Collapses in the second half have been a staple of the Los Angeles Clippers this season, and naturally also been something I regularly harp on. In my previous Diary of a Clips Fan last Thursday, I blogged about the game against the New Orleans Hornets being close and prophetically (sarcasm) warned that another loss could be avoided if LA would only play well in the final 24 minutes. Naturally, the Clippers – who actually were ahead 50-46 at halftime – came out for the third and fourth quarters and got outscored 62-50 and lost 108-100.

Hardly a ray of sunshine for both the players and fans alike, so when last night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks had the Clippers up 52-43, I wasn’t about to count on a win.

True to form, Milwaukee came out shooting in the third quarter, led by Compton’s Brandon Jennings and outscored LA by 11, including 16 in the quarter from Jennings. The AP noted that “Milwaukee closed that period with an 18-2 run, erasing a 16-point Clippers lead to go up 74-72.”

Milwaukee had came in on a six-game winning streak and won 12 of their last 13 overall and of course the Clippers were losers of their previous eight games. The stage was set for the Clippers to fold once again and I was prepping for another downtrodden blog post.

And then the clouds parted, the Sun shined through and the basketball gods decided to flip the Clippers’ fate (I’m just kidding with the dramatics), but seriously, it was as if they had forgotten that March Madness was supposed to start on the 18th, not the 17th and accidentally brought some craziness one day early.

Heck, some of you would even argue that the Clippers play below an NBA-level, so you can call last night’s 101-93 win a minor Cinderella story.

Yeah, yeah, I know I’m getting ahead of myself with all this excitement, but when you follow this franchise as much as I do, you gotta savor your small victories. The Clippers can now enjoy their three-day break and chase back to back wins Sunday against the lowly Sacramento Kings. They face the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets after that, so if you’re like me, you better bask in this temporary glory while it’s still here.

-Will.

“Diary of a Clippers Fan” will be published Mondays and Thursdays during the regular season.

Even for a season that quickly spiraled into familiar misery, the pitiful moments continue to pile up for the Los Angeles Clippers. The 118-88 Saturday loss to the San Antonio Spurs marked the seventh straight loss for LA, and the 30 point margin was also the seventh time this season that they lost by more than 25 points. That, by the way, is the worst such mark in the NBA.

Surprise, surprise.

I’ve had a hard time finding the motivation to keep following the team sometimes, so I’m sure there are some guys in the Clippers locker room who might feel the same, especially with the embarrassing numbers they’re putting up on a regular basis. Just because I might understand that doesn’t mean I sympathize with them too much though, since you know, they are being paid a lot more than the rest of us.

The huge salaries, fame, pride and immense talent on the roster alone should be more than enough for the Clippers to contend, and if not, at least compete. Look I know the owner is a disgrace, that the former coach (Mike Dunleavy) stuck around four seasons longer than he should have and that the drastic changes made by (and in) the front office are a distraction, but come on guys, you’re professional freakin’ athletes.

Take a look at the point differentials for the last seven games, all of which LA has lost.

26, 17, 22, 26, 11, 8 and 30.

That works out to being outscored by 140 points, an average losing margin of 20 points per game. The turning point this year was the January 12 game against the Memphis Grizzlies, which the Clippers entered with a four-game winning streak and a chance to hit the .500 mark. The game infamously involved a broken water main, a 20-minute postponement and a blown double digit lead for LA, who was 17-18 at the time. Since then, they’ve changed a handful of players, fired their coach/GM and won only eight of the last 32 games.

Jeez. Coming into the year we fans wanted consistency, just not in that form.

The rallying cry around the Clippers organization and some foolish hopeful fans is one that speaks of a ton of salary cap space for next year and points out the positives in new GM Neil Olshey , but I think I speak for a majority of Clips fans when we say that we can’t always just be sold a better tomorrow, we want to see some on-the-court results now.

A win tonight against the New Orleans Hornets would be a good start, and at press time the Clippers are still in it, trailing 32-27 midway through the second quarter. That sounds good, let’s just hope there’s no patented second half collapse in store. Heck, while we’re asking for miracles, we might as well put in a word or two for world peace.

-Will.

“Diary of a Clippers Fan” will be published Mondays and Thursdays during the regular season.

The twists and turns just don’t stop. On March 09, 2010 the Los Angeles Clippers announced that they had “severed ties” with General Manager and former head coach Mike Dunleavy Sr and named assistant GM Neil Olshey to take his place.

I have to be honest with you all when I say this, I didn’t see this announcement coming, not this soon. Sure, I know it must sound like B.S. since Dunleavy was removed as coach earlier this season, but I’m being sincere.

You see, the Clippers are owned by a man named Donald Sterling, who is infamous around the world for housing discrimination lawsuits being a “thrifty” owner with very little interest in building a winner, making sound basketball management decisions, caring about anything else but his bottom line … well you get the picture.

It’s been a common sentiment around the NBA (and within Clipper Nation) that Sterling doesn’t care about the fans of his franchise or his team’s success. He’s never been a favorite of Clips fans or most NBA followers and it’s for good reasons. The Clippers are notorious for being one of the most maligned, long-suffering teams in professional sports. We’re the butt of every joke, the regularly criticized and almost universally degraded “little brothers” of the NBA in Los Angeles. Earning that type of reputation is not easy and it involves systematic failures over long periods of time with little to no room for a brighter tomorrow.

And under Sterling’s watch, that’s exactly what’s happened. Coach after coach has failed, drafts have been thrown away with awful selections, NBA legends have left on bad terms, made claims of racial discrimination and countless other mishaps. A column by Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski published today has a harshly-worded summary of just some of Sterling’s errors.

For those of us who foolishly felt optimism for the future during the short Lamar Odom, Darius Miles, Elton Brand and Quentin Richardson “era”, the public face of every Clipper misstep since then was a man chosen by Sterling himself – Mike Dunleavy.

Just a few of the many Dunleavy faces that tormented Clippers fans the past 7 years.
(Diary of a Clippers Fan/YouBeenBlinded Illustration)

Knocking Dunleavy has practically been a rite of passage for Clipper fans and if we’re being honest, most of it was well-deserved. His coaching decisions, rotations and substitution patterns literally doomed away our best shot at ever winning anything back in 2006.

Legend has it that Raja Bell still sends Dunleavy and Daniel Ewing flowers out of gratitude for allowing him to end the Clippers most successful year with his 3-pointer over Ewing in the playoffs, who was a rookie at the time.

He had a coaching record with the team (215-325 in 6 1/2 seasons) that would have earned any other coach a pink slip years ago. Ask Byron Scott and Avery Johnson, who had far better records, about how fast a coaching change usually happens. Aside from just wins and losses, Dunleavy also chose a guy like Yaroslav Korolev with the 12th pick in the 2005 draft, ahead of no-name stiffs like Danny Granger, Nate Robinson and David Lee.

I’ve bashed Dunleavy just as much as most others, whether by yelling at the TV or looking down at the team bench from the stands and muttering curse words to myself mixed in with shots at “The Dunce” or “Dumbleavy.”

Heck, I even called it “a glorious days in Clipper history” when his firing was announced back in February. I say all that because although I felt happy to know he was finally gone, it was a bittersweet moment, precisely because of how long it took to fire him.

And the blame for that gross mismanagement falls directly onto Sterling. He always seemed to be the last one to notice that Dunleavy deserved to be fired, giving him chance after chance to keep falling on his face. To add insult to injury, when the time finally did come to fire him, he didn’t even know how to do that the right way. According to an article by Ramona Shelbourne of ESPNLosAngeles.com, “Dunleavy still doesn’t know exactly what happened.”

“I come back to my locker around 7 p.m. and there’s a million messages on my phone,” Dunleavy told her. “This guy comes up to me and said, ‘What’s going on? They just said on TV that the Clippers severed ties with you?’ I had no idea what they were talking about. I’m like, ‘Wow. I haven’t even talked to the Clippers.’”

Surprised? Baron Davis wasn’t. Just another day of business for Sterling. Yeah Dunleavy’s gone, but the boogeyman still lurks over the Clippers. Kelly Dwyer over at Ball Dont Lie sums up how I feel with these few sentences below, taken from his article on the firing.

“The Clippers? They’re a bunch of (curse word)s. They kicked this guy to the curb just as he leaves them what will be a little under $17 million in cap room once the team’s cap holds and draft picks are sussed out. Did Dunleavy deserve to be sent home, in both positions, long ago? Sure. But only a team like the Clippers could turn this guy into anything somewhat slightly resembling a sympathetic figure.”

He’s right. So just like all the other times being a Clips fan has ruined some dream of mine, here I sit just a day after seeing Dunleavy disappear from Los Angeles feeling unfullfilled and cheated. Like a sucker who had tickets to a show they were waiting years to see only to arrive and find out it was all a scam. I thought I’d be happier today, thought that I’d be excited about next season and the opportunity for a new coach, a new GM and a big name free agent.

While some look at the firing as a possible “mission statement” to usher in a new era, I’m not buying it.

Instead, I’m sitting here stuck with the unwanted knowledge that Donald Sterling remains as the owner of my favorite team. Yup, even without Dunleavy, they’re still the Clippers after all.

-Will.

“Diary of a Clippers Fan” will be published Mondays and Thursdays during the regular season.

In my last post I told you guys that I was prepared to grow my own version of the famous beard sported by Los Angeles Clippers point guard Baron Davis if they could just string together some big wins against their playoff bound opponents.

The idea sounded fun and somewhat reasonable, the Clips had just beaten the Utah Jazz (4th in the West) after all, and although the Suns had easily dismantled them in the previous game I didn’t think it would be impossible. A matchup against the upstart Oklahoma City Thunder wasn’t too threatening because of their youth and the rematch with the Jazz seemed like another chance to at least compete for a win.

It turned out that I couldn’t have been more wrong. The team went out and lost back to back games to the Thunder and Jazz by a combined score of 211 to 172. That’s a difference of 39 points. Just like that it became clear no one would be fearing my beard, much to the delight of my female admirer by the way. While I was unsure of how to feel about not growing the beard (imagine the money Baron saves on razors and shaving cream?), I was severely disappointed in both losses.

Looking at these guys makes the Clippers loss to the Jazz even worse.
(Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images)

Look, we Clippers fans are used to losing, injuries and all that, it’s part of our DNA. But even with that said, we at least took some pride in knowing that our team would compete and stay close this year. Sure this season was a foregone conclusion after it became clear Blake Griffin wouldn’t suit up, the Memphis collapse, and later the Marcus Camby/Al Thornton trades, but the sum of our parts still made us expect something other than blowouts.

The folks over at ClipperBlog.com put up a great piece after the loss to the Jazz that likened it to Japanese Kabuki theater. A great excerpt sums up our pain below.

“To the comical delight of the [Utah] crowd, with the game decided in the fourth, the Clippers had a four on one fast break and turned the ball over on a traveling violation. These priceless moments are why people attend Kabuki plays. The ending, the victory was never in doubt, but little variations on how you get that victory is entertaining.”

And it’s stuff like the info above that personify the organization and its struggles. That’s gotta be tough for interim coach Kim Hughes, even with his previous time as an assistant.

We feel your pain Kim, we feel your pain.
(Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)

It doesn’t look good for the next few games either, with the Orlando Magic, Miami Heat and Charlotte Bobcats on the schedule. Yeah, the same three teams that are directly responsible for the other LA team’s current three-game losing streak. That alone should tell you how I feel about our chances.

-Will.

“Diary of a Clippers Fan” will be published Mondays and Thursdays during the regular season.

As we prepare for the 62nd game of the 2009-2010 NBA season, the Los Angeles Clippers stand in 12th place in the Western Conference (out of 15 teams) with a 25-36 record. Their latest loss came at the hands of the Phoenix Suns last night, 127-101 which, by the way, was less than seven days after those same Suns beat the Clippers 125-112.

I guess watching game film and coming up with new defensive strategies didn’t exactly work.

Amare Stoudemire absolutely had his way (pause) with the Clippers, scoring 30 points on 12-16 shooting with 14 rebounds in only 29 minutes of game time. Ever since not being traded at this year’s deadline, Stoudemire has been lighting up opponents and the Clippers frontline was powerless to stop him. It wasn’t just Amare that the Clips had trouble defending though, as the Suns shot 56% from the field and had four other players score double figures, including Jason Richardson and Channing Frye both getting 20+ points.

Yeah, safe to say Chris Kaman won’t be getting any Defensive Player of the Year votes.
(Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)

It was yet another difficult loss for the Clippers, who were actually ahead by one point at halftime but surrendered any chance of winning after a horrible third quarter performance that saw them get outscored by 21 (39-18). Making the collapse even worse was the admission after the game by the Suns that they were already looking ahead to their next opponent, even while the Clippers had the lead.

“We just played with more energy in the third quarter, and that was the difference,” Steve Nash told the AP. “It was great for me to rest in the fourth quarter. I’ve been struggling a little bit with some injuries, so the more rest I can get is obviously better for me.”

Stoudemire echoed Nash’s sentiments.

“That was the whole purpose of coming out strong in the third quarter. We wanted to really jump on them and try to create the big lead and allow the starters to get some rest for tomorrow — which we did,” Stoudemire said. “Back-to-backs are always tough, especially when you’re playing Utah on the second night, because they’re physical. But we’re going to be prepared for them.”

It’s not really a good sign when a team can just decide to turn a switch, think ahead and smash you like the Hulk. The loss was the eighth time this season the Clippers have lost by 20 or more points and even though we have a new head coach in Kim Hughes, the ghost of Mike Dunleavy still made its presence felt. I say that because Clippers are 3-13 against the Suns since losing Game 7 of the 2006 Western Conference semifinals at Phoenix, which was choked away by Dunleavy and his infamous Daniel Ewing substitution.

Interim Clippers coach Kim Hughes does the signature “Why me?” pose perfected by Mike Dunleavy.
(Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)

Sometimes you only get one or two chances to seriously chase a ring in the NBA, or in the case of Clips fans, at least make it deep in the playoffs and it still stings to this day to think of how that magical season got thrown away in just one play. Anyways, back to the present, which despite all its mediocrity and suffering, has had a few bright spots.

On the court, we’ve seen tantalizing flashes of brilliance from center DeAndre Jordan, like his SportsCenter featured posterization of veteran Theo Ratliff (watch here) and the promise of more playing time for him after the Marcus Camby trade. As fans of a historically bottom-feeding franchise stuck in another losing season, the least we can expect is to see our players with high ceilings get a chance to play, and in Jordan’s case, a recent ESPNLosAngeles.com article shows that a boost of confidence might go a long way.

Off the court, we’ve had the pleasure of being able to watch the comedy gold of Baron Davis, who you can always count on for some great entertainment. The ban behind the “Fear the Beard” movement and various Internet sensations, his latest viral hit is a video of him selling his beard. Check it out below.

Say what you want about Baron and his performance or big contract, at least he brings some laughs and fun to the Clippers. Throw that in with some better shot selection (only four 3-point attempts a game, third lowest of his career) and his 15 points, eight assists and two steals a game fit in nicely with Steve Blake for a potent backcourt combo.

With the next six games being against playoff teams, the Clippers will need some of that Boom’s Beard power to come through and get some wins. And heck, if it works I might have to get myself one too.

-Will.

“Diary of a Clippers Fan” will be published Mondays and Thursdays during the regular season.

Man oh man, the torture for Los Angeles Clipper fans continued tonight, but it thankfully ended with a great 108-104 win against the surging Utah Jazz.

I mention torture because it was an agonizing scare to watch the team nearly blow a 17-point fourth quarter lead to the Jazz, who lost thanks to Deron Williams missing two game-tying free throws with less than 20 seconds left. After two straight losses, including an embarrasing one one to the lowly Sacramento Kings on Sunday, the Clippers were able to get their 4th win in the last six games.

The W came despite the fact the Jazz outscored them by eight points in the final period, thanks largely to the play of Eric Gordon. Gordon scored 13 of his 24 points down the stretch from a variety of 3-pointers, free throws and layups. Chris Kaman and new Clipper Drew Gooden both had double doubles and Baron Davis also finished with 19 points and 12 assists in a night that saw all five starts score in double figures.

Making the win even more remarkable was the fact that it was against Utah, who had moved itself into the NBA’s top 10 with some great games recently, and as an added bonus the beautiful Jessica Alba was once again in attendance. I don’t know any man out there who doesn’t like a chance to see her, so with apologies to Clipper Darrell, she’s the face I look for most in the stands.

Dear rest of the NBA, Jessica Alba is hotter than your fans.
(Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)

As it stands today, the Clippers have a 25-35 record, with 22 games remaining in this season. They have a rematch with the Suns this Wednesday and then face Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder Friday at Staples Center before embarking on a five game road trip. Even though I’ve lost any hope for a .500 record, it would be nice to see the team continue to build toward next season with some more victories.

You know what else would be nice? Winning the lottery. Until then, we’ll just keep trying.

-Will.

“Diary of a Clippers Fan” will be published Mondays and Thursdays during the regular season.

So it turns out that this wacky season – much like the Los Angeles Clippers themselves – continues to defy all logic. The latest topsy-turvy event of the year has the Clippers following a 6-game losing streak with a somewhat-impressive 3-game winning streak. Just when you think they might be ready to tank for a higher draft pick, the new trade additions provided a spark, this time leading to a 97-91 win against the equally hapless Detroit Pistons.

Chris Kaman and Drew Gooden lead the Clippers with 21 and 15 and 20 and 13 respectively, in a game that saw the usually dependable Richard Hamilton cough up 6 free throw misses, including 3 pivotal ones in the game’s closing minutes. The Clippers took full advantage of the opportunity and sealed the win with some clutch play from forward Rasual Butler.

In yet another sign of how unpredictable the years has been, the AP pointed out that “the Clippers used their 13th different starting lineup, with interim coach Kim Hughes giving Gooden his first start since joining them in a trade last week with Washington. He had nine points in the opening period along with seven boards — equaling the most rebounds by a Pistons opponent in a quarter this season.”

The Clips aren’t exactly threatening the Cleveland Cavaliers title hopes with their new pieces, the three wins have been against Sacramento, Charlotte and Detroit after all, but it’s still a pleasure seeing some winning effort being given out there. With the recent wins, the team brought their record up to 24-33 on the season, a respectable amount considering the injuries and job done by former head coach Mike Dunleavy.

It’s worth noting that Dunleavy was always blasted as someone who hindered the possibilities of a high-flying Clippers fast break machine, something that has proven to be entirely false as interim coach Kim Hughes has seen his players fail to score any fast break points at all in several of his games. Whether the game tempo has been fast or not probably hasn’t worried Hughes too much during the wins though, as he’s seen his record rise to 3-5 overall. Like we all learned when we were kids, a win is a win.

Before my fellow citizens of Clipper Nation get too excited, the schedule will get a little tougher, starting with tonight’s game against the Phoenix Suns. The next five matchups include two against the Suns, a rematch with the Kings as well as games against the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder, both of which have been red hot as of late.

I guess we’ll get a chance to see how the new Clippers do against superior opponents. While some fellow Clips fans have used their suffering as a tool to strengthen their religious convictions, I won’t be holding my breath for any miracles any time soon.

-Will.

“Diary of a Clippers Fan” will be published Mondays and Thursdays during the regular season.

A lot has happened with the Los Angeles Clippers since my last post on Feb. 8th. The team traded Marcus Camby, Al Thornton and Sebastian Telfair and welcomed new players Steve Blake, Travis Outlaw and Drew Gooden. Interim head coach Kim Hughes finally got his first official win 99-89 against the Sacramento Kings, stopping a miserable 6-game losing streak.

The trades, especially the Camby one, were not very well received, since they essentially made it clear that this season was being given up on. Looking at the the bigger picture though, – the team’s future – you could see how the front office has positioned itself to be a major player in the vaunted 2010 free agent class.

Shedding Thornton and Telfair’s contract continued a positive trend set when the Zach Randolph, Tim Thomas, etc contracts were shipped out and gives the Clippers an estimated $17-18 million under the salary cap to offer a max contract to Cleveland’s LeBron James, Miami’s Dwyane Wade or several other star free agents.

Whether or not anyone will actually come to play for the Clippers though, is a whole other story, and apparently a worry of All-Star center Chris Kaman, who was frustrated by some of the moves.

“You’d like to think that we have a shot, but you never know,” center Chris Kaman said Thursday. “You don’t know what most guys are thinking. Do they want to come to the Clippers? Notoriously, we’ve struggled, but we have great pieces and we have great things to offer someone like that.”

All we Clipper fans have to do is look back at the last time we had loads of cap space (only to be rejected by Gilbert Arenas and Kobe Bryant) or the Elton Brand fiasco as reason to take cautious heed to Kaman’s words. Even with an extremely talented core group of Baron Davis, Eric Gordon, Blake Griffin, Chris Kaman and DeAndre Jordan plus LA’s great weather, convincing a superstar like LeBron or Wade to come here will be a monumental task.

I’m not much for optimism, especially after this year, so we’ll just have to wait and see how everything turns out, but kudos to management either way for their moves. As for the present, the Clippers face off with the Charlotte Bobcats tonight at Staples Center and word has it newly acquired Travis Outlaw may make his debut. Even journeyman Drew Gooden says he might be willing to give the Clippers a chance to keep him.

No offense to Gooden, but this wasn’t how I envisioned the season turning out. At 22-33, it makes sense for the Clippers to plan ahead and focus on a healthy 2010, it just sucks for us fans.

As usual though, we’ll just have to grit our teeth and wait it all out.

-Will.

“Diary of a Clippers Fan” will be published Mondays and Thursdays during the regular season.

Welcome back to the 20th edition of Diary of a Clippers fan, where the biggest news is the selection of Los Angeles Clippers center Chris Kaman as an All-Star replacement for injured Portland Trail Blazer Brandon Roy. Kaman’s inclusion as a reserve for the February 14th game makes him the first Clipper all star since Elton Brand in 2006 and will definitely make a lot of Clipper fans (who felt he was initially snubbed) happy.

Kaman will join teammate Eric Gordon in representing the Clippers as a participant in All-Star weekend, with Gordon set to play in the Rookie/Sophomore game and possibly in the Slam Dunk competition. While the Kaman news was a nice surprise, it comes after the Clips lost their first game of the post-Mike Dunleavy coaching era, 98-81 against the San Antonio Spurs.

NBA All-Star – So easy a Kaman can do it.

Everyone had been anxiously awaiting the chance to break free from Dunleavy’s rigorous half-court sets, including new coach Kim Hughes and point guard Baron Davis, but boy were the results ugly. As Kevin Arnovitz (ClipperBlog/ESPNLosangeles.com) pointed out in a column after the game, the transition between coaches and playing styles is rarely an easy one in the NBA. An excerpt is below:

“I hope we run like crazy,” Hughes said. “More transition, early offense attack. More of a free-flowing offense.”

In that spirit, Hughes turned the play calling over to point guard Baron Davis, who has been eager to orchestrate a more improvisational offense for the Clippers. The results of the experiment were ugly. After scoring the game’s first four points, the Clippers surrendered an 18-0 run to the Spurs and never recovered. They were unable to get good looks at the basket, when they got looks at all. The Clippers converted only eight field goals in the first half but accumulated 15 turnovers.

The team cut down on the turnovers in the second half, finishing with 21, but the damage had been done. While Davis is sure to find a rhythm without Dunleavy soon, his first game gave a glimpse of how difficult the change can be, as he finished with a game high eight turnovers in only 28 minutes of playing time.

The decision to drop Dunleavy was one that made headlines across the NBA and was the topic of plenty of conversations, including one caught caught on camera between Pardon The Interruption’s (PTI) Michael Wilbon and ESPN NBA analyst/former player Jon Barry, in which Wilbon suggests eliminating the Clippers altogether may be the best solution. While it was a low blow, it’s probably an accurate gauge of how those outside Clipper Nation feel, which makes the Kaman news a even more satisfying given the tendency to make us the butt of all jokes.

Now we just have to cross our fingers that the Kaman who shows up is the one who can lead the break and finish with a behind the back assist to his teammate and not the one that airballs layups.

Kaman is averaging 20 points and nine rebounds a game and is of course on of the most unique (see: possibly crazy) Clippers in the last decade, so it will be interesting – to say the least – to see how All-Star weekend will turn out with all those cameras in his face. One thing is certain though, since his free time will be taken up playing basketball and not back having fun with guns in Michigan, Ford Tauruses across the country are breathing a sigh of relief.

PS, it probably wouldn’t be a smart idea to let David Stern, who chose Kaman for the game, see that video until after next Sunday, so shhhh.

-Will.

“Diary of a Clippers Fan” will be published Mondays and Thursdays during the regular season.

Mark it down on your calendars Clipper fans, because Thursday February 4th is now a glorious day in Clips history.

In case you haven’t heard, the Los Angeles Clippers announced today that Mike Dunleavy has been fired relieved of head coaching duties – effective immediately – and the move has been overwhelmingly greeted with joy by citizens of the Clipper Nation.

Halle-muthaflippin-lujah.

I know it may sound harsh, but screw that, I’m a Clipper fan and that alone gives me the right to thoroughly enjoy this moment. By the way, he’s remaining with the team as general manager and assistant coach Kim Hughes will serve as interim coach for the rest of the season.

However promising the Dunleavy hiring may have seemed back in 2003, years of under-achieving, bad rotations/substitutions, awful draft picks and so many other miserable choices completely alienated him from not only the fan base, but seemingly his own players as well.

This guy was a pariah in Clippers circles, a figure loathed by fans (see video below) who stacked up losses and yet never seemed in any danger of losing his job (thanks Mr.Sterling!), so the move comes as a huge surprise. There had been rumors of his possible removal earlier in the year, but something (unexpected quality wins against the Boston Celtics, LA Lakers and Denver Nuggets) always seemed to save his job.

His job security even appeared to be at an all-time high after he wasn’t fired following back to back losses to the New Jersey Nets and Minnesota Timberwolves (they’re a combined 15-82 and literally the two worst teams in the NBA) which essentially dropped the Clippers out of the Western Conference playoff race.

Personally, I figured it was just a part of our team’s sad destiny to be forever linked to Dunleavy, so when I got a text earlier from a fellow Clipper fan with the news, I hesitantly replied with “if this is true, that’s great,” even though I saw that the text was prefaced with a “MYLAC: Breaking News” stamp on it, signifying it was an official Clippers press release.

I’ve learned to proceed with caution and disbelief at any good Clipper news, so I had to grab my laptop and check ESPN and Yahoo’s NBA websites. Once there, I realized I wasn’t dreaming and I’ve been in a great mood ever since. That blown fourth quarter lead and loss against Atlanta last night? Nothing but a distant memory.

However happy we are at the move though, the news still comes with the unfortunate reality that it happened at least 10 games too late. As J.A. Adande says in his reaction to the news “If they were going to try to make a run at the playoffs they needed a jumpstart, not the setback that was this final trip under Dunleavy’s watch. Dunleavy hasn’t been the answer for a long time. The Clippers seemed to be the last to realize that.”

Adande is dead on with his commentary, since Dunleavy’s last stand during the 2-6 road trip put a big hamper on the other LA team’s playoff hopes. All in all, Dunleavy’s record was far from impressive and I doubt his resume will be wowing any other teams anytime soon. Via the Associated Press, his record is less than stellar, as seen in the following info.

“Dunleavy was 215-325 in 6 1/2 seasons on the bench, and Los Angeles made the playoffs just once in his first six seasons, getting within one game of the Western Conference finals in 2006. The Clippers haven’t been back to the playoffs since, winning just 42 games in the past two seasons.”

The news has been met with elation and classic comments from Clipper fans on websites like ClipperBlog.com and ClipsNation.com, who have compared it to “losing their virginity all over again” or this fitting tweet from Dunleavy critic Bill Simmons:

“According to Steiny Mo: Mike Dunleavy out as Clipper coach (staying on as GM). I just wish they had given him more time.”

The craziest part of this all is the fact that even though he’s not the coach anymore, he’s still being given a chance to run the team as GM.

Only with the Clippers.

-Will.

“Diary of a Clippers Fan” will be published Mondays and Thursdays during the regular season.