Why I am a Clippers Fan

I admit-- I started rooting for the Clippers back in the 80s because I felt sorry for them. C'mon, I know I am not the only one....some of you felt sorry for the rag-tag bunch who showed up from San Diego to play in that ancient LA Sports Arena, hoping to leverage off of the successful Lakers franchise. Sure, we knew that Sterling was a cheap jerk, but hey, our very own Bill Walton used to play for them, he of UCLA fame and that improbable Blazers championship, and well, Norm Nixon was a favorite of mine when he was on the Lakers. Forget the fact that after the Lakers got rid of him that the Lakers got better, you still had to feel for the guys in those vintage 60s design unis that lost all of the time...

I am a homer for the UCLA Bruins, so the fact that Marques Johnson was on the team back then did help. Blowing out his knee early in the season didn't help. It didn't help that Benoit Benjamin was not a very good savior either, and the Lakers beat the snot out of them often. I did pull for them, even as I cheered the Lakers on to more championships. Hey, we SoCal sports fans need to support our local teams, right?

Well, then a funny thing happened on the way to Lakers immortality and more championships. Michael Jordan showed up in Chicago, then Magic Johnson abruptly retires due to a questionable lifestyle of promiscuity. Suddenly the Lakers purple and gold lost a little luster. Hmmm, maybe it was a little more honorable to root for the Clippers.....

Then things got really bad from this Lakers fan's viewpoint-- the drafting of Kobe Bryant. Now, don't get me wrong here--Kobe is a talented player, no doubt. It's the character that I am talking about here. Something just didn't sit well with me watching a pompous ass teenager play the game with grown men and then pouting about not getting credit or glory. I just could not stomach the attitude of a guy who gets championship rings but doesn't appreciate them because he was only the 2nd best player on the court for those teams. I am not a huge Shaq fan, but everyone respected the intimidating talent of the 7-foot center with a massive body and power dunk. Everyone, that is, except for his young teammate. Shaq was clearly one of the most dominating centers in NBA history, but Kobe had the nerve to complain about team offensive philosophy while their team dominated the NBA. I wanted to shout "GROW UP!" every time he stepped on the court or I read an article about him.

You can imagine my fury when Bryant got accused of raping a woman while on the DL in Colorado, then dragged his team into the whole mess for an entire season while the incident went to trial. It was awful seeing the public humiliation his wife endured.

So, now--where do the Clippers come in? Well, during all of the soap opera that was the Los Angeles Lakers from 1991 on, Sterling finally decided that having a winning team was worth spending some money on. They actually started making some decent trades and drafting some pretty good players. They won more. They beat the Lakers occasionally; sometimes often. They actually started showing LA fans that there were two NBA teams in town. Even better, they played the game without all of the mularky of the Purple & Gold. Elton Brand was the epitome of the anti-Kobe: the lunch bucket carrying power forward who didn't complain-- he just helped his team win. Guys like me could identify with that team. Even better, they dumped their long-time GM Elgin Baylor.

Needless to say, I defected completely--I went from feeling sorry for the poor team from San Diego to full-fledged fandom and a hatred for their intra-city rival. I look mournfully back at the former glory years of Baylor, Wilt, West, Goodrich, Kareem, Magic and Showtime, but the current Lakers are not my team-- I just could never embrace the brute force, football-playing-on-parque-floor Shaq, or the snot-nosed, whiney, spoiled brat ball-hogging Kobe. In the Clippers, I see a little bit of Kurt Rambis in them-- work hard, git-r-done guys who try to play as a team. I miss Elton Brand--I think it was a mistake to let him get away, though it may have been out of the team's control--but Chris Kaman learned from him. Go Clippers!