.”
Now it’s Lue’s turn to try and take the Clippers where the franchise has never been before, beyond the second round of the playoffs.
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“I’m big on pressure,” he said. “If you don’t have pressure, that means you don’t have a chance to win a championship. I want to be one of the best coaches.”
Ballmer said, “Ty is my kind of person. He wants to move, move, move, learn, absorb, have new thoughts, which I think is essential to keep pushing.”
The 43-year-old Lue already has three NBA championships on his resume: two as a player with the rival Lakers and one as Cleveland’s coach when LeBron James played for the Cavaliers. He also led the Cavs to the Finals in 2017 and 2018, but both times they lost to Golden State. Lue was 128-83 in parts of four seasons with them.
The Clippers, in the first season of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George playing together, were 49-23 this regular season, the fourth-best record in franchise history. Leonard and George can opt out and become free agents after next season.
It will be up to Lue to balance the personalities of his two Leonard and George, who by nature are quiet and reserved. He has dealt with superstars before, having coached James and being teammates with the late Kobe Bryant.
“Our two players, they lead by example. They practice hard and work hard every day individually on their game,” Lue said. “You are not going to have the best players as leaders all the time. It is going to be collective.”
Lue believes that keeping everyone healthy is the key to next season, provided it starts. Leonard was on a load control program last season due to a left knee injury and only played in 57 games. George missed all of training camp and the first few games while recovering from shoulder surgery in the offseason.
Lue said he was unsure about Leonard’s cargo management for the upcoming season without first speaking with the team’s medical staff.
“They will have to adjust to my system and my program, but I will also have to adjust,” Lue said of Leonard and George. “It starts on the defensive end with those two guys setting the tone every night.”
Rivers established a winning tradition, leading the Clippers to the playoffs in six of his seven seasons, the most successful streak in franchise history. Playing in the NBA bubble in Florida, the Clippers blew a 3-1 lead over Denver and lost in the Western Conference semifinals in mid-September.
Two weeks later, Rivers was fired.
“I definitely gave him time. It’s very important to me that we don’t do anything in the heat of the moment,” Ballmer said. “Doc and I needed to have some talks. After some talks, we collectively decided that it was probably okay to move in a different direction.”
Rivers was not out of work for long, and was hired the same week to coach the Philadelphia 76ers.
Ballmer was quick to address Rivers’s departure, mentioning it even before mentioning Lue.
“I really want to thank Doc Rivers. Doc was obviously a fantastic championship coach,” Ballmer said, apparently referring to the 2008 NBA title that Rivers won as coach of the Boston Celtics.
“He has been a mentor since I first bought the Clippers six years ago. I am very grateful to Doc. Doc is a very special human being. He has been a great ambassador and a great person. I wish him the best in Philadelphia, except for the two days a year that we play with him. “
Lue experienced a loss when Rivers was sent packing.
“It was tough,” he said. “Doc has been my mentor since I’ve been in the league. Without Doc, I wouldn’t be in this position today.”
Lue was a candidate for other head coaching jobs this offseason. Ballmer cited Lue’s responsibility and his ability to connect with players as factors that make “Ty Lue the best of the best.”
“They chose me,” Lue said. “It feels good to be loved.”
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