Knee Is Just Another in Line of Bad Twists

Abandoning San Diego aside, what did the Los Angeles Clippers ever do to hurt anybody? What did they do to deserve to be dumped on this way? Why have they become the Curly Howards of professional basketball, yanked and jerked and poked and slapped, their faces full of whipped cream and their noses attached to a long pair of pliers? Huh? How come?

If a Clipper gets caught in the rain, must his umbrella not open? If a Clipper drops a coin under a refrigerator, must his hand then get snagged in a mousetrap? If a Clipper parks his car on the street, must a pigeon fly by? What makes these lugs so unlucky?

Heard the latest? Danny Manning is out. Out for a long time. Maybe out for the season. Maybe out even longer. Yes, Danny Manning, mister No. 1 draft choice, mister franchise turner-arounder, mister better-late-than-never. Nice career, babe. He started 17 games.

Manning’s right knee is a mess, hyper-extended at the least, ripped ligament at the most. Some players never recover from ligament damage of the kind that might presently be afflicting Manning. Even if he does come back, there is no assurance that he will have that same spring in his step that he did while leading Kansas to the national collegiate championship, that bounce he had the day he finally signed with the Clippers and stepped right onto the court.

Poor ole Clips. What a drag. This could be the unluckiest sports franchise in creation. Think of the things that have happened to Marques Johnson and Bill Walton and Norman Nixon. Think of the guys who got away, among them Terry Cummings and James Donaldson and Byron Scott. Think of the injuries that have racked up the promising draft choices of the past 2 seasons, leaving the Clippers low and lonely as ever.

After Sunday night’s loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, the Clippers have won 39 of their last 196 games. Can you believe those numbers? The team that used to play the Harlem Globetrotters did better than that. The Clippers haven’t had a winning season since 1978-79--a full decade now. Know what their overall record is in this decade? After Sunday’s game: 245-525.

To lose Manning now, adding injury to insult, is a little much. I mean, come on, man. The Clippers might be klutzes, but they are hardly slimy creeps. They do not rate this sort of shock treatment. They’re just regular guys. They put their shoes on one at a time, same as everybody else, except possibly their center. All the Clippers want to do is dress up in their little costumes and dribble their basketballs and have hot water in the shower, just like every other team in the association.

By now, the Clippers did not exactly figure on being a contender for the championship, but they definitely believed they could make a run at the playoffs. Say what they will about 3-year plans and 5-year plans, the Clippers sincerely felt they could make a run at one of the Western Conference’s postseason bids this time, and don’t you believe anybody who tells you otherwise. Once Manning stopped playing hard-to-get, the Clips were understandably proud of their personnel.

Even before the season, they had confidence. Gary Grant, the guard they drafted out of Michigan, got up before a preseason audience of friendly faces and said, with the trust-me wink of an auto salesperson, “You just put me out there, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

There was every reason to believe the Clippers were on their way to somewhere after spending so much time stranded nowhere. Then, bad stuff began to happen. Bad stuff always happens to the Clippers. This time, there was Manning’s holdout, and disheartening losses to the league’s expansion clubs, and an injury to Charles Smith, who had been so impressive in the early going. Next thing anybody knew, Coach Gene Shue’s squad was getting beat by huge margins, just like old times.

When they played the Lakers about a week ago, the Clippers still had Manning, but they still had problems. Even on a night when the Lakers were out of their rhythm, the Clippers could do little about it. Manning, at least, had a nice night, and Ken Norman was his usual hard-working self, but there was nothing much to suggest that the Clippers were close to becoming, well, Laker-like.

Winning Coach Pat Riley was kind to the Clippers that night. “I think they’re right on schedule,” he said. “I like a lot of what I see. And Manning’s got the potential to be better than great. He can be another Magic (Johnson), if not in style of play, then in the impact he can have on his franchise.”

Days later, at Milwaukee, Manning fall down, go boom. Another pie in the face for the poor Clippers. The very man around whom they had built their ticket sales, their future, had been damaged and possibly totaled. Once again, advertising would have to center around the players the visiting teams would be using.

We continue to believe, as we always have, that this franchise belongs in Orange County, where it would be welcome, and not Los Angeles, where it is not needed. Even a losing pro basketball team would be a novelty in greater metropolitan Anaheim, and who knows? Maybe a move would change the club’s luck.

In the meantime, if anybody can explain why the Clippers cannot seem to get a break, please do. As that country-western song goes, if it weren’t for bad luck, they’d have no luck at all. These guys will win the National Basketball Assn. championship someday, then die from bad champagne.