Written by: O

Just when you think the Los Angeles Clippers are going to get out of their “misfortune”, they find a way to bring more “misfortune” to the franchise.  At the beginning of the free agency period, the Clippers made a huge splash in signing Baron Davis away from the Golden State Warriors.  Many thought that it was the move of the offseason…until the Clippers became the Clippers again.  After Davis’ signing, everyone switched their focus to the re-signing of both Elton Brand and Corey Meggette.  After the usual negotiations, Brand left the Clippers to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers and Meggette left to sign with the Golden State Warriors on the same day.  When it comes to the Clippers, the question is not how, but why.

You can make an argument that no team has lost more talent in the last 20 years than the Los Angeles Clippers.  At one time, the Clippers had Ron Harper, Mark Jackson, Danny Manning, Charles Smith, and their coach was Larry Brown.  That is a ton of talent, especially when you consider that Harper became a 5-time world champion, Jackson became one of the greatest passers the game has ever known, and Brown is known as one of the great coaches the NBA has had.  That Clipper team never went past the first round of the playoffs and thus, most of the team split up after their second season together.  Thus, lies the answer to the Clippers’ “misfortune.”

Clipper owner Donald Sterling gets much of the blame for the problems of the Clipper organization and with good reason.  The problem with the Clippers has not been that they have never had very good talent in the Clipper uniform because they have.  Along with those players mentioned earlier, the Clippers have also had players such as Dominique Wilkins, Sam Cassell, and Brand.  The problem has been Sterling’s refusal to properly compensate his players and consistently lose them to free agency.  Thus, the Clippers will get good players, be it in the draft or free agency, only to lose these same players in a trade or free agency because Sterling does not keep his players happy financially.

What is odd about the current Clipper “misfortune” is that Sterling got in this situation by actually paying to keep Brand once before.  In the summer of 2003, Brand signed with the Miami Heat and begged Sterling not to match the offer since he was a restricted free agent.  Sterling decided to match the offer and sign Brand.  Since Sterling matched Brand’s offer, the Heat then signed Lamar Odom with the same contract and of course, Sterling did not match that offer.

What is particular galling about this move was that Odom was part of the Shaquille O’Neal trade that got O’Neal out of the Los Angeles Laker franchise that crippled the Laker franchise for a while.  This was the move the Clippers had been waiting for since the Lakers had been so successful, thus making the Lakers the most popular team in the league.  This made the Clippers continually tagged as the “other” team in Los Angeles because the Lakers made the Clippers the second-most popular in the city.  During this time, the Clippers had their best run through the playoffs in decades in the 2006 season where they were one game from the Western Conference playoffs.  Since then, the Clippers again went back to their former ways and Odom and the Lakers just got through playing in the NBA finals.  Perhaps Brand left Los Angeles because he wanted his own run to the finals.  Either way, it is back to the drawing board again for the Clippers.

Tags: Basketball, NBA, Sports

This entry was posted on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Random Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.