Mick Minas - The Curse: The Colorful & Chaotic History of the LA Clippers

The Curse

The Curse

THE COLORFUL & CHAOTIC HISTORY
OF THE LA CLIPPERS

Mick Minas

Copyright 2016 Mick Minas

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1539148750

ISBN 13: 9781539148753

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016916899

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

North Charleston, South Carolina

Dedicated to
Jae, Nash and Isaiah.

Im not a superstitious person and I dont believe in jinxes.
Bad things just happen.
Unfortunately, they happened to us every year.

E lgin B aylor

Contents

Foreword

M y FIRST EMAIL FROM MICK Minas informed me of his intention to write an historical narrative of the San Diego/Los Angeles Clippers. He was interested in interviewing me to glean some of my personal insights, based on my brief tenure as head coach of the team. Admittedly, I was somewhat puzzled by the intrigue of this Australian writer who wanted to explore the turbulent history of this star-crossed franchise. At the very least, he seemed to be undertaking a daunting task, embarking on a journey with more twists and turns than a modern day roller coaster.

Micks intent, or more accurately, his mission, was to dissect the inner workings of the team from countless different perspectives- players, coaches, front office personnel and media, all of whom had first-hand knowledge of the franchise. After tracking down and speaking with the various participants, his real challenge was to somehow weave this mass of information into an interesting story. Suffice to say that he has succeeded in admirable fashion- Mick has produced a great read.

I was actually the first head coach who was hired by Donald T. Sterling. To peg him as eccentric would be like referring to Manute Bol as a player with size.

Over the past few years, the Clippers have enjoyed a meteoric rise. Unfortunately, this dramatic change in fortunes has had a greater impact on the $$$$ column than the win column.

For many of the people involved, the experience of working for The Clips was unique unto itself. In chronicling these journeys, Mick has managed to create a book with mass appeal. One need not be an NBA or even a sports fan to enjoy it. Filled with plots and sub-plots that defy the imagination, a more appropriate subtitle might have been: You Cant Make This Stuff Up.

Welcome to Clipper-land.

Jim Lynam
September 2016

143 games across one and half seasons.

Bol, one of my all-time favorite players, was 76 tall.

Given the difficulties at the end of his tenure as the Clipper owner, I will state on the record that I never once heard him make a comment or statement that was in any way disparaging to ANY race or minority group.

Pun intended.

Authors Note

T HIS IS A BOOK ABOUT the history of the San Diego and Los Angeles Clippers. According to official NBA records, that history also includes the period between 1970 and 1978 when the Clippers were known as the Buffalo Braves. For the purposes of this book, the Braves will be treated as if they were a separate franchise, as I believe this aligns with the views of the majority of NBA fans. Therefore, any mention of events occurring for the first time in franchise history or players setting new franchise records are referring to the period from the 1978-79 season onwards.

I think most people are of the opinion that when you take a team, move it to the opposite side of the country and change its name, colors and logo, then it is no longer the same franchise.

PROLOGUE

The Start of Your Ending

It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast
that youre associating with black people.

Donald Sterling

S aturday , A pril 26 th 2014

I t was around 7 am when Blake Griffin woke up at the Four Seasons Hotel located in San Francisco. Like a typical Millennial, the first thing he did was reach for his cell phone. Given how well he had played during Thursday evenings game, he was expecting to be greeted by the usual assortment of congratulatory messages. Griffin had led all scorers with 32 points, as the Clippers defeated the Golden State Warriors 98-96 at Oaklands Oracle Arena. The win gave the Clippers a 2-1 series lead and also restored home court advantage in their first round playoff match-up with Golden State. When Griffin checked his phone, he was surprised to see over 40 text messages waiting to be read. This was far more than he anticipated and he quickly realized that something else was going down. Griffin had a fairly good idea of what that something else might be.

Two days earlier, coach Doc Rivers informed the players that the Clippers were once again about to find themselves in the news for reasons that had nothing to do with basketball. Rivers explained that someone had recorded owner Donald Sterling making a number of objectionable comments and it appeared that a prominent media outlet was about to release the audio file. Rivers was not able to provide many details about exactly what Sterling had said and Griffin did not view this update as particularly important. Game 3 against Golden State was set to tip-off in just a few hours, meaning that whatever trouble Sterling had brought upon himself was far from Griffins primary concern.

Now, in the privacy of his hotel room, curiosity got the better of Griffin. He reclined on the bed, found his way to the TMZ website and clicked on the play button. What he heard was a scratchy recording of a personal conversation between a man and a woman. He immediately recognized the male voice as Sterlings and once he heard what the Clippers owner had to say, Griffin knew why his inbox was suddenly overflowing with messages.

Why are you taking pictures with minorities?

It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that youre associating with black people.

You can sleep with themyou can do whatever you want. The little I ask is not to promote itand not to bring them to my games.

It was confronting.

It was disturbing.

Yet unfortunately, it was not surprising.

Blake Griffin first formed the view that Donald Sterling was a man of questionable character five years earlier. It was the eve of the 2009 draft and Griffin was about to be selected as the first overall pick by the Los Angeles Clippers. He wanted to find out as much as he could about the Clippers, so he did what most people do when they need to get answers- he visited Google. When Griffin typed Donald Sterling, the search engine tried to preempt what he may be looking for and suggested- Donald Sterling racist as a topic that he might be interested in. This immediately grabbed Griffins attention and he followed Googles lead. What he found wasnt pretty.

The articles Griffin stumbled across discussed incidents from Sterlings past. There were allegations from former Clippers general manager Elgin Baylor that Sterling wanted to field a team of poor black boys from the South with a white head coach. There was a deposition where Sterling went into great detail describing his sexual encounters with a prostitute whom he was suing. There were also articles outlining the various housing discrimination lawsuits that had been brought against Sterling for allegedly mistreating black and Hispanic tenants.

So, as Griffin lay in his San Francisco hotel room, listening to the gravelly voice of Sterling lecturing his latest female companion on matters pertaining to race in America, he came to the conclusion that this was nothing out of the ordinary. Sure, the NBA would have to take some sort of action. After all, these were not alleged comments that could be made to disappear with a posse of high priced lawyers. These were clearly Sterlings own words, recorded as evidence for the entire world to hear.