The Braves, in their eight seasons in Buffalo, played their home games at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, sharing the arena with another new franchise, the Sabres of the National Hockey League, who also debuted in 1970. The team's first head coach was Hall of Famer Dolph Schayes, the franchise's first star players were Bob Kauffman and Don May, who were acquired in the expansion draft. As typical of first-year expansion teams, the Braves finished with a 22-60 record, five games ahead of expansion-mate Cleveland, who finished their season at 15-67. Kauffman, who averaged 4.3 points per game the previous year with the Chicago Bulls, led Buffalo in scoring with 20.4 points per game and earned a spot on the 1971 NBA Eastern Conference All-Star team.
The Braves repeated their 22-60 season in the following 1971-72 season, but did make good acquistions that would make the club better. Buffalo drafted center Elmore Smith from Kentucky State University, and local favorite Randy Smith, from Buffalo State University. Schayes was replaced one game into the season with John McCarty as the team's head coach. The team didn't do much better in the 1972-73 season, as they went 21-61 under new head coach, Dr. Jack Ramsay. The Braves' big move of that season was the drafting for forward/center Bob McAdoo, from North Carolina. The team finally made their first playoff appearance in 1973-74, where they faced the Boston Celtics and lost in six games in the first round. The Braves made two more trips to the playoffs in the 1974-75 and 1975-76 seasons, which would be their last in Buffalo.
In the summer of 1976, the team's founding owner Paul Synder intitally sold 50 percent of the franchise to businessman John Y. Brown, Jr., who had previously owned the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association. Brown later acquired the remaining portion from Synder sometime in the 1976-77 season. Brown, in turn, sold a percentage of the team to another businessman, Harry Mangurian, who later went on to own a portion of the Boston Celtics in the 1980s. However, a provision in the transaction stipulated that if Brown sold the contract of any Braves player, then the money would go to Synder and the purchase price would be reduced. This subsequently occurred when the Braves sent McAdoo to the New York Knicks for players and cash midway through the 1976-77 season.
Brown renegotiated his lease on Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, to include a clause stating if the Braves did not sell at least 4,500 season tickets, the Braves could be left out of their lease and be free to move to another city. Because of the team's poor play in their final two years (30-52 in 1976-77 and 27-55 in 1977-78), along with rumors of the franchise relocating, John Y. Brown met with the then-owner of the Celtics, Irv Levin and negotiated a deal in which the owners would swap franchises, in which Brown would take control of the Celtics and Levin would get the Braves. Levin was a California businessman, and wanted to own a NBA team in his native state. The deal was brokered by David Stern, an attorney for the NBA, who of course, later became the league's commissioner in 1984. Following what would be the final season in western New York, the NBA owners voted 21-1 to let the Braves relocate. They moved to San Diego, California after the 1977-78 season, and became the San Diego Clippers. Virtually identical techniqes would be used twenty-five years later to move the Montreal Expos baseball franchise to Washington, a move in which Expos owner Jeffrey Loria and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig successfully fought off racketeering charges, however the racketeering laws did not yet exist in 1978 to prevent collusionary actions such as that which cost Buffalo their NBA franchise.
In the team's first season in San Diego, the Clippers posted a winning record, going 43-39, under new head coach Gene Shue. However, that record wasn't good enough to advance them to the playoffs, and they finished only a few games out of the final playoff spot. It was also in that first season in Southern California that long-time announcer Ralph Lawler began his association with the club. Randy Smith had another solid season, averaging 20.5 points per game, finishing second behind World B. Free, who was acquired in the offseason from the Philadelphia 76ers. Free finished second overall in NBA scoring average, with 28.8 per game, while George Gervin of the San Antonio Spurs had a 29.6 average.
The 1979-80 season wasn't much better, as the Clippers began to struggle, but not before they brought in San Diego native, center Bill Walton, who was two years removed from a NBA world championship with the Trail Blazers. Walton wasn't much of an impact unfortunately, due to missing 68 games because of foot injuries, which he also suffered in his final years in Portland. San Diego finished with a 37-45 season, despite the fact that many of their key players missed games due to injuries. Free continued his great scoring, again finishing second in league scoring, with 30.2 PPG (Points Per Game). Paul Silas replaced Shue the following season, and the Clippers finished with a 36-46 record, once again missing the post-season. Walton missed the entire season once again due to chronic foot injuries. Free was traded to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for guard Phil Smith.
The 1981-82 season brought more changes to the Clipper franchise as Irv Levin sold the team to Los Angeles-area real estate developer and attorney, Donald T. Sterling. The purchase price was $20 million. The Clippers' poor play in their final years in San Diego resulted in poor attendance with the team averaging only 4,500 fans per game. Sterling subsequently lobbied the NBA to relocate the team to his native Los Angeles.
In 1984 the Clippers moved to Los Angeles, California, playing in the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena while the Lakers, with a better reputation, continued to play at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, a few miles south. The Clippers were completely overshadowed by their cross-town counterparts, who were in the midst of a championship run with future Hall of Famers, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy. The Clippers, under head coach Jim Lynam (and later Don Chaney) and new acquistions Marques Johnson, Junior Bridgeman, and Harvey Catchings (all acquired via trade from the Milwaukee Bucks), finished with a disappointing 31-51 record in the first season in the City of Angels.
The next seven seasons (1985-92), the Clippers were mired in futility, including a 12-70 record in the 1986-87 season, the third-worst single-season record in NBA history. (The Worst? The Philadelphia 76ers went 9-73 in 1973) That particular season was filled with injuries to both Marques Johnson and guard Norm Nixon, who missed most, if not the whole, season. That season also brought in Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor as the team's vice president and general manager of basketball operations, a post he currently holds (2005). In the 1989-90 season, Baylor made a trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers that brought Ron Harper, a rising star guard, in exchange for forward Danny Ferry (who refused to play for the Clippers) and guard Reggie Williams. That move, along with the 1987 draft of Ken Norman from the University of Illinois, the 1988 draftings of Kansas University forward Danny Manning and Charles Smith from the University of Pittsburgh, and the 1990 draft of Loy Vaught from the University of Michigan (currently still the franchise's all-time rebound leader), formed a nucleus that led the Clipper franchise to a play-off appearance in 1992, the first since 1976 when the team was still in Buffalo.
Midway through the 1991-92 season, the Clippers made yet another coaching change, but this one worked out in their favor. Larry Brown, who was fired by the Spurs weeks before, was hired as the team's head coach in late January 1992. He replaced head coach Mike Schuler, who at the point of his dismissal, posted a 22-25 record. Brown finished the season with a 23-12 mark, and the overall record for Los Angeles was 45-37. The Clippers were eliminated in the first round of the play-offs by the Utah Jazz, 3 games to 2. Due to the late April 1992 Los Angeles riots, game 4 of their series was moved to the Anaheim Convention Center, and the Clippers won that game. The Clippers returned to the play-offs again in the 1992-93 season (with a 41-41 regular season record), and again lost in five games in the first round, this time to the Houston Rockets.
Brown left the Clippers to join the Indiana Pacers as their head coach, and Bob Weiss was brought in to replace him. That 1993-94 season proved to be one of the worst seasons in Los Angeles NBA history, with both the Clippers and Lakers going a combined 60-104 in the regular season, missing the play-offs entirely. The Clippers continued to make frequent roster and coaching changes throughout the next several years and made their last play-off appearance in 1997. In typical Clippers fashion, that team made the playoffs with a losing record (36-46) and were summarily swept in the first round by the eventual Western Conference Champion Utah Jazz, 3 games to none.
From 1994 - 1999, the Clippers played selected home games in the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, sharing the venue with a plethora of other water-themed teams including the Mighty Ducks (ice hockey) and the Splash (soccer).
However, in 1999, the Clippers and Lakers both started to play in the Staples Center. That season, the Clippers were outshone by their in-city rivals, the Lakers, who won the NBA Championship. In the following years, the Lakers dominated the NBA with the combination of Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, winning three championships. Meanwhile, the Clippers struggled, consistently ending with losing records which were significantly worse than the Lakers' record. It was also in that first season at Staples Center that the Clippers drafted highly-touted, but oft-troubled, star forward Lamar Odom from the University of Rhode Island. The Clippers finished with a very dismal 15-67 record. To help their young players out with their growing pains, the team hired former All-Star (and Los Angeles native) Dennis Johnson, who won three NBA championships with the Seattle (1979) and Boston (1984 and 1986) as an assistant coach. The team also hired Hall of Famer and former Laker great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as an assistant coach, to help tutor second-year center Michael Olowokandi, who was the #1 overall pick in the 1998 NBA Draft. Johnson remained an assistant coach until the middle of the 2002-03 season, when he took over as head coach. Abdul-Jabbar lasted only one season on the job.
The 2000-01 season brought changes (a recurring theme with the Clippers). Atypically these would be for the better. Reserve forward Derek Strong, along with other players and cash, was sent to the Orlando Magic in exchange for second-year forward Corey Maggette and the draft rights to guard Keyon Dooling from the University of Missouri. Making more moves, the Clippers' two draft picks that year were childhood friends from Illinois: high schooler Darius Miles from East St. Louis (3rd overall pick) and Quentin Richardson, a guard/forward from DePaul University (18th overall pick). The team became popular among fans with their high-flying style of basketball and the Clippers did improve a bit with a 31-51 record, leading the NBA in bench-scoring with 37 points per game.
To improve upon the previous season, the Clippers acquired high-scoring and rebounding power forward Elton Brand from the Chicago Bulls in exchange for the draft rights to Los Angeles-area native and high schooler Tyson Chandler. At this point of his career, Brand had career averages of 20 points and 10 rebounds per game in just two seasons. Brand's hard work and accomplishments earned him a spot on the 2002 NBA Western Conference All-Star team, although he was a last-minute replacement for center Shaquille O'Neal of the Lakers. The Clippers were in the Western Conference play-off race, but a 3-10 finish in the final 13 games caused the Clippers to finish out of the play-offs once again, this time with a 39-43 record, 5 games out of the final play-off position.
The 2002 off-season brought more changes, as popular star Darius Miles was traded to the Cavaliers in exchange for point guard Andre Miller, who led the NBA in assists in 2001-02 with 11 per game. Suddenly, with a good point guard in Miller, the playmaker Lamar Odom at small forward, one of the league's best power forwards, Elton Brand, the emerging center Michael Olowokandi, and a very good supporting cast off the bench, the Clippers could actually make a serious run for the play-offs. However, with poor team chemistry and injuries (several players missed a combined 293 games), the Clippers finished with a very disappointing 27-55 record. Head coach Alvin Gentry was replaced by Dennis Johnson midway through the 2002-03 season.
In the 2003-04 season, Los Angeles lost four key players to free agency (Miller, Odom, Olowokandi, and forward Eric Piatkowski--one of the longest-tenured players in Clippers history), while opting to retain Brand and Maggette with long-term contracts. They, along with Richardson, made of one of the NBA best high-scoring trios, with a combined 58 points per game. With new head coach Mike Dunleavy, Sr., the Clippers finished at 28-54, a lot due to inexperience and injuries.
The 2004-2005 season proved to be a turning point in the relative standings of the two Los Angeles franchises. The Lakers, because of the trade of O'Neal to the Miami Heat, ended the season with a losing record and missed the play-offs. The Clippers, although also missing the play-offs, ended with a better record than the Lakers (the first time since 1993) and have great hope for the future, with young rising stars such as Elton Brand, Corey Maggette and Shaun Livingston. One bright spot in an otherwise disappointing season was forward Bobby Simmons winning the 2004-05 NBA Most Improved Player award after averaging 16 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists per game. As a result of that, Simmons cashed in on his newfound fame, and signed a 5-year, $47 million deal with the Bucks in July 2005, playing closer to his hometown of Chicago, Illinois.
--Wikipedia
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