{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"135: The Curse of the Clippers \u2013 With Mick Minas","description":" We pick up where we left off in Episode 89 (The NBA Buffalo Braves \u2013 With Tim Wendel), with the continuing story of one of pro hoops\u2019 most forlorn franchises \u2013 today known as the Los Angeles Clippers. Author Mick Minas (The Curse: The Colorful & Chaotic History of the LA Clippers) joins the podcast from his home in Melbourne, Australia to help us go deep into the travails of a club labeled by many as the NBA\u2019s most historically dysfunctional \u2013 and by some as simply cursed. From its highly convoluted cross-country relocation to San Diego in 1978 to its still-chaotic life as Los Angeles\u2019 \u201cother\u201d NBA team (and the Staples Center\u2019s third-priority sports tenant) \u2013 the Clippers have had enough wayward turns of fate to fill an entire league, let alone a single franchise: The high-profile 1979 coup of All-Star center (and San Diego native) Bill Walton, whose career literally and figuratively crumbled under the weight of chronic foot injuries; League fines, investigations and lawsuits against team owner Donald Sterling \u2013 including the team\u2019s unauthorized relocation to Los Angeles in 1984; The \u201cClipper Triangle\u201d of injuries to star players like Derek Smith, Norm Nixon, Marques Johnson, and Danny Manning \u2013 and league-record setting seasons of futility; The disruption of the club\u2019s first playoff appearance in 1992 by the Los Angeles riots; Siren songs of Anaheim; AND The sordid 2014 scandal that led to Sterling\u2019s ouster and subsequent\/still-in-process \u201crebirth\u201d under new owner Steve Ballmer. PLUS: Will the Clippers stay in LA? ","author_name":"Good Seats Still Available","author_url":"https:\/\/goodseatsstillavailable.com","html":"