Page 4 February 8, 2018
Trade of Griffin Signals End for Clippers
By Adam Serrao
If being a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers
has taught anyone anything over the course
of the past few years, it’s that if you’re not
going to field a competitive team, at least try
to field an entertaining one. Perhaps it’s fitting
to begin an article about Blake Griffin and the
Los Angeles Clippers by talking about the
Lakers. The Lakers have, incidentally, always
been L.A.’s team, no matter how much relative
success the Clippers have gained. With the
trade of Griffin to the Detroit Pistons just over
one week ago, the Clippers did once again
what the Clippers seemingly always tend to
do – shoot themselves in the theoretical foot.
Now, a team that was already struggling to
compete in a loaded Western Conference not
only just got worse, but also lost the face of
the franchise that a dwindling Clipper fan
base still came to the Staples Center to see.
First it was Chris Paul and now Blake Griffin?
After Griffin signed a five-year contract for
$173 million in July, it was clear that the
Clippers were trying to make a statement.
Griffin would be the face of the franchise
not only now, but also in the years to come.
Well, somebody in the organization changed
his mind and it caught Griffin off guard just
as much as it caught fans of the NBA off
guard. “Basketball is a business, the NBA is
a business and they made a decision,” Griffin
told ESPN after finding out that he had been
traded by Clippers through Twitter. “The only
thing, I just wish I had known or had the
opportunity to talk to somebody beforehand.
Finding out through Twitter, through other
people, is a tough way to find out when
you’ve been with a franchise for so long.”
Well, that’s the Clippers for you and now,
besides DeAndre Jordan and maybe Lou
Williams, the rest of the roster is somewhat
unrecognizable. That’s before the likes of
Avery Bradley, Tobias Harris and Boban
Marjanovic arrived through the trade. Those
players and first and second round draft
picks were all part of the return for the
Clippers, who fittingly lost their first game
after the trade to the Portland Trailblazers.
It’s rather difficult to evaluate trades in the
NBA these days, but as of last weekend the
Clippers were positioned narrowly outside of
playoff contention in the Western Conference
standings with now seemingly little hope of
ascending up the ranks.
Even with Griffin on their side – and
Chris Paul, for that matter – the Clippers
weren’t getting anywhere near sniffing
the competitive levels of the Golden State
Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers or even the
San Antonio Spurs. Likely, that was the main
reason in the team’s front office changing
its philosophy so hastily. Whether the pieces
that the Clippers received in return for Griffin
pan out or not, getting a team to take on
the humungous salary that was given to
Los Angeles’s former first round pick less
than a year ago opens things up, if you’re
an optimist. Now, the Clippers have enough
cap space to go out and sign LeBron James,
Paul George or any other big-name free agent
One Man’s Opinion Another Man’s Opinion
Speaker Paul Ryan Can Delete Tweets,
but Can’t Hide His Deceitful Ways
By Cristian Vasquez
During the weekend, Speaker of the House
Paul Ryan made headlines for all the wrong
reasons. Turns out the Wisconsin lawmaker
decided to use Twitter to praise the new tax
plan approved in Congress. The tweet has
since been deleted, but Ryan put out in the
Twitterverse that, “A secretary at a public
high school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania said
she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up
$1.50 a week...she said [that] will more than
cover her Costco membership for the year.”
While it is not surprising that Ryan has since
deleted his words, it is infuriating to know that
this lawmaker who earns $223,500 wants to
come out and comment on a worker’s $1.50
weekly increase in pay. He wants to tell us how
great that is for the worker and the economy.
The man is out of touch with reality. He is
delusional if he really believes that a $1.50
raise is going to improve anyone’s lifestyle.
If Ryan wants to lower the standard for
a better life at being able to afford Costco
membership, then how little does he think of
our nation? Let’s do Ryan’s math: A $1.50
raise a week, multiplied by 52 weeks in a year,
will total $78 a year. With 78 extra dollars,
how can anyone improve their quality of life?
What big-ticket item that will stimulate the
economy can a person buy with an additional
$78 a year? What type of investment can a
worker make with $78 that can provide some
financial security? None. There are no viable
options with that amount of money. That
might be one-week worth of groceries, but it
does not improve the living conditions for
the worker. Personally, I would rather keep
paying that extra $78 each year so that the
low-cost clinic that saved my life can stay
open. The extra $78 will be of greater benefit
to the senior citizen who’s waiting on his
Meals-On-Wheels delivery. I’m not losing my
Costco membership without that money, but
many people will be losing their community
resources because some weasel in Washington
who earns more than $200,000 a year wants
to “save” a receptionist $78 a year.
As frustrating as Ryan’s tweet is, there
is nothing surprising about his out-of-touch
comments. The man has proven time and time
again that he is no more than a cowardly
puppy running in circles in an effort to appease
President Trump. Ryan will jump through
hoops for a president who described him as a
“very weak and ineffective leader.” And, like
most Republicans under this administration,
Ryan has decided to accept each and every
belittling comment made by Trump and has
gone as far as justifying it by saying, “It’s
what he does…we’ve kind of learned to live
with it.” Maybe Ryan enjoys being the errand
boy for Trump who has to convince people
that an extra $78 a year will improve their
quality of life. Or maybe he just doesn’t have
the decency to speak the truth. Maybe, just
maybe, he’s too much of a coward to call
out the tax plan for what it really is. Since
Ryan’s considering not running for reelection
this year, everything indicates that the
weasel is running home to hide. •
State of the Union Address Shows How
Fractured Swampers in Washington Are
By Duane Plank
Thanks for putting down your cell phone for
a couple of minutes, giving up the all-important
checking of Facebook and email for a bit, and
reading an incredibly well-thought-out political
screed.
Last week, President Trump made his first State
of the Union address. Yes, it ran a tad bit long,
but seemed to strike a conciliatory pose -- even
towards the boycotting libs who did not attend
the SOTU address (think Mad Max Waters) or
the Dems who did their duty and attended the
speech. Think another California lib senator,
“Fancy Pants” Nancy Pelosi, made a spectacle
of herself reacting to everything Trump said,
acting as if she had swallowed a bag of lemons
or discovered a skunk running through her No-
Cal mansion.
Stock market up, said Trump. Pelosi skowered.
Not sure what Chuckie Schumer was doing --
probably nodding off. Unemployment down. Dems
sat on their hands, or something else. ISIS had
their butt kicked. No response from the lefties.
Now, I need to make sure that I have some
credibility here. I am not, and have never been,
an always-Trumper. He has his faults and some
of his comments and decisions stretch the borders
of credulity.
And yeah, he probably spends too much time
watching the congratulators on FOX News Channel,
and jetting off to Mar-a-Lago for golfing and
tweeting weekends. As he did last weekend after
okaying the release of the scandalous Federal
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) memo that
he claimed exonerated him and his campaign in
the incredibly tiresome lib-driven and CNN-run
Russian collusion Bolshoi.
So, what did Trump opine upon last Tuesday?
Well, he somewhat shifted gears on challenges
facing the country, telepromptering about the
need to ramp up and spend some Benjamins
on fixing the incredible deterioration plaguing
our country’s infrastructure.
Curious, but in Cali, where potholes and
gridlock abound, the outgoing Governor Moonbeam,
whom I like, by the by, is still doggedly
promoting his bullet train boondoggle. Which
apparently sends us on some train to San Francisco.
For what end, don’t know. We can jump
on a plane at LAX and get to SF in 45 minutes,
for whatever reason one needs to visit the City
by the Bay. Never been there.
I have a novel idea. How about we spend
a heck of a lot less money and turn the bullet
train due south, sending illegal immigrants and
their brethren back home? No charge to them?
Under the wall, over the wall, who cares? And
I say this as a very proud Mexi-Talian. Mom’s
family legally showed up here more than 100
years ago from Mexico. Prospered, broke no
laws that I am aware of and included in their
posse the great actor Ramon Navarro, who
played the title character in the iconic movie
Ben Hur in the 1920s.
At one point, Navarro, my great uncle, was
the second-highest-paid actor in Hollywood.
So, while the stock market tanked last week
and they played some football game that I
watched little of Sunday, all is still good in
America, eh? •
in the offseason. With that flexibility, it may
not be long before the team returns back to
the rim-rocking “Clip City” team of years
past that formerly (almost) filled the arena
to capacity on a night-in and night-out basis.
The one flaw in that reasoning or philosophy
change comes in understanding the fact that
most, if not all, big-name free agents who
want to come play in Los Angeles will likely
choose to play for the Lakers (who will
also have enormous amounts of cap space)
instead of the Clippers. Unfortunately for the
Clippers, aside from Jerry West now having
some unknown role in the front office, there
is nothing alluring about the team. Sure,
unloading an injury-prone player in Griffin
who was owed a ton of money may have
been the best thing that the Clippers could
have done from a business perspective. From
a fan and team perspective, however, the
move could have just locked the Clippers
into becoming a team that will now be stuck
in mediocrity for years to come.
Speaking of mediocrity, ever since the
Pistons beat the Lakers in the 2004 NBA
Finals, the former team has failed in multiple
attempts to set the rest of the league on
fire. In this latest attempt, it is clear that
the Pistons received the best player in the
trade, but even in a less talented Eastern
Conference, Griffin’s arrival may fail to do
more than move Detroit up a spot or two
in the standings to the eighth seed, at best.
While the Pistons may not all of a sudden
transform into a championship team overnight,
though, they’ll at least have a player who is
worthy of putting fans in the seats.
As it currently stands, Clipper fans are
clinging to optimism and cite Jerry West as
their savior. Hopes filled with Paul George
and LeBron chants ring eternal. George did,
after all, root for the Clippers as a child,
right? But why play in a dimly-lit Staples
Center on Clippers game nights when you
could don the purple and gold and have
movie stars from all over Hollywood in
the stands watching your every move under
the bright lights of “La La Land?” Why go
out of your way to say that Jerry West will
save the day when just down the hallway,
Magic Johnson is showcasing that brighteyed
smile and the promise of “Showtime”
returning to the Staples Center floor as he
stands in front of 16 polished and glistening
championship trophies?
Now that all of the dust from the trade
that caught everyone off guard has officially
settled, Clippers fans can continue banking
on the future. That’s what true fans do. An
increased amount of cap space now brings
with it the hope and opportunity of landing
a prized free agent to come and represent
the Los Angeles Clippers. With that hope
better also come faith that the Clippers can
do something that the franchise has seemingly
never done before, even with Griffin in Paul
sporting the logo across their chests. That one
thing the team has never done is succeed. •
– Aserrao6@yahoo.com | @UpandAdam6