If there is such a thing as a curse in sports, the Clippers have it.
Since the NBA held its first lottery in 1985, the Clippers have had the No. 1 overall pick three times, the first two - Danny Manning (1988) and Michael Olowokandi (1998) - had disastrous stays in Tinseltown.
Manning, who blew out his knee 26 games into his rookie season, ended up having a decent career, averaging 14 points and tallying 4,615 rebounds and 2,063 assists in 15 seasons. Still, despite making two All-Star teams, Manning never fulfilled the potential he displayed as the 1988 NCAA Player of the Year at Kansas.
Olowokandi is considered to be one of the biggest busts in NBA history. The "Kandi-man" wasn't sweet, averaging 8.3 points and 6.8 rebounds in 500 NBA games. He was picked before potential NBA Hall of Famers Vince Carter, Paul Pierce and Dirk Nowitzki.
Including Griffin, half of the Clippers' 22 lottery selections have come in the top five.
Besides Olowokandi, the list includes Benoit Benjamin, Reggie Williams, Danny Ferry, Antonio McDyess, Lamar Odom, Darius Miles, Tyson Chandler and Shaun Livingston, none of whom panned out for the Clippers.
Hopefully Griffin will recover from surgery and become a player worthy of being a No. 1 overall pick. Clippers history says that's not going to happen.
This is how you start an expansion team.
Not only did the Philadelphia Union use the top pick in yesterday's Major League Soccer SuperDraft to select Oregon State sophomore forward Danny Mwanga, the franchise that begins play in March also got
UCLA midfielder Amobi Okugo (sixth), in a trade with FC Dallas, and 17-year-old Cobb Soccer Club forward Jack McInerney (seventh) via a trade with D.C. United.
By trading an allocation ranking to D.C. and allocation money to Dallas, the Union acquired three of the top seven players in what is being called the best MLS draft ever.
