Greatest moment in each NBA franchise’s history

Los Angeles Clippers: Trading for Chris Paul

If you were new to the NBA, you might think that the Los Angeles Clippers are a perennial powerhouse that is always at least within striking distance of competing for a title and that is always in the postseason. If you were new to the NBA, you would seriously misunderstand the history of this team.

The tale of the Clippers for decades had always been poor decisions, underperforming, and the worst strokes of luck. There’s a reason that they have no NBA Championships and no conference titles to the franchise’s name. Moreover, they hadn’t won a division title until 2013. There also happens to be a very specific reason for that.

Things started turning around for the Clips when they selected Blake Griffin with the first-overall selection in the 2009 NBA Draft. However, the real turnaround didn’t begin for the Clippers until Dec. 2011 when they traded Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, Al-Farouq Aminu, and picks in exchange for arguably the best point guard in the NBA: Chris Paul.

You can’t overstate the importance of Paul to the Clippers franchise. Sure, Paul has never won anything at any of his stops in the NBA much like the Clippers, but adding a player of his talent completely flipped the script of the Clippers on its head. The acquisition of CP3 is why the Clippers might be perceived as an all-time powerhouse to someone new to the NBA game. He came in and made the team relevant and, dare I say, popular. For a team with the torrid history that the Clippers have, a move like that which changes so much for the better is an unbelievably great moment for the franchise.

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