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An Awakening Hoops Juggernaut

By Matt Stroup

Originally published on April 4, 2002

Inside the walls of LA's Staples Center, out on the streets, and all around the basketball world, there is a revolution going on. You have to look closely or you'll miss it, because it happens in a flash: Quentin Richardson gets a steal, calmly dribbles behind his back, leaving a defender on the ground, and then dishes to a soaring Darius Miles for an alley-oop dunk that makes you want to get out of your seat and scream. A minute later, when they've just taken three bad shots and turned the ball over twice, frustrating you beyond belief, you've forgotten all about it. Yet in that one moment of brilliance it was there, the undeniable truth: no team has more talent, no team is more interesting, and no team has as much unrealized potential as the LA Clippers.

I Am Serious, and Don't Call Me Shirley

If you've been a basketball fan for a while, you may find the above information shocking, even ridiculous. Clippers lore, if such a thing exists, conjures up such forgotten names as Ken Norman, Terry Dehere, Benoit Benjamin, and Pooh Richardson. The Clippers have long been the biggest joke in the NBA. Since they came into existence as the Buffalo Braves in 1970, the franchise has had a .350 winning percentage and only five winning seasons out of 31, not including this season. How in the name of Dick Motta did this team go from being possibly the most brutally awful and unwatchable squad in NBA history to being the brightest and most talented young team in the league? Amazingly, it all happened in four days.

Day 1 -- Wednesday, June 24, 1998: with the number 1 pick in the NBA draft, the Clippers select an unbelievably raw 7-footer out of the University of the Pacific by the name of Michael Olowokandi. Since basketball scouts, executives, and fans everywhere know that the Clippers' brain trust is completely devoid of basketball intelligence and that Olowokandi had only played competitive basketball for three years, the move is highly controversial.

Day 2 -- Wednesday, June 30, 1999: the Clippers are shocked when enigmatic URI forward Lamar Odom falls into their lap at number 4. They can't resist the temptation to draft Odom, a player who turned off several teams by skipping pre-draft workouts and scheduled meetings. No one questions Odom's talent, just his attitude.

Day 3 -- Sunday, June 28, 2000: the biggest day in franchise history. Selecting at number 3, they take high school phenom and Dhalsim-from-Street Fighter II-look-alike Darius Miles, a player widely thought to have huge potential. At number 18, they take DePaul star Quentin Richardson, an immensely talented player who was being talked about as the number 1 overall pick had he entered the previous year's draft. Rounding out the day, the Clips swindle Orlando into trading them number 10 pick Keyon Dooling and the freakishly athletic forward Corey Maggette for a future first round pick. After the draft, Miles says, "Being with the Clippers is going to be fun," and the basketball universe wonders if those words have ever been spoken before.

Day 4 -- Sunday, June 27, 2001: confusing himself for a legitimate NBA executive, Chicago Bulls' GM Jerry Krause executes one of the most brash and imbecilic trades in NBA history, initiating a "rebuilding" project by dealing 22-year old rising-star Elton Brand to the Clippers for high-schooler Tyson Chandler. It appears that prosperous times are ahead for the once inept LA franchise.

I am Jack's Wasted Season

Fast forward now. There are only a few games left in the 2001-2002 NBA Season and the Clippers are fighting for their playoff lives. They are four games out with 10 left to play. To say the least, the season has not gone as planned. Odom has played just 28 games due to a wrist injury and a league-imposed drug suspension, and the team has been frustratingly mediocre, unable to escape the .500 mark or put together a winning streak of more than three games all year. There have been flashes, though, of what this team could be in years to come. Richardson and Miles have an incredible chemistry on the court, and during any Clippers game, one of them is guaranteed to do something spectacular. Richardson in particular seems to have an arsenal of moves that other people don't even try. Miles often draws comparisons to Kevin Garnett, and Brand outworks every power forward in the league on a nightly basis.

The most surprising bright spot for the Clippers, however, has been the play of Olowokandi, who, even earlier this season, looked like one of the worst number 1 draft picks of all time. Now he looks like a force, and even though his game is painful to watch (his jump shot looks like he's trying to lift a boulder off of his chest), he has been surprisingly effective, averaging 16 points and 11 rebounds a game in March, recently dropping 26 and 17 on Tim Duncan and the Spurs.

The only thing Olowokandi needs to work on, much like everyone else on the team, is his decision-making. Just like any young team, the Clippers simply need time. The harsh and disturbing reality is that they are already running out of it.

This is business

If Clippers' owner Donald Sterling is famous for anything, it is his hard and fast refusal to pay the money necessary to keep his important players. Unfortunately for the Clippers and every one of their fans, a huge test is coming up this summer, when Olowokandi becomes a free agent and Odom, Brand, and Maggette are due for contract extensions. Many people think that Sterling will use Odom's problems with drugs (he has been suspended twice for marijuana use) as an excuse not to extend the talented forward's contract, and a catastrophic domino effect could take place from there, as the players see Odom as their leader.

Remember that ambiguous Nike ad several years back where that guy kept saying over and over again, "The Revolution will not be televised?" I never quite understood it then, but I think I get it now. Donald Sterling is the guy standing behind the TV waiting to pull the plug.

The Revolution, my friends, is happening right now. It is that Darius Miles dunk that made you get out of your seat. It is that Quentin Richardson spin move you tried to replicate the last time you played pick-up. It is Michael Olowokandi's funky jump shot, Elton Brand's unmatched hustle and strength, and a team that you want to root for regardless of geographic loyalty. The Clippers are your team because they are a bunch of kids who play basketball with an infectious energy and enthusiasm that make you remember why you love sports.

Here's hoping that they get their shot at glory.

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