Dunleavy, Falk Speak About Elton Brand Deal but We’re Still Not Sure What Went Down

Elton Brand's Philadelphia press conference shed a little light on why he chose to leave the Clippers for the Sixers, but not too much. There were still the questions of David Falk (Brand's agent) being out for revenge, the Clippers giving Brand some sort of ultimatum, etc. When you hear what Mike Dunleavy and Falk have to say about it, things seem to be as confusing as ever.

Falk expressed his surprise at the so-called "take it or leave it" offer that Brand received from the Clippers, and Dunleavy denies that ever existed.

"I wasn't angry, but I was surprised. You don't expect a team to give a franchise player an ultimatum. You wouldn't expect the Lakers to do that with Kobe Bryant. You wouldn't expect the Heat to do that with Dwyane Wade," Falk said.

Countered Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy:

"After I supposedly gave him a take-it-or-leave-it offer, we raised the offer to $75 million and $81 million. They can spin this thing any way they want to try and spin it. The bottom line is, anything Elton ever wanted I did it for him. They stopped having communication with us more than a week ago."

To Dunleavy's assertion that the offer was raised a couple of times, Falk responded that "You don't have time to play ping-pong. When they said $70 [million], I took it for face value. It was too much of a sacrifice, that's all." Obviously there were some serious communication issues here, which probably were ultimately the reason that the deal fell apart.

Initially it was believed that Donald Sterling was free and clear of any blame here, but it's rumored that his unavailability to approve an early termination option that Brand was requesting was what sent Falk and Brand out shopping around. Whatever the combination of reasons, it's likely that we'll never know exactly why Elton Brand chose to leave the Clippers. But the toxic combination of David Falk and the Clippers' organization likely had more than a little to do with it.

UPDATE: Both Falk and Dunleavy were interviewed (separately) on ESPN radio in Los Angeles today, you can listen to their different sides of the story here.