Dunleavy Fires Himself

The Los Angeles Clippers have decided to make a coaching change with just 32 games left in the season, relieving Mike Dunleavy of his duties, the team announced on Thursday.

The Clippers have named assistant Kim Hughes as interim coach.

Dunleavy, who has been serving as the Clippers coach/general manager since Elgin Baylor left the club early last season, will retain his front-office title.

"I've had several conversations with our owner [Donald T. Sterling] concerning what we think is best for the team overall," Dunleavy said in a press realease. "We have discussed the possibility of my concentrating only on basketball operations. That option has always been available to me.

"I've come to the conclusion that this is the ideal time for me to direct my efforts toward the many personnel opportunities that lie before us, such as the trade market, the draft and the free-agent process. We fully expect to be active and productive on all those fronts."

The Clippers began play Thursday with the 12th-best record in the Western Conference, seven games out of a playoff spot at 21-28.

Hughes has worked as a Clippers assistant for seven seasons after serving the previous five years with the Denver Nuggets.

-Marc Stein and J.A. Adande (ESPN.com)

So, it finally happened. Mike Dunleavy is out as Los Angeles Clippers head coach. Bill Simmons can die in peace (again). Under normal circumstances, this firing shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. It should have happened years ago. The Clippers have been the punch line of jokes for years. They are a cursed franchise (just ask Blake Griffin), and they just truly suck.

However, these are not normal circumstances. In addition to being the (former) coach, Mike Dunleavy is also the general manager of the Clippers. This means he essentially just canned his own ass! He realized he wasn’t good enough, so he let himself go. Dunleavy says he wants to focus all his efforts on the trade market, draft, etc. It's understandable. He wants to focus on basketball operations, so he can screw those up with his full attention.

Firing yourself is an interesting development, however. Can this sort of thing work both ways? Can I hire myself for a job that I’m not qualified for? As a 23 year old unemployed college graduate, this would be excellent news.

No?

Ah, well.

-AFG