Well, that wasn’t the bomb Clippers fans were hoping Woj would drop Friday.
No, but Adrian Wojanrowski’s tweet landed with so much impact it uprooted Clippers fans who’d been on opposite sides of the trade-for-James Harden-or-Jrue Holiday debate and lined them all up beside one another on the anti-Josh Primo side of the divide.
The NBA suspended Primo on Friday for four games without pay for “conduct detrimental to the NBA.” That conduct: Exposing himself to women, including the San Antonio Spurs’ sports psychologist during treatment sessions, as she alleged in a lawsuit they settled last November.
Recall, the Spurs cut Primo a few days before that complaint was made public last October.
Now – hours after the NBA released its findings that Primo “engaged in inappropriate and offensive behavior” – the Clippers signed him to a one-year, two-way contract.
It’s really hard to feel any sort of way but: Ick.
They decided to give the 20-year-old a shot because they’re getting a talented, former No. 12 overall draft pick on a team-friendly two-way contract, but also because they’ve been moved by the work he’s been doing to better himself since he was released last season.
Members of the Clippers’ organization have spent months getting to know him, I’m told by a source with knowledge of the team’s thinking, while also asking for him to meet with contracted specialists, experts with applicable insight. I understand they also consulted with people in their facility whose jobs it will be to interact with Primo, to make sure they felt comfortable with the addition.
To the Clippers, they’re offering Primo an opportunity to prove himself.
Not even necessarily as a hooper, but as a decent human?
Normally that’s a relatively low bar; professional athletes might be superior athletically, but it’s not like we really expect them to be superior morally.
In Primo’s case, the bar is going to be sky-high. This dude better be a Boy Scout, a model citizen, the student of the month every month.
I hope he can do it. Not for his sake, but for any woman who works near him.
This guy has a lot to prove because Maya Angelou was onto something when she told us: “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”
The Clippers’ star players are Padres fans, so maybe the team has missed what’s happened with the Dodgers in these past months.
Remember how many fans felt uncomfortable when they brought in Trevor Bauer? He was subsequently suspended for 194 games, a Major League Baseball record for domestic violence, leaving the Dodgers on the hook for $32 million.
And last month, Julio Urias, another star Dodgers pitcher, was arrested for a second time on charges of domestic violence stemming from another violent incident in public. If you go to the ballpark now, you won’t find any sign that he ever played for the club.
When people show you who they are …
Still, sure: None of us is perfect. There should be second chances. And yes, teenagers – Primo was 19 last year – especially should have opportunities to rehabilitate.
But in this case, it feels like a 10th chance – if you count up all the times he allegedly exposed himself to the Spurs’ psychologist, Hillary Cauthen, without realizing, apparently, how horrific his behavior was.
The following has been released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/DCKLYaPAfu
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) September 29, 2023
According to the NBA’s news release Friday, despite whatever progress he’s made in therapy that’s assuaged the Clippers’ concerns, Primo still maintains that his conduct was “not intentional.”
You know, whoops.
The alleged predatory and indecent acts that resulted in a criminal complaint in Bexar County, Texas? Apparently, he wants us to believe those were honest mistakes.
These purported, repeated incidents that, in California, could get a person a penalty of as much as six months in county jail for a first offense? He maintains: An accident!
And now the NBA has decided – after concluding that, yes, a player exposed himself multiple times to multiple women – that player should be duly punished.
Multiple women, multiple instances, multiple games.
As in, four.
Four games.
That’s all. The NBA’s stance is that it’s not as though Primo “engaged in any sexual or other misconduct apart from these brief exposures” so … shrug?
Look around: Miles Bridges pled no contest and was sentenced to a felony charge that stemmed from accusations he assaulted the mother of his children in front of them before he signed a one-year, $7.9 million contract to return to the Charlotte Hornets.
Look closer: New Lakers big man Jaxson Hayes also pled no contest to two misdemeanor charges stemming from a domestic violence incident with his girlfriend in July 2021 before coming to L.A. this offseason on a veteran’s minimum deal worth about $2.2 million.
So, look, of course Primo was going to land on an NBA roster.
Let’s hope the one he landed on is right about him.
Let’s hope he will benefit from the mentorship of the Clippers’ G League coach, veteran leader Paul Hewitt. That Primo will continue getting the outside-of-basketball help that looks, to the Clippers, like it’s making a difference.
That the team will take seriously the standards that will be in place during Primo’s time here, so there’s no re-do of the situation in San Antonio, no allegations that the team has dragged its feet for 10 months without addressing serious complaints like Cauthen’s.
Better yet, let’s not have any complaints like Cauthen’s.
That’s actually not such a high bar, after all.
