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Instead of a historic romp to the conference finals for the first time in franchise annals, the Clippers exited the NBA bubble on a soggy Tuesday night as punchlines once again. In the 2022–23 season, the Clippers wore black "City" uniforms as homage to the Drew League, a summer tournament in Los Angeles that celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023. The white "Los Angeles" script was surrounded by a mosaic inspired by the Watts Towers. The Clippers unveiled their new Nike Association and Icon uniform designs on August 11, 2017. The home and road designations were dropped, and the team replaced its seldom-used road red uniform with a new blue "Icon" uniform that resembles the white "Association" uniform, which dropped the black accents. On October 23, he broke his kneecap during the Clippers' final exhibition game against the New Orleans Hornets, following a dunk.
The Clippers experienced poor play, as foot injuries again caused Walton to miss the entire season, and the team limped to a 17–65 record. Rumors of a move to Sterling's hometown of Los Angeles and franchise mismanagement plagued the team immediately from the onset of Sterling's acquisition. On one occasion, Sterling was fined $10,000 by the NBA, the largest sum ever levied by the NBA against an owner at the time, for publicly guaranteeing the Clippers would lose enough games to contend for a high enough draft pick to select Ralph Sampson.
NBA
In order to seriously challenge for playoff contention in 2003, the franchise traded Miles to the Cavaliers for Andre Miller, who led the NBA in assists in 2001–02 with 11 per game. With a seasoned point guard in Miller, Lamar Odom at small forward, one of the league's best power forwards in Brand, and center Olowokandi, as well as having the best supporting cast in the league, the Clippers threatened a potential playoff run. However, poor team chemistry and injuries (the Clippers lost 293 man-games to injury), they finished with a disappointing 27–55 record. Coach Alvin Gentry was also replaced, with Dennis Johnson entering midway through the 2002–03 season. In their first playoff game, the Clippers rallied from a 27-point deficit against the Grizzlies to win 99–98 in one of the biggest rallies in playoff history. They led the series 3–1, then lost two straight, before coming back to win Game 7 in Memphis 82–72, becoming the sixth NBA road team to win Game 7 after leading series 3–1, and prevail to the second round.
Days before a league scheduled vote in October to remove Sterling, he agreed to sell the team, and the league sought buyers who would keep the franchise in San Diego. At the suggestion of David Stern, then the league's vice president, Sterling was able to maintain his position as owner, by instead handing over operations duties of the franchise to Alan Rothenberg, who became the team's president. By February 1983, Stern called the Clippers a "first-class" franchise, and the ouster of Sterling was no longer pursued. In 1984, owner Donald Sterling controversially relocated the franchise to Los Angeles without NBA approval, which was permitted following legal action between the league and Sterling.
Phoenix Suns attempt to reset against Pelicans, new team at top of West
In December, Vaught, the team's leading scorer for the past three seasons, had season-ending back surgery. Without Vaught, the Clippers finished 17–65, the third-worst record in the league. Fitch was fired after the 1997–98 season , and was replaced by one of his proteges, former Celtics and Bucks coach Chris Ford. Meanwhile, Vaught's career as a Clipper was effectively finished, as he left as a free agent after that season, and signed with the Detroit Pistons; at the time of his departure, he was the franchise's all-time rebounds leader with 4,471 . The Clippers traded the rights to the recently drafted Danny Ferry and Reggie Williams for high-scoring shooting guard Ron Harper at the start of the 1989–90 season. Los Angeles had a 19–19 record nearly halfway into the season, prompting some to seriously consider the team as a possible playoff contender.
The team's original logo featured a large baby blue circle enclosing a small orange circle to represent Southern California's sunny climate and three white sails to represent a clipper. Despite losing Leonard to injury during the 2021 playoffs, the Clippers defeated the top-seeded Utah Jazz in the semifinals, leading them to their first Western Conference Finals appearance in franchise history. The Clippers lost the conference finals in six games to the Phoenix Suns, preventing them from reaching their first NBA Finals.
Gallery | Clippers at Charlotte Hornets (12.5.
After the dismal season prior, the team lost several of its core players, with Miller, Odom, Olowakandi, and forward Eric Piatkowski (who was one of the longest-tenured players in franchise history) departing via free agency prior to the 2003–04 season. They, along with Richardson, made up one of the NBA's best high-scoring trios, with a combined 58 points per game. With new head coach Mike Dunleavy, Sr., they finished 28–54, due to inexperience and injuries. The following season again saw the team missing the playoffs, although, they posted a better record than the Lakers for the first time since 1993.
They met the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs, winning the series in the seventh game on a game-winning shot by Paul with one second left. In the next series against the second-seeded Houston Rockets, they took a 3–1 series lead that included 25 and 33-point wins in games three and four, respectively. In the off-season, the Clippers acquired Lance Stephenson, Wesley Johnson, and Paul Pierce while re-signing Austin Rivers. Griffin missed half of the season and the Clippers finished with the fourth playoff seed before being then eliminated in the first round of the 2016 playoffs by the fifth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers. In July 2008, they acquired Marcus Camby from the Denver Nuggets in return for a $10 million trade exception and the choice to exchange second round picks with the Clippers in 2010.
Single-season records
Aided by the "Lob City" lineup of Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, and Chris Paul, the team qualified for the playoffs in six consecutive seasons from 2012 to 2017 and won two consecutive division titles in 2013 and 2014, both firsts for the franchise. Despite this success, the Clippers struggled in the postseason and were frequently eliminated in the Conference Semifinals; the team reached the Conference Finals for the first time in 2021. To date, they are the league's oldest franchise to have never played in the NBA Finals. If the Clippers thought their four-game trip was arduous, losing two winnable games to sub-.500 teams and needing a last-second shot by Kawhi Leonard to beat Charlotte, they come upon perhaps their most difficult test of the season.
Nevertheless, within weeks, Free had become the leading scorer, as well as becoming a public icon. He finished second overall in NBA scoring average, with 28.9 per game (George Gervin of the San Antonio Spurs had a 29.6 average). Shue, meanwhile, tried to create a team spirit by creating a common social life. By the annual break for the All-Star game, however, the Clippers had improved, winning half of their 54 games, leading to a sixth ranking in the Western Conference.
Midway through the 1991–92 season, the Clippers made yet another coaching change. Larry Brown, recently fired by the San Antonio Spurs, was hired as the team's head coach in late January 1992. He replaced Mike Schuler, who had led the team to a 22–25 record before his firing.
Zucker became one of two women to serve in an executive capacity in any of the four major professional sports leagues; the other being Jeanie Buss, president and part-owner of the crosstown Lakers. The Clippers, however, nearly moved to Anaheim permanently in time for the 1996–97 season, but according to a Los Angeles Times article published in June 1996, owner Donald Sterling turned down a deal that would have paid the team $95 million over 12 years. In another related Times article, Odgen and Sterling were in talks to have the management company take care of the Clippers' day-to-day operations for a $4 million a year fee. However, as the planned ESPN West network never came to reality, all three teams had continued to maintain broadcast partnerships with Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket. This remained a sticking point in any deal to relocate to Anaheim, eventually leaving the team to remain in Los Angeles. For the 2017–18 season, the Clippers brought back the classic San Diego baby blue and orange scheme for their first City uniform, including the nautical flags which spell the acronym "LAC".
The 2006 off-season started as the team drafted Paul Davis in the second round of the 2006 NBA draft, as the 34th overall pick. The pick was acquired by the Clippers by way of a 2004 trade for Melvin Ely. Meanwhile, in free agency, they signed Tim Thomas away from divisional Phoenix, in a four-year, $24 million deal.
That move, along with the 1987 NBA draft of Ken Norman, the 1988 selections of Danny Manning and Charles Smith , and the 1990 draft of Loy Vaught, formed a nucleus that would make the franchise a playoff contender. On August 12, 2014, Ballmer officially took control of the team following an order by a California court that confirmed the sale from Shelly Sterling to Ballmer. The deal also included a stipulation that Steve Ballmer would keep the Clippers in Los Angeles. On November 6, the team hired its first major female executive as former Auto Club Speedway president Gillian Zucker was hired as the Clippers' president of business operations.
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