It's no secret that agent David Falk has a long-standing feud with Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Falk wasted no time getting that aspect of Elton Brand's new deal with the Philadelphia 76ers out in the open today.
At Brand's introductory news conference in Philly, Falk said Sterling reluctantly made an offer to Brand after he opted out of his contract last week. Not only that, but Falk was told Sterling -- a notorious cheapskate -- would be just as happy if Brand turned it down.
That pretty much sealed the deal, according to Falk, who landed his client on an up-and-coming roster in a city hungry for a championship.
Falk called the Clippers' approach to negotiating with Brand "disturbing." The offer was conveyed by coach Mike Dunleavy, who explained to Falk that Sterling would not be available to discuss the offer or negotiate in any way.
"It was basically, 'Accept it or don’t accept it,'" Falk said. "And that’s a very difficult position to accept if you're a player of Elton’s stature and you’ve done as much for a franchise as Elton has done."
Brand said Golden State offered "a lot more money," but not as much as they could have. After clearing cap space by trading Rodney Carney and Calvin Booth, the Sixers offered the max they had under the cap to get one of the top power forwards in the league.
"There are four current NBA players who have career averages of over 20 points and 10 rebounds a game," Sixers president Ed Stefanski said. "Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, a fella named Garnett, and this is the other guy. So I think that should explain why we were so interested in a guy like this."
More later. Gotta write for the newspaper now.