Clippers Don't Want Clipper Darrell to be Clipper Darrell

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"I'm not feeling too good right now," Bailey told ESPNLosAngeles.com by phone Wednesday. "They asked me not to be Clipper Darrell anymore. They don't want me to dance. They don't want me to cheer anymore at the games. I can't be Clipper Darrell. They don't want me in the suit. They don't want me to do anything anymore."

Hearing about this kind of made me a little angry. Here's a guy who has stuck with the Clippers through many seasons of being an awful organisation. He's done nothing but support and promote the team, and now the Clippers are doing okay, he gets asked to refrain from using the name "Clipper Darrell".

I was lucky enough to see a Clippers game when I was in Los Angeles and I thought he added to the atmosphere of it all. This was when Blake Griffin was out for the season and their starting power forward was Drew Gooden.

He is synonymous with Clipper games. This is a shock. People thought they actually paid him to do this, too.

I always saw him as an unofficial mascot of the Clippers. The fact that he didn't get paid for any of it is quite remarkable. He even decked out his whole car in the Clipper colours. His fanaticism is really something else.

...evidently.....
http://deadspin.com/5890033/on-the-othe ... -of-a-jerk

Lahr says the Clippers have been giving Darrell free lower bowl tickets for years, a value of tens of thousands of dollars. The problem only started when Darrell attempted to make paid public appearances — the sort of thing where he would show up at a store opening or pep rally, as an official representative of the team. Rather than simply tell him to stop, the Clippers say they offered him a deal: become an official Clippers employee (with the same salary as the cheerleaders) and be allowed to make these appearances and extra paychecks, but the team would have the final say in what appearances he could make.

The Clippers say Darrell refused this offer, at one point flying to Dallas to meet Mark Cuban and talk about becoming a Mavericks superfan.

"He's a really good person, but he told us he's in this to make money," Lahr said. "Once that happens, that changes the whole fan dynamic."

Last week, chafing at what he perceived to be the Clippers' attempts to control him, Darrell spoke with Lahr on the phone and offered to stop being Clipper Darrell. Lahr told Darrell that might be a good idea, but to think about it. He never heard back, until Darrell went public with his breakup.

He did get paid for it. The Clippers gave him his seats for free:

First, the Clippers love having Darrell Bailey at their games. They love him so much, for the last couple of years they've given him a free ticket. Yes, while many others in the building are shelling out thousands for the hottest show in town, Bailey is given a prime lower-bowl spot for free.

The Clippers love that he performs at the games. They don't want him to stop his dancing. They don't want him to tone down his support. They appreciate that he has been a season-ticket holder for a dozen years, and they would be happy to have him show up at every home game and lead Clippers cheers forever.

"We love him in the arena, fans love him in the arena, everybody loves his energy and his passion," said Carl Lahr, longtime Clippers vice president of marketing and sales.

The problem is, Darrell Bailey also wants to represent the Clippers outside the arena. He wants to make paid public appearances on behalf of the Clippers and give interviews as a Clippers spokesman and essentially turn his rooting interest into a business interest.

Amazingly, the Clippers don't have a problem with that either. Although most teams would sue any fan who tried to capitalize on their name, the Clippers told Bailey they would not stop him from representing them, but would simply insist that he follow the same rules that apply to every other employee.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-030 ... 729.column

I guess the "team becoming popular and dumping their most loyal fan" was an easy conclusion for me to jump to. It's kind of funny that he contacted Mark Cuban. Not sure if Maverick Darrell has the same ring to it though

Given the controversy that's surrounded Donald Sterling and Clippers management over the years, you are kind of inclined to take the first story at face value. It does seem there's a bit more to the tale though, he's basically throwing a bit of a tantrum over a more than reasonable request. It's a shame it's come to that when things are looking up for the Clippers but if he has contacted Mark Cuban about becoming the Mavericks' superfan, perhaps the Clippers are accurate in their assertion that he "is not actually a fan of the Clippers, but a fan of what he can make off of the Clippers". Perhaps it didn't start out that way, but has morphed into that as he's developed his own popularity and following.

EDIT: Clippers’ feud with Clipper Darrell yet another sad chapter in franchise’s history

Also:
After All These Years, Redemption For Clipper Darrell. Maybe.

Hmm...well, at the very least one side isn't telling the whole story.