Dunleavy: We ‘Went to the Mat’ for Bryant

In one man’s opinion, Kobe Bryant easily could have altered the perception that he chased Phil Jackson and Shaquille O’Neal out of town. He could have ended the speculation Thursday. He could have turned the NBA on its ear.

He could have signed with the Clippers.

“I thought one way he could prove all that wrong, that he didn’t have anything to do with it, was to come to us,” Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy said Friday. “If he had come to us, he could have told everybody, ‘There was no deal there; I had nothing to do with it.’ That would have been the easy way out, maybe.

“I don’t know.”

What Dunleavy does know is that the Clippers “went to the mat” trying to persuade Bryant to accept their offer of about $106 million over six years, rather than take the Lakers’ offer of about $136 million over seven. The Laker offer was more lucrative only because of rules in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement.

“He would have been a great player with us -- I think a better player with us than he will be with them, even,” Dunleavy said. “But that’s beside the point.”

By staying in the game to the very end, Dunleavy said, the Clippers gained a measure of respectability, the end result notwithstanding.

The perception all along was that Bryant, an unrestricted free agent, would never entrust his future to Donald Sterling, the owner who has presided over two decades of Clipper failures. But Bryant said that he agonized over his decision, weighing the Lakers against the Clippers until the 11th hour.

“It’s very positive for us in many ways,” Dunleavy said. “We’ve got a recruitment going against us. ‘Sterling is not going to do it; he’s not going to do what you need him to do. He’s not going to sign [Elton] Brand to a max contract; there’s no way.’ He did it. ‘He’s not going to sign [Corey] Maggette, $7 million a year; it’s not going to happen.’ He did it. ‘Well, he’s never going to let you go to the cap.’ We offered Gilbert Arenas $60 million; we just offered Kobe Bryant $106 million.

“So I think we’re chipping away at that perception that the organization is not willing to take this to whatever level is necessary to take it to, and I think if you ask Kobe Bryant, I think he understood that and he knew that. He knew that we were there and it was real.”

Still, Dunleavy never sensed which way Bryant was leaning until Bryant phoned him Thursday morning to deliver the news.

“I was ready both ways,” the coach said. “Going through the process, you listen to the radio and different things. I heard an interview with [Laker executive] Jeanie Buss where she was asked if she was confident they were going to re-sign Kobe.... She said, ‘Well, my dad is because he’s done the necessary things for him to sign.’ And when I heard that, I was kind of like, ‘If they’re that confident, maybe they know something I don’t know.’

“But we kept it all very positive and felt like it really could go either way. In talking to [Bryant and his agent, Rob Pelinka] through the whole process, it seemed like there was a good chance it could happen for us.”

When the Lakers won out, Dunleavy didn’t feel duped.

“I felt like it was very serious,” he said. “I know it was, just from other sources. I’m really kind of surprised. I think he knew our deal was the best deal for him, but I think there were overriding factors against us.... They had the loyalty factor going, they had the seventh year, money-wise, going for them.”

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If the Clippers match the offer sheet that restricted free agent Quentin Richardson signed this week with the Phoenix Suns, NBA rules would not allow them to trade him for 60 days. They would not be allowed to trade him to the Suns for a year and they would not be able to trade him to any other team for a year without his permission. Also, any team trading for Richardson would not be allowed to send him to the Suns until next summer.