55 years. Zero championships. A franchise so historically bad it makes the Cleveland Browns look like a dynasty.
Founded in 1970 as the Buffalo Braves, this franchise has been running from its own identity since day one. They moved to San Diego in 1978, became the Clippers, then relocated to Los Angeles in 1984 — where they've spent four decades living in the Lakers' shadow like a forgotten houseplant.
Under the ownership of Donald Sterling from 1981 to 2014, the Clippers became synonymous with cheapness, dysfunction, and losing. Sterling was so notoriously stingy that the franchise routinely fielded one of the lowest payrolls in the league while pocketing revenue-sharing checks. The result? Decades of irrelevance in a city that already had a real basketball team.
Even when the Clippers are good, they find spectacular new ways to lose. Here are the lowlights.