Midway through the season, The NBA announced that viewership was down. For whatever reason, audiences weren’t there in as high of numbers as they would’ve liked. Without delving into the hypotheticals, I would like to say I was on that shortlist. Outside of Christmas Day, I wasn’t a regular viewer, maybe catching less than three games per month (if that). Part of it is just being busy and the problems with having multiple interests. Outside of tracking the monthly updates, I wasn’t terribly invested in how things would play out. I promised myself that I would get back into basketball around the time of The Playoffs and, thankfully, they have delivered a reason why I love the sport while reminding me why I had been long dormant.
The most attractive match-up was the first-round pairing of The Los Angeles Clippers and The Denver Nuggets. Like the best of games, it was easy to craft a narrative around these rivals. It was also the lifeblood of the evening, where I sat enraptured by every quarter. I leaned forward waiting for the surprises to emerge and (for six of seven games anyway) I got some phenomenal hoops. I couldn’t believe it. Kawhi Leonard hadn’t been this good in YEARS. Where did that Aaron Gordon dunk come from? Oh, it was thrilling. Where my other favorites like Giannis Antetokounmpo was floundering with The Milwaukee Bucks and Luka Doncic sold his soul to The Los Angeles Lakers, the LAC-DEN outing was a near-perfect engagement. It’s everything I wanted.
It was also a reminder of why I had been boycotting The Clippers this whole season. Something you realize really quickly is how hard it is to care about The NBA when you have no home team. I realize that I’m spoiled because I have two, but even then it’s come with some built-in reasoning. I’ve chosen not to support The Lakers until Lebron James retires despite recognizing that they’ve occasionally played a good game of ball. What I’ve found as a Clippers fan is a recognized humbleness. No matter the level of online criticism, there are those longtime fans who recognize “the curse” and still show up. There aren’t any banners. They were the “little brothers” who developed a bad rap despite the numbers suggesting better seasons. I’m not saying The Clippers aren’t without criticism (the recent collapse of The Bucks reminds us of when Doc “Blowing a 3-1 lead” Rivers was the coach), but you always had hope that this year would be different. They had the pieces. I’d go so far as to argue that Ivica Zubac is one of the best players I’ve seen in person. There’s a lot that works but, in the immortal words of Charles Barkley, The Clippers suck.
The reason I gave up on the team before the 2024-25 season even started is easy to assess. When everything was coming together the previous year, I was thrilled at the potential for the team to leave The Crypto Arena on a high note. Alongside Leonard was Paul George as well as newcomers Russell Westbrook and James Harden. It was sold as a Southern California classic pairing with the core group originating from the region. I had high hopes for Westbrook and, despite valid criticism, I have always had a soft spot for PG-13. When he was on the team, I felt like he showed up and tried. I once saw him score a three-point buzzer-beater against The Dallas Mavericks and it was an incredible sight. I saw the effort. More than the proverbial “will they win?” of the sport, I love The Clippers because they’re an interesting team to watch. You’d see players emerge from the bench and find a new favorite role player (I personally wish Bones Hyland worked out). Even to this day, I watch The Playoffs and see said role players on other teams doing great things and think about how the team has always been lousy about holding onto their best parts.
And yet, things went as they normally did. I shouldn’t say normal because The Clippers’ first-round fight against The Mavericks was closer to a one-man assault. How Doncic took down an entire team remains a traumatic thing to witness. Even with a second win that proved to be a last gasp of air, one thing was clear. The Clippers as they had been envisioned were done for. Watching Leonard on the court was to witness a man’s mortality catching up with him. It has long pissed me off that The Clippers have banked their future on him as their “star player” when he more symbolized their problem of load management: a controversy so indebted to the team that when The NBA made rules that stars couldn’t sit out multiple games, they would use pictures of Leonard sitting next to George. I recognize that the Doncic run was a freak accident that nobody saw coming, but you still wanted to believe that a team of four all-stars could take down someone whose physical health was failing in real-time. I’m not above thinking that Doncic would’ve beaten The 213 singlehandedly on crutches.
Personally, I’m not mad with what happened next though it recontextualized my relationship with the team going forward. As a PG-13 defender, I have an irrational trust in him. To me, he symbolizes the gritty underdog energy that the team excels at. Credit must be given to the fact that, of the four games I’ve attended, he was there ready to play. Of the two Leonard was “healthy” for, he never stood up and impressed me. The last time I was there, I was so miffed that I couldn’t help but yell “TRADE KAWHI!” when a silly filler video played of him describing his perfect breakfast. Finally, in a game of petty semantics, I can accept Harden as your team’s fourth-best player… but any higher and you’ve lost me. As someone who fell for The Big 3 Era of The Brooklyn Nets, I still feel slighted by having him in Los Angeles.
The death knell came when news broke that George was moving to The Philadelphia 76ers. I wasn’t mad, but he was my saving grace. So long as he was there, I would blindly trust the team to maybe win. Once Westbrook left for Denver, I threw my hands up in defeat. The Clippers’ future was in the hands of a player who played three post-season games in two years, and “Playoff Harden” is more a pejorative than a compliment. For as much as I wanted to see their induction year at The Intuit Dome, I felt esteem leaving my body. Did I want to risk Leonard sitting out a fifth time? By some luck, the last time I had seen the team was in a pre-season 2023-24 game before Harden weaseled his way onto the team. Did I want to break that streak?
I know that this is supposed to be about the LAC-DEN match-up that just took place, but hear me out. The reason that the game had such an emotional impact on me was because of the built-in history. It was because of how I felt watching the team play. Outside of The Dallas game, the turnouts have been a mixed bag. None will ever be as notorious as attending The Clippers’ mid-season rematch against The Phoenix Suns following their excellent playoff competition the year prior. It was the night THE ENTIRE STARTING LINE-UP took the night off. While I finally got to see Chris Paul, having the home team whiff that hard was embarrassing. We were talking to other attendees who were also disappointed that they couldn’t see a proper rematch.
The most recent game I attended where I had yelled “TRADE KAWHI!” was, funnily enough, against The Nuggets. Following the rule change regarding star players, I had faith that this would be the game where everything came together. As I do, I got there early to watch warm-ups. I see the supporting roster out there shooting. A few faces are missing. For 15 minutes, I wait for Leonard, George, and Westbrook to make an appearance. I knew they were alive and well because they had played the other three pre-season games. Much to my chagrin… I once again chose the night where the big three had taken the night off. I think George had even brought his child and was entertaining them for a time.
It took a near quarter to get over a blow like that. I had personally flagged someone down at the gift shop to ask for Westbrook gear. There was something exciting about seeing this amazing player from Long Beach on the big stage. While he seemed jovial on the sidelines, I can’t help but say that I was more disappointed by his absence than Leonard. By this point, I’ve come to accept that he was never going to be MY Clipper.
Following a near quarter’s worth of anger finally leaving my body, I tuned into the game and found myself surprised. I had seen The Nuggets play a pre-season game two years prior with a fairly unremarkable result. Part of it was that Nikola Jokic had taken the night off and, who could blame him. It was at the start of his MVP talk and you wanted to rest people for the upcoming season. Not this time. Jokic was out there with Joel Murray and the crew putting on a game that was genuinely thrilling. While I had been tepid on Denver leading into their Finals win the previous season, I sat there and understood their bigger appeal. Here was a leader who put in the effort. Here was a supporting cast who really hauled down the court and wanted to make this sport something greater. I became a convert that night to the ways of The Mile High City. They weren’t a boring team. They were amazing. Not since I had seen Doncic in 2021 had I recognized the thrill of live events. Not only that, but I got to see another Long Beach native in Peyton Watson do a fantastic slam dunk.
This is the history that I’ve carried since. My hope was that The Clippers would change their ways, though I didn’t hold my breath. Their stars were now Leonard and Harden. Even as the familiar rhetoric of “This could be their year!” emerged, I did my best to not give in. In my heart, I believed that Leonard would fall apart. No amount of stats telling me that he was having his best season in years would be enough to change my mind. You got Ben Simmons? That bench is covered with so many flakes. I secretly wanted them to tank to the point they didn’t even make The Play-In Tournament, but those numbers are funny things.
In my head, I imagined the games going fairly quick. While Los Angeles would put up a fight, I figured that Jokic would be a dominant force. They would do essentially what they did in Game 7 and put the team in their place early and often. These would be statement games, especially given that The Nuggets were still at the start of their climb. At no point did I assume that it would end up being that close.
Instead, it was the game I had been dreaming about as a Clippers fan for the better part of a decade. While I would’ve loved a different set-up, there was a sense of urgency that was engrossing. My eyes couldn’t be removed from the game during those hours. If I had to go somewhere, I was checking my phone every five minutes. Suddenly the team that had let me down for so long wanted to try. Zubac was putting on a masterclass against Jokic. Leonard had a game where he couldn’t miss a shot. Everything was falling into place. Even if Harden still was the fourth-best player now as co-lead, there was this sense that the naivety was leading to something.
This was what you’d want as a sports fan. Outside of the larger teams, you want to get to the final 20 seconds and not know the outcome. Will we be going into overtime? Is there going to be a wild three-point shot that alters the entire series? The Aaron Gordon dunk was historic as the first tie-breaking buzzer beater of its kind. You’re already intently watching every play, but something like that reminds you of why The NBA can be beautiful. There can be nights when everything comes together. Even in moments where The Clippers return from a double-digit deficit, there is this sense of optimism that anything can happen. What if The Nuggets are holding onto some secret weapon for those final minutes? After all, it had been my initial criticism of them years prior where they weren’t fun to watch until “it counted.”
There was an image circling on the internet where Clippers owner Steve Balmer was looking at Westbrook with frustration. My response was simple, “You could’ve had him!” For as much as I commend Balmer on making a genuinely unique stadium for his team, his trading practices haven’t always made sense to me… and losing Westbrook was one of the more disappointing things that team has done. Even if it came at the enrichment of Denver, you have to wonder what would happen if The Clippers DIDN’T build around a man who helped popularize the expression load management in contemporary basketball.
A reason the series was so thrilling was that there was some part of me that wanted to give into my former ways. I hadn’t seen Leonard play this good in so long that he felt like a new person. Was it possible that they would take down a team that symbolized the objective potential of the sport? To me, Jokic is a fascinating alternative to Leonard because I see his work. He puts in the hours and makes the difference that the hype suggests. The team is a well-oiled machine that may at times look sluggish, but that’s only because The Clippers have a little extra in the tank. It was only in Game 7 that I suddenly recognized that they were running on fumes.
So yes, there was still the possibility that the game went either way. Compared to other match-ups like The Bucks playing The Indiana Pacers or The Oklahoma City Thunder playing The Memphis Grizzlies, this was all down to luck. There wasn’t any breathing room to be found in the final minutes, and I loved that. Thankfully, the broadcasts were often paired with The New York Knicks vs. The Detroit Pistons who were A LOT better than what I would’ve suggested. Given where Detroit was last year, I’m personally surprised with how close the final results were.
Deep down, I consider this playoff series a success. This isn’t a petty attack on The Clippers, but they’ve genuinely reminded me why I have been a fan. Even if I had assumed The Lakers would’ve gone further (see: Doncic), to know LAC tops the charts yet again is a thing of pride. For all of my criticism, they never gave up. Leonard actually played a full series! That feels pandering, but that’s mostly because I don’t see the vision of this team with him as the leader. Ideally, their next step is to move on and find a new face. He can still be on the team but we collectively need to accept that Leonard has never been a great Clipper. He had potential, yes. He’s even come through at important times. However, I don’t know that someone who waits in the shadows half the season until the key moment to jump is ideal. It makes sense in a rap battle, but basketball is a team sport. You need to show your work.
As I write this, Denver is on the verge of playing their first game against OKC. To be transparent, I’m not that familiar with their style and felt like The Grizzlies match-up might’ve been a poor representation. Given that they’re number one in the west, I have to believe that tonight I will be a convert of yet another great Midwest team. I’m hoping this goes further than what I’ve seen. While I still ride for The Nuggets, I’m willing to be persuaded. As The Clippers have proven, there’s still time to pull out some surprises. Better than that, I think this is the first post-season where I’m not more annoyed than usual by how things turned out. Playoff basketball is back! I can’t wait to see where everything goes.
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