Lakers finish behind Clippers
yet again
Kyle Cavaness
Hell has frozen over, the sky has fallen and Chick Hearn, God rest his purple-and-gold-loving
soul, is rolling over in his grave. Ladies and gentlemen, the Los Angeles Lakers
have been bested in the playoffs, and as of now the Los Angeles Clippers remain.
This season was far from a total loss for the Lakers. They made the playoffs,
unlike last year, and came within shooting distance–pun intended–of
eliminating the Phoenix Suns, a contender in anyone’s book and Pacific
Division champions two years running. The Lakers welcomed the return of Kobe
and Phil, two-thirds of one of the most powerful triads the NBA has ever seen.
And Kobe, of course, re-established himself as the brightest star in the sport,
primarily by emblazoning an 81 into the foreheads of an entire generation of
Laker fans one fateful Los Angeles night in January.
The bottom line, ultimately, is not the Lakers’ failure in the playoffs,
or even their failure to clench a series that was almost handed to them. What
hurts so badly is the Clippers have outperformed the Lakers for the second season
in a row.
For the longest time, the Los Angeles Clippers have been a running joke for anyone
with a vested interest in basketball in the greater Los Angeles area. A brief
history of the team is dubious at best: starting out as the Buffalo Braves in
1970, the team was moved to San Diego in 1978 due to lack of interest and moved
again in 1984 to Los Angeles for the same reason. The
Clips came to Los Angeles in the midst of the reign of Magic, Kareem, and the
five-championship-winning dynasty of the “Showtime” Lakers, arriving
at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena with a whimper while the bang remained
at the Great Western Forum for the remainder of the decade. The Clippers chalked
up the second-worst record in NBA history in 1986-87, going 12-70 and further
burying their name in the landfill of professional sports.
But times have changed, rosters have shifted and the team that was forever
Los
Angele’s black sheep is slowly emerging as its new hero. These last two
seasons have been the turning point for both the Clippers and the Lakers. Last
season saw the Lakers–or “The Kobe Bryant Show,” depending
on your level of cynicism’–win-loss record at the worst it had been
in a decade. They missed the playoffs for the first time since the 1993-94 season,
and only the sixth time since the team came to Los Angeles in 1947.
However, the present is what it is, and for the first time since their arrival,
the Clippers have managed to stay on the court further into the summer months
than the Lakers.
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