The Los Angeles Clippers: Their Biggest Blunders Part 2
LOS ANGELES — In part 1 we discussed some of the worst moves the Los Angeles Clippers have made over the years. Although the Clippers made terrible moves before Donald Sterling arrived, he sure did keep that lousy Clippers tradition going for quite awhile.
In the 1987 NBA Draft the Clippers had three first-round picks, not to mention No. 4 overall. With the 4th overall pick the Clippers selected Reggie Williams. Scottie Pippen would be selected at number 5 overall by Seattle and eventually traded to the Chicago Bulls for Olden Polynice. Point guard Kenny Smith was selected at number six by the Kings, and point guard Kevin Johnson was selected 7th overall by Cleveland.
With the 13th selection in the NBA Draft the Clips chose center Joe Wolf, with point guard Mark Jackson still sitting on the board. Mark Jackson would wind up falling into the lap of the New York Knicks with the 18th pick. Apparently, the Clippers did not want one of the numerous extremely talented point guards in this draft.
With the 19th overall pick Los Angeles selected Ken Norman whom in Lefty’s opinion, turned out to be the best of their three picks in the 1987 draft. Still, Reggie Lewis was available at number 19, a huge miss for the Clippers. The Boston Celtics absolutely stole Lewis at number 22.
The 1989 NBA Draft was another disaster for the Clippers. Los Angeles would find themselves in the NBA Lottery quite often going into the 1989 draft, this time they had the No. 2 overall pick. Who could screw this up? The Clippers could, and did. With the 2nd selection Los Angeles chose Danny Ferry out of Duke. They probably should have spoken to Ferry first, because he flat out refused to play for the Clippers and bolted for Europe, joining the Italian league.
The Clippers would eventually trade Ferry’s draft rights along with Reggie Williams to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Ron Harper. Harper was a nice addition to the Clippers but they dropped the ball on some very talented players that year once again.
Whom you might ask? Well, the Clippers selected Danny Ferry over Sean Elliot, Glen Rice, Nick Anderson, Mookie Blaylock, Tim Hardaway and Shawn Kemp just to name a few. Yes, very very ugly. The Clippers just had very poor personnel whom were incapable of scouting talent. Besides, everyone knows that the players who come out of Duke tank in the NBA.
Well, as I stated before it only got worse for the Los Angeles Clippers before it got any better and in part 3 we will discuss some of the absolute worst Clipper blunders of all time. Stay tuned.
Lefty is a Featured NBA Writer of the Los Angeles Clippers for Rant Sports. Join me at Lefty’s Sports Debates
Buy Los Angeles Clippers Tickets | Buy Los Angeles Clippers Apparel
Leave a Rant
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!