Ty Lue Reveals Two Reasons For Choosing Clippers Over Lakers

The Denver Nuggets mounted a 3-1 comeback and defeated the Clippers in one of the most shocking upsets in NBA history to advance to the Western Conference Finals and play the Los Angeles Lakers.

Ty Lue's Reasoning For Choosing The Clippers

Before the 2020 collapse, the Lakers had a vacancy in their head coach position after firing Luke Walton in LeBron James' first year with the team. The Lakers had missed the playoffs, and James' former head coach, Tyronn Lue, was available.

In a recent appearance on "Club Shay Shay," Lue explained why he turned down the Lakers' offer and became an assistant under Doc Rivers before becoming the Clippers' full-time head coach.

“I would have loved it. I mean it would have been a dream come true...One, they offered me short years. They offered me three years and I want to do five. I guess because they were trying to tie me to LeBron. Two, the money was low," Lue said.

He continued, “Well, I'm saying it wasn't low for me personally. The money, it was low for the head coach and for what it meant to everybody else going forward. It's like the players association. If you take a bad deal, they're going to give us all bad deals.”

The Clippers Gave Lue Freedom

Lue also mentioned that the Clippers allowed him more freedom, including the ability to choose his own coaching staff, whereas the Lakers were against it.

“It's hard because loyalty is tough, but then I couldn't pick my coaching staff. Well, they won't let me pick my coaching staff, so they was going to pick my coaching staff for me, and so I had to leave a lot of guys behind. In other words, instead of saying, I want to hire John Drew or this guy, that guy, they're like, no, you got him, him, and him," he said.

Lue has had an illustrious group of assistant coaches during his tenure with the Clippers, including current Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, current Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson, Larry Drew, Brian Shaw, Dahntay Jones, and Jeff Van Gundy.