Basketball: Los Angeles Clippers

OK, they had a breakout season, and now they are easily handling the Nuggets in the playoffs. How far will they go? And will they be able to maintain this level of play in future years?

EDIT - I can't spell!

[Edited on 4/27/2006 by Gibbs Baby!!!]

Hey, even the Arizona Cardinals made the playoffs once or twice... and promptly got beat.

I will believe the Clippers are for real when they start winning playoff series, which will happen when hell freezes over. They still have the same atrocious, worst-in-all-of-sports owner, don't they? They'd better enjoy this year for all they can.

BHN

The Clippers still have Elgin Baylor as VP of basketball operations (since 86). There is supposedly a curse surrounding him: "Since Baylor's record has adversely affected one college, three NBA franchises and three different NBA cities over a span of 47 seasons in six decades, the Curse of Elgin Baylor can be considered one of the most devastating and wide-ranging of sports jinxes."
en.wikipedia.org...

Hopefully the Clips can break the curse this year. Elton Brand is having his best year, and Cassell adds much needed playoff experience. They've had a tough history, and this has been there first winning season in 14 years. They've been playing Denver well, and got home court advantage against them by manipulating the NBA's playoff structure to avoid playing Dallas.

On a side note, the Lakers seem to have a chance against Phoenix, Kobe is doing well and getting good help from Odom. A Lakers-Clippers series would be historic, or at least worth watching I'd hope.

I never thought of a curse being attached to Elgin Baylor, but that is interesting. He did retire during the 1971-72 season, when the Lakers were in the midst of a 33-game winning streak. They would go 69-13 and win the NBA title; Baylor, however, did not participate. His last two seasons in the league were essentially meaningless, as his bad knees kept him out of 153 games in those two seasons. Back then, the medical world didn't know that you need to ice swelling joints. Baylor aggravated his injuries by puttin heat packs on his knees.

The Clippers' owner notoriously conducts the team in a business-like manner. He only wishes to turn a profit, so as long as the team does that for him, he is happy--win or lose. As much as I disagree with some of Mark Cuban's antics, I must say that he pushes the Mavericks to win and then celebrates when they do.

I agree, although I don't like seeing Mark Cuban get too involved in on-going games, he's putting a face on ownership that is usually anonymous. With all the money involved its nice to know that some of it is going to someone who enjoys the game and really cares about the team. Than again, capitalism=maximum profit, no heart (at least right now).

Mark Cuban. Dare I say it? Another Indiana University guy.
:party-smiley-018:

Yeah, the owner of the Clips (I forget his name) is the worst owner in all of professional sports. He understands that owning a professional sports team will turn you a profit no matter what, so he doesn't give a rat's patooty about making them competetive.

I believe the owner's name is Donald Sterling, who lobbied the NBA to relocate the team from San Diego to LA back in the 1980's

Hmmmmm. Well, I'm glad I picked "Baseball History Nut," and not "Ultimate Sports Genius"--or some such nonsense--as my nickname. This thread contains my disparaging remarks about the Clippers' team and franchise, what a "fluke" their season was, how I'll believe in them when they prove up, etc. I have made similar remarks previously on this site.

AND I have made remarks, like some of this site's other "geniuses," disparaging the Lakers as a non-team consisting of one selfish player and 11 stand-arounds with has no chance of doing anything in the playoffs.

I just looked at ESPN.com's playoff brackets for the first time. Assuming nobody has misprinted the current W-L records of the 16 playoff teams during this year's playoffs to date, all this here self-appointed basketball whiz can say is:



In the next round, if one of y'all has a team you really love and desperately want to see advance to the conference finals, send me a script of some remarks which a pop-off basketball moron might make, disrespecting your team and trashing their chances in Round Two. Or hell, if you're desperate to get your team out of Round One and into Round Two, I'll do the same for you.



BHN

Just start cheering for the Lakers and all is forgiven, BHN.