Next April, it will be 20 years since the Los Angeles Clippers' "Worst Franchise in Sports History" Sports Illustrated over. That season, the Clippers won 15 games, and ranked next to last in both points per game and opponent points per game. Between 1997 and 2000, they were a combined 41-173 (9-41 in the 1998-99 lockout year), and made the playoffs just once between 1997 and 2011.
When owner Donald Sterling was banned from the league for life and forced to sell the team in 2014, Microsoft billionaire Steve Ballmer purchased the team for $2 billion. Ballmer's boundless energy and enthusiasm brought new life to the franchise, as they continued to build on the success of head coach Doc Rivers - hired in 2013 - and won 56 games in the '13-'14 season for their second straight 3rd place finish. Prior to those two seasons, they had not been that high in the standings since 1974-1975, when they won 49 games on the back of league Most Valuable Player Bob McAdoo. Back then, they were known as the Buffalo Braves.
They've moved from Buffalo (1970-1978), to San Diego (1978-1984), and to Los Angeles (1984-present), and have shared the Staples Center with the Lakers and the NHL's Kings since 1999. They will move to a brand new area in Inglewood in 2024.
Now - with the 2019-2020 season sitting two and a half months away - and the team sporting expectations that it has never had before, there has been some talk that the franchise should undergo another identity shift. Some people want them to change the Clipper name altogether, while others just want a new logo and uniforms. Admittedly, the logo and the jerseys aren't the greatest, but why change the name?
For one, you would erase multiple generations of star players that have suited up for the franchise. McAdoo, as mentioned, was an MVP and is in the Hall of Fame. Though he was with them when they were the Braves, he laid a foundation. Bill Walton - another Hall of Famer - donned a Clipper jersey, albeit when his best days were behind him. Then there are guys like World B. Free and Dominique Wilkins, who were All Stars while with the team. Then the more recent guys like Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.
The Sterling era is an outstanding blemish on the franchise, nobody will dispute that. But if you change the name, winning a championship will not have the same impact. If Leonard and George can lead this franchise to its ever title, it will mean that the franchise that was written off two decades ago as the worst ever, in any sport, will have finally reached the mountaintop. It will mean that all of the years of losing, despair, and pain for Clipper fans will be erased.
When you think Clippers right now, you think of Ballmer as the leader. Sterling is an afterthought. The Clipper name is still there, but it represents something entirely different now. Passion, energy, competitiveness, winning, integrity.
And that's the way it would be represented if they won.
No need to erase that with a name change.
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