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Rivers: Jordan Meeting Helped Wash Away Season’s End

“DJ is a difference maker, and getting him puts us right back in the race,” Rivers said. “When you look at some of the things other teams in the West have done, it’s becoming an arms race. We lost a huge missile, we needed to get it back and we got it back.”

Within a day of Jordan saying he’d go to Dallas, Rivers got the sense Jordan’s final decision might not have been made. Rivers said Jordan never lost contact with several Clippers players, and Rivers continued to hear more rumblings.

“That crazy day was a great day for our team, it was a great day for team-building,” Rivers said to Rome. “When we walked in, DJ basically said he was coming back, but he wanted to have a talk with the team and see what our thoughts were about winning. I thought it was a great talk.”

Rivers said all the players said their piece, what they felt they had to do better and what they had to do to win. On both Rome’s show and Cowherd’s show, Rivers said at some point the Clippers needed to address how last season ended, and getting to talk about it in that setting was productive.

Rowan Kavner, Clippers.com