Los Angeles Clippers

• 1. Introduction

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  Blake Griffin had just learned that Chris Paul was joining the Los Angeles Clippers. He turned to DeAndre Jordan during the team's 2011 media day and declared, "Yeah! It's going to be lob city!" That burst of confidence felt long overdue for a franchise born in Buffalo in 1970. The team had passed through San Diego before settling in Los Angeles. Along the way, it changed its name once and cycled through ownership crises that drew league sanctions and legal battles. Through all of it, the Clippers built one of the most improbable losing reputations in American professional sports. They remain, to this day, the oldest franchise in North American professional sports to have never played in a championship game. What kept a team with genuine playoff talent from breaking through? And when the franchise finally found its footing, what stood in the way?

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• 2. From Braves to Clippers

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  The Buffalo Braves entered the NBA in the 1970-71 expansion, alongside the Portland Trail Blazers and Cleveland Cavaliers. Their home was the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, shared with the NHL's Buffalo Sabres. Two difficult seasons gave way to a turnaround under coach Jack Ramsay and center Bob McAdoo. McAdoo led the NBA in scoring for three straight seasons. He won the league's Most Valuable Player award in the 1974-75 season, and the Braves qualified for the playoffs three years in a row. They fell twice to eventual Eastern Conference champions, the Boston Celtics in 1974 and 1976, and once to the Washington Bullets in 1975.

  The Auditorium itself became the team's undoing off the court. The Canisius Golden Griffins men's basketball team held a pre-existing lease at the venue, with priority over the Braves on game dates. The Sabres, more successful and more popular, claimed whatever prime dates remained. Owner Paul Snyder found no solution. He sold the franchise to John Y. Brown, Jr., former owner of the ABA's Kentucky Colonels. Brown traded away the Braves' stars, gutted the roster, and drove attendance so low the team could break its own arena lease. In 1978, Brown and Celtics owner Irv Levin arranged an unusual resolution: the two men simply traded franchises. Levin, a Southern California resident, moved the team to San Diego. When asked to explain the decision, he cited a shorter commute as a key reason.

  San Diego had not had an NBA team since the Rockets departed for Houston in 1971. The city had also hosted the ABA's San Diego Conquistadors, though that franchise folded. Team officials rejected "Braves" as unsuitable for San Diego, and a local naming contest settled on "Clippers," a reference to the great sailing ships that had long passed through San Diego Bay. The first coach, Gene Shue, built his system around pace and many scoring opportunities. World B. Free arrived from the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for a future first-round pick. He averaged 28.9 points per game in the team's first California season, second only to George Gervin of the San Antonio Spurs at 29.6. The Clippers finished 43-39, two wins shy of a playoff spot. The following seasons brought center Bill Walton, a San Diego native and former league MVP with the Portland Trail Blazers, but chronic foot injuries kept him largely sidelined. San Diego never qualified for the postseason in six seasons. Announcer Ralph Lawler had begun his long association with the franchise during that first California year. By the time new ownership arrived, Free had already been traded to the Golden State Warriors for guard Phil Smith.

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• 3. Sterling's Ownership

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  Donald Sterling paid $12.5 million to acquire the San Diego Clippers from Irv Levin in the 1981-82 season. The roster immediately suffered: Bill Walton missed the entire year to injury again, and the team finished 17-65. The NBA fined Sterling $10,000 for publicly guaranteeing the team would lose enough games to draft Ralph Sampson. That was the largest fine the league had ever levied against an owner at the time. Sterling flew players to away games in coach seats on commercial airliners, violating the collective bargaining agreement. Hotels turned the Clippers away, citing alleged unpaid bills from prior stays. A bus company in Newark stranded the team at the airport after Sterling failed to pay for previous trips. The Clippers nearly missed a scheduled regular-season game against the New Jersey Nets that day. Larry Fleisher, the general counsel of the National Basketball Players Association, later stated: "In all my years of involvement with the NBA, no team ever provided as much difficulties for the players than the Clippers under Sterling. He almost caused three strikes last season."

  Sterling attempted to move the franchise to Los Angeles in June 1982. The NBA denied the request. He filed an antitrust suit, and the league filed a countersuit. An NBA committee of owners investigated that September and recommended terminating Sterling's ownership, finding he had been late paying both creditors and players. Days before a scheduled league vote in October to remove him, Sterling agreed to sell. At the suggestion of David Stern, then the league's vice president, Sterling was allowed to keep ownership by handing day-to-day operations to Alan Rothenberg, who became team president. In February 1983, Stern publicly called the franchise "first-class," and the effort to remove Sterling was dropped.

  Sterling moved the team to Los Angeles in 1984 without league approval anyway. The NBA fined him $25 million, filed suit to force the franchise back to San Diego, and threatened to dissolve the club if he did not comply. Sterling countersued the league for $100 million. His case was strengthened by a court ruling that had recently permitted Al Davis to relocate the NFL's Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles. In September 1987, the two sides settled: the league withdrew its lawsuit, Sterling dropped his, and his fine was reduced to $6 million. Four decades later, the Ontario Clippers of the NBA G League would claim the San Diego Clippers name for the 2024-25 season.

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• 4. The Clipper Triangle

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  Derek Smith's knee injury during the 1985-86 season began a run of bad fortune that sportswriters named the "Clipper Triangle," after the Bermuda Triangle legend. Norm Nixon suffered a knee injury the following season; Marques Johnson injured his spinal cord. The team finished the 1986-87 season 12-70, the second-worst single-season record in NBA history at that time. Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor joined that same season as general manager and vice president of basketball operations. Danny Manning, the first overall pick in the 1988 draft, tore his anterior cruciate ligament during his rookie season. Baylor would remain with the franchise for 22 years.

  Larry Brown arrived as head coach in late January 1992, replacing Mike Schuler. Brown finished the year 23-12 for a combined 45-37, the franchise's first winning record in 13 years. For the first time since moving to Los Angeles, the Clippers posted a better record than the Lakers. They reached the playoffs for the first time in 16 years, losing to the Utah Jazz three games to two. Game 4 was moved to the Anaheim Convention Center after late April 1992 riots disrupted Los Angeles; the Clippers won that game. Brown made the playoffs again the following season at 41-41, then left to coach the Indiana Pacers.

  The 1996-97 Clippers qualified for the playoffs at 36-46 and were swept in the first round by the Utah Jazz. Four players from that roster later died. Malik Sealy was killed in a car accident in 2000. Kevin Duckworth died of heart disease in 2008. Lorenzen Wright was murdered in 2010. Dwayne Schintzius died of cancer complications in 2012.

  The 2005-06 season brought the franchise its clearest breakthrough in two decades. Elton Brand's play and a midseason acquisition of Sam Cassell lifted the Clippers to 47-35, their best record since leaving Buffalo and their first winning record in 14 seasons. They entered the playoffs as the sixth seed in the Western Conference and secured home court advantage over the Denver Nuggets. On the 22nd of April 2006, they won their first playoff game in 13 years. Two days later they won again, going 2-0 against a single opponent for the first time in franchise history. They reached the conference semifinals for the first time since 1976, facing the Phoenix Suns. Brand averaged 30 points per game in that series. Phoenix won Game 7, 127-107. General Manager Elgin Baylor won the NBA Executive of the Year award for his role in the turnaround. In 2009, the Clippers held the first overall pick in the NBA draft, a singular opportunity to reshape the franchise.

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• 5. Lob City

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  Blake Griffin was selected with the first overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft, chosen to anchor the Clippers' rebuild. On October 23, he broke his kneecap during the team's final exhibition game against the New Orleans Hornets, following a dunk. The Clippers initially told reporters he had only a sore left knee before revealing the full extent of the injury. Griffin missed the entire 2009-10 season.

  On the 14th of December 2011, the Clippers sent Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, Al-Farouq Aminu, and a first-round pick to the New Orleans Hornets. In return they received point guard Chris Paul, a four-time All-Star. Paul had nearly been traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, but NBA commissioner David Stern had vetoed that deal while the league owned the Hornets. Paul and Griffin were both named Western Conference starters for the 2012 NBA All-Star Game. It was the first time in franchise history the team had produced two All-Star starters in the same year.

  In December 2012, the Clippers went 16-0, part of a 17-game winning streak that set a new franchise record. They were the third team in NBA history to finish a full calendar month of the regular season undefeated. The streak ended with a loss to the Denver Nuggets on the 2nd of January 2013. A 126-101 win over the Phoenix Suns later gave them 50 victories for the first time in franchise history. On April 7, a 109-95 win over the Los Angeles Lakers clinched their first-ever division title, and the team finished 56-26.

  The team hired Doc Rivers from the Boston Celtics as head coach before the 2013-14 season, in a deal that included two future first-round picks. The Clippers won a franchise-record 57 games and claimed their second consecutive division title. Chris Paul re-signed for five years at around $105.3 million. But the team's playoff ceiling remained stubbornly low. In six straight seasons from 2012 to 2017, the Clippers qualified for the playoffs each time, and each time fell short of the conference finals. The era ended on the 28th of June 2017, when Paul was sent to the Houston Rockets. The deal included Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley, Montrezl Harrell, and several other players and picks. Jerry West, who had built championship teams for both the Lakers and the Golden State Warriors, joined as a special consultant for the coming rebuild.

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• 6. The Tape and the Sale

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  On the 25th of April 2014, entertainment news website TMZ released a recorded conversation featuring Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Sterling reprimanded V. Stiviano for posting an Instagram photo of herself with Magic Johnson and another woman. Stiviano had reportedly been dating Sterling while he was estranged from his wife. Sterling told her it bothered him that she had "broadcast that she is associating with black people." He added that he did not want her to bring them to his games.

  Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant all publicly condemned the remarks. Sponsors including Kia Motors, State Farm, and Virgin America severed ties with the franchise. The players debated boycotting the April 27 playoff game against the Golden State Warriors. They opted for a silent protest instead, wearing their jerseys inside-out to hide the team logo.

  On April 29, the NBA issued Sterling a lifetime ban from the organization. A league investigation confirmed his voice on the recording. Commissioner Adam Silver issued a $2.5 million fine, the maximum the league's rules permitted. Silver barred Sterling from attending games, entering any Clippers facility, or participating in any team decisions. Silver stated he would seek to force a sale of the team, requiring the consent of three-quarters of the league's other owners. The NBA installed former Citigroup and Time Warner chairman Richard Parsons as interim CEO on May 9. Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, ultimately purchased the team for $2 billion, a price four times the expected valuation. Ballmer had previously attempted to move the Sacramento Kings to Seattle but stated no intention to relocate the Clippers.

  On the 6th of November 2014, Ballmer hired Gillian Zucker as the Clippers' president of business operations. A former Auto Club Speedway president, Zucker was one of just two women holding an executive role across the four major professional sports leagues at that time.

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• 7. A New Home

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  On the 15th of June 2017, the Clippers and the city of Inglewood signed an exclusive negotiating agreement to build a new privately funded arena. The site was chosen on Century Boulevard, directly south of SoFi Stadium, home of the NFL's Los Angeles Rams and Chargers. The project drew immediate opposition from the nearby Forum and its operator, the Madison Square Garden Company, parent of the New York Knicks. The MSG Company accused both the Clippers and the Inglewood city government of "backroom dealing." It feared a new arena would pull events from its recently renovated venue. In March 2020, Ballmer resolved the dispute by purchasing The Forum outright.

  On the 17th of September 2021, ground was broken for Intuit Dome, with an expected construction cost of up to $2 billion. The Clippers announced a 23-year naming rights deal with Intuit worth $500 million. The arena occupies a residential block in Inglewood. It runs from Century to the north and 104th Street to the south, bounded by Doty to the east and Prairie to the west. It opened for the 2024-25 NBA season, housing the team's practice facility and headquarters.

  In the 2019 off-season, Kawhi Leonard chose to sign with the Clippers. The team had agreed to trade for Paul George of the Oklahoma City Thunder to seal the deal. To acquire George, the Clippers gave up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, four unprotected first-round picks, a protected first-round pick, and two pick swaps. Despite high expectations, the team was eliminated by the Denver Nuggets in the 2020 conference semifinals after blowing a 3-1 series lead. Leonard suffered an injury during the 2021 playoffs, but the Clippers still defeated the top-seeded Utah Jazz in the semifinals. They reached the Western Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history. The Phoenix Suns eliminated them in six games, ending any chance of the franchise's first NBA Finals appearance.

  In September 2025, journalist Pablo S. Torre reported that Ballmer had used now-bankrupt environmental company Aspiration to circumvent the NBA salary cap. Torre alleged that Leonard had signed a $28 million endorsement deal with Aspiration requiring nothing of him except staying a Clipper. Ballmer himself had invested $50 million into Aspiration. A follow-up report found that minority owner Dennis J. Wong invested $2 million in Aspiration after the company missed a $1.75 million payment to Leonard. Internal documents described that payment as "critical." John Karalis of the Boston Sports Journal reported that Leonard received an additional $20 million in Aspiration stock. That brought his total promised compensation from the company to $48 million. The NBA announced an investigation. Ballmer denied the allegations in an interview with ESPN's Ramona Shelburne. He claimed the team had connected Leonard with Aspiration after signing a $300 million sponsorship deal with the company. Ballmer said he had no knowledge of Leonard's endorsement terms. He described himself as a victim of fraud by Aspiration, expressing anger and sadness for his employees. The Clippers called the allegations "absurd" and "flat-out wrong" in multiple statements. Kawhi Leonard returned to play in January 2025, after missing the first 34 games of the season due to injury. The league's investigation remained open.

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