Yesterday, the Los Angeles Clippers announced that #1 pick Blake Griffin will miss the rest of his rookie season due to knee surgery. And just like that, all the optimism I’ve been talking about left for the season as well.
I (and we) should have known better. We are after all, fans of the Clippers, so it would be foolish to expect anything other than misery, awful luck, injuries, losing and any other list of calamities. Every major event in Clips history has had the mark of hope-killing and futility and for a majority of the time it’s accepted by fans for what it is – just the Clippers way.
But man, this year was finally supposed to be different.
After the pain of losing the face of the franchise and greatest Clipper ever Elton Brand in 2008, the team hit the NBA lotto and got the first pick in 2009 NBA Draft. With that pick came the golden chance to select easily one of the most widely-agreed upon studs in years in Griffin. Coupled with some un-Clipperlike great front office moves (getting Marcus Camby and Rasual Butler for dirt cheap, moving the immovable in Zach Randolph and Tim Thomas contracts, etc) this 09-10 season seemed destined to be a new era.
The first part of the bad news in October 2009 was that he’d be out six weeks.
(ESPN/Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)
The Clips went 6-2 in the preseason and Griffin was playing great. He said all the right things and had an awesome work ethic. Baron Davis came back healthier, slimmer and with a much better approach. Chris Kaman was finally healthy and would start playing at an All-Star level, Eric Gordon‘s game grew faster than imagined and Camby grabbed more rebounds every night than Tiger Woods had mistresses.
Sure everyone had jokes about the Clippers curse and pointed out the heart-breaking injuries to Danny Manning and Shaun Livingston, or the lottery busts like Michael Olowakandi and Yaroslav Korolev. ESPN’s Bill Simmons even wrote a letter to Blake telling him to escape with his knees intact while he still had a chance, a warning Griffin took with laughter and a promise to change that negative “curse” perception.
And then he broke his kneecap in the final preseason game. Just like that, the Clipperbug had claimed another victim. A harsh reality instantly sunk into the hearts of all Clipper fans, along with the thought of “oh no, not again.”
Then the news broke that he’d be out the whole season and Clips fans across the world cringed.
(ESPN/Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)
It’s a terrible feeling to constantly have your emotions toyed with and for whatever reason, fate has always seemed to enjoy putting Clips fan’s dreams into a blender. Because just when we had given up hope on this season and went back to bashing Mike Dunleavy, moping or whatever else it is we members of Clipper Nation do to get by, the team rallied.
They had great 4th quarter comebacks, exciting dunks and spirited defense. They miraculously stayed healthy and composed enough to actually beat three of the NBA’s best (The Celtics, Lakers and Nuggets) and enthusiastically announced Griffin would return sometime in late January. After the Griffin news, the team won six in a row at home (and four overall) and was ready to welcome him back while contending for the 8th playoff seed.
On Tuesday against the Memphis Grizzlies – curse be damned – the Clippers held a 12-point lead in the third quarter in a game they had thoroughly dominated, even without Kaman (scratched due to back pain) and were about 15 minutes away from hitting the elusive .500 mark with a fifth straight win.
And then everything changed. As if part of some sick joke from the basketball gods, a water pipe in Memphis’ FedEx Forum burst, setting off the arena’s fire alarms and forcing the entire building to be evacuated. Both the Clips and Grizzlies had to board the Clippers bus and await word on when to return. After a 20 to 35-minute delay, order was restored and the game was allowed to continue.
Just a few classic responses to the Blake injury news by Clippers fans.
(Clipperblog.com comments section)
I’m sure you know how the rest of this plays out. The Clippers were outscored 27-13 the rest of the way and lost 104-102. Even though I was somewhere between stunned disbelief and disgust at the loss, I had thought of jokingly saying Memphis planned it all to help themselves win. Like a fool in love, I still had hope…
And then the Clippers announced that instead of returning on January 20, as initially reported, Blake Griffin would be undergoing season-ending knee surgery.
*crushed silence*
I read it a few more times, as I’m sure most other fans did too, maybe wishing it wasn’t true. But it was. And what must have been an emotionally drained Clippers team still had to play against the New Orleans last night. They lost of course, in a blowout, and Kaman missed his second consecutive game.
The team says he’ll be back by Friday (although as a fellow Clips fan pointed out, knowing Clipper luck it could be Friday, February 19) and even with the loss they are still only two games below .500. But the upcoming schedule has them facing the Lakers, Celtics, Nuggets and then Cavs twice, something that doesn’t lead me to envisioning any winning streaks soon.
Reaction has been heard league-wide, from Dunleavy being “crushed” to Griffin saying it’s better to take care of the injury now.
Whatever may end up becoming of this season or even next year, the verdict is out for most Clipper fans; here we go again. With the losing, injuries, sulking and the curse.
-Will.
“Diary of a Clippers Fan” will be published Mondays and Thursdays during the regular season.
