Hiya everyone! This is Anaitic in an extremely ecstatic mood the day after one of the best games in LA Clipper‘s history. WE MADE IT TO THE WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS! But damn! I told myself that I would transform this blog into reviews and posts on neglected information for a specific audience. But please, let me just have this one day to express myself and my love for my team, the LA Clippers. If you are not interested in my emotional ramblings, please move on. For the rest of you guys, please shout out and give the praise my team definitely deserve after hearing what I have to say.
First of all, I will make this promise to you guys and my fellow Clipper fans out there. If the LA Clippers win the championship, I will dedicate myself to write a long post about my journey on how an LA native decided on supporting the LA Clippers rather than the more flashy, championship-proven LA Lakers. I will put all of myself into that post if the LA Clippers actually win the whole thing. But for now, it would be too premature. After all, if you can’t tell in the featured image, the LA Clippers have two more rounds to go in order to win an NBA Championship. The question is- why was I in happy tears all night then?
At my ripe age of thirty years old on the day of this post, my fellow Clipper fans and I try to recall how many years we have been supporting the LA Clippers. Just to know, you know? One man wrote in a Facebook Page dedicated to the LA Clippers that he is currently 71 years old and he has supported the Clippers since the Buffalo days (they used to be located in Buffalo). Do you guys fully grasp what this means? This means that this gentleman has watched the LA Clippers for 50 years without anything to show for- no championship, no finals, not even a Western Conference Finals. There was a chance that he could have passed on without seeing his team ever accomplishing anything in his lifetime.
Today has changed all that. The LA Clippers are officially in the Western Conference Finals thanks to the win yesterday evening for the first time ever in their 50 year history. In order to get here, the LA Clippers played a hard fought seven game series against the Dallas Mavericks first round and just took down the first seed Utah Jazz yesterday in a mesmerizing, almost incomprehensible six game series. Both series, the LA Clippers were down 0-2. Both series, the LA Clippers came out victorious, which by the way is a first in NBA history. What a way to prove all the doubters wrong huh?
What made this trip the Western Conference Finals even more special is this- the LA Clippers lost their best player, Kawhi Leonard, due to knee injury two games ago. At the time, the two teams are tied at 2-2. It could have been a toss up. It could have been a good chance to roll over. No one would blame the team because who wins games without their best player out on the court? Apparently, these 2020-2021 LA Clippers. The team responded with a HELL NO. Watch that dunk by Terrance Mann above from Game 5! That pretty much embodied the mentality of the LA Clippers going into Game 5 without our MVP-caliber player on the court. Vegas made us a 11.5 point underdog going into that game. The LA Clippers made Vegas and all other doubters look stupid that day.
Actually, speaking of stupid! Even though it has not been 24 hours since the win yet, a handful of loud LA Laker fans have come out of nowhere to make fun of LA Clipper fans. They told us, “We actually won championships. You guys are celebrating for making a Western Conference final?” While I will bite my tongue on my thoughts on how I personally feel about the LA Lakers and especially their fanbase, I like to point out- it is the journey, not the destination, that makes this extra special. Here is why:
The LA Clippers was never able to recruit the same kind of stars coming to our team like you guys. The LA Clippers never had a mastermind of an owner like you guys. The LA Clippers couldn’t catch a break when drafting players with all sorts of injuries and misfortune like you guys. The LA Clippers never had a couple of legendary coaches like you guys. For the longest time, the LA Clippers wasn’t even willing to pay high salary for excellent players like you guys due to our old owner. Everything changed when Steve Balmer bought the team and remade our image both in advertising and on the court. After we lost in a stunning fashion to the Denver Nuggets last year, no one in the media took the LA Clippers seriously. Some reporters even went as far as to say “Same, old Clippers“.
But if there is one thing the LA Clippers have despite everything, it is a devoted, passionate, and durable fanbase. Not all fans, but the long-standing fans like myself and the gentleman I mentioned previously who had to deal with a lot of disappointment and heartbreak. Just this year, we watched as this 2020-2021 team fought and worked their way to the semis, only to feel our hearts break at Kawhi Leonard‘s injury. It felt over, but little did we know- it was a test to make us even tougher, make us even more hungry for that championship. If you can’t stand the heat, you can’t be an LA Clipper fan.
All of these feelings led up to yesterday’s win. This is the journey. This is our journey. It is not done yet. It is far from over, but it deserves every second of celebration until the next game. The leftover healthy players on the LA Clippers team that made this possible deserve every praise and love going their way. Thank you Paul George. Thank you Terrance Mann. Thank you Reggie Jackson. Thank you Nicholas Batum. Thank you Marcus Morris, Patrick Beverly, Luke Kennard, Ivica Zubac, Rajon Rondo, and others. Most of all, thank you Coach Ty Lue for never giving up and coaching out of his mind. Whether you are a LA Clipper fan or not, I truly believe that inside all of us, as human beings, we can recognize and acknowledge the mental and physical struggles that we must all face… and the limits that we can surpass as long as we believe. And the LA Clippers show that they believe in themselves and each other. Thank you for reading.
-Anaitic
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