Jan 05 2009
LA Clippers just get worse, and worse, and worse
I understand that their center, Chris Kaman has been out for a while and that their newly acquired big scorer, Zach Randolph is day to day with an injury. I also recognize that Baron Davis has been hurting a bit from a bad fall a month ago and hasn’t been right on the court since then.
But come on.. this is getting ridiculous and it’s embarrassing. Even for a franchise that for years was a joke in the league. It’s owner was rumored to be using the team as a tax write-off when it lost money, which it seemed to do a lot. He kept a GM, albeit an LA icon named Elgin Baylor, in the front office to give the team credibility and yet tied his hands without the money to go out and sign good guys.
To the owner’s credit, even when he forked the money over the team drafted poorly or if by some miracle they chose the right players, they got hurt or the coaching system just plain sucked.
A couple of years ago there was light at the end of the tunnel, the team got farther in the playoffs (believe it or not they made it) than the Lakers who were going through their post-Shaq rebuilding process. This season was supposed to be their best in recent memory.
And then as things tend to go in the Clipper’s world, the wheels came off as their star jumped ship at the last moment, leaving the team in a bad way. They had signed Baron Davis on the promise that he’d rule the court with the star (Elton Brand) and the team would put them on the floor with their center, a young draft pick, Eric Gordon, and a maturing second year player, Al Thornton. Sounds good right?
So it all blew up. The team dumped other players after Brand jumped ship, they imported new players that in and of themselves are good but they had no time to play together in a training camp. It shows. And now the injuries.
The team that re-signed its coach last season doesn’t want to cut him loose and lose tens of millions in salary termination payments. And thus we are back at Loserville. The Clippers are sad. The fans don’t fill up half the arena and the town knows that only a miracle will save the franchise….perhaps the owner will disappear? Fans can only hope. They lost yesterday on a bad goal-tending call against them. What else is new? They’ve only won 8 games this season.
