April 14, 1984: The End of the San Diego Clippers

Norm Nixon (left) and Bill Walton

April 14, 1984: The San Diego Clippers play their last game. Despite falling far short of a Playoff berth with a 30-52 record, they go out on a high note, defeating the Utah Jazz, 146-128 at the San Diego Sports Arena. Norm Nixon scored 28 points, while Terry Cummings and James Donaldson each had 21. Hometown hero Bill Walton played through pain for 28 minutes, and scored 16.

The San Diego Sports Arena, now the Pechanga Arena

The team began in 1970, as the Buffalo Braves. But Western New York simply wasn't a big enough market to support 3 major league sports teams. What's more, the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium gave both the NHL's Buffalo Sabres and the basketball team of Canisius University scheduling priority over the Braves.

Braves owner Paul Snyder tried and failed to sell the team to an owner who would have moved them to Miami. He then sold them to John Y. Brown Jr., the Louisville-based fast food businessman who later got elected Governor of Kentucky. In 1978, Brown and Boston Celtics owner Irv Levin traded franchises. Levin said he did it because he was a Southern California native and wanted to move the Celtics to San Diego, and the NBA wouldn't let him move the team with the league's greatest pedigree. But they would let him move the Braves, and he did. (Brown sold the Celtics after only a year.)

San Diego had already lost an NBA franchise, with the Rockets starting in 1967 and moving to Houston in 1971; and an American Basketball Association franchise, with the team known first as the Conquistadors and then as the Sails failing. They also lost their World Hockey Association team, the San Diego Mariners, despite it making the Playoffs in all 3 of their seasons. They had almost lost baseball's Padres to Washington, D.C. in 1974, although, under the ownership of McDonald's boss Ray Kroc, they were now stable, as were the NFL's Chargers.

The Clippers had Braves star Randy Smith, and had acquired Kermit Washington and Lloyd Free, who changed his name to "World B. Free." But the team never got going. One player, Kevin Kunnert, said the Clippers had the "killer instinct of a field mouse." They went 43-39, missing a Playoff berth by 2 games.

They acquired San Diego native Bill Walton, who had fallen out with the management of the Portland Trail Blazers, but his injuries turned him from one of the greatest talents in the sport into one of its greatest letdowns. They kept missing the Playoffs.

In 1981, Levin sold the team to Los Angeles real estate developer Donald Sterling. he embarked on a county-wide marketing campaign featuring his smiling face on billboards and the backs of buses. The seminal ads read: "My Promise: I will make you proud of the Clippers."

He did not: They failed to make the Playoffs, and he immediately began trying to move the team up the Coast to Los Angeles, despite the success of the Los Angeles Lakers. In 1984, he did it. The NBA subsequently fined him $25 million. He sued the league for $100 million, but dropped the suit when the league agreed to decrease the fine to $6 million.

In L.A., Sterling as an individual and the Clippers as a franchise continued to embarrass themselves and the sport of basketball. Despite new rounds of expansion in the NBA in 1988-89, 1995 and 2004, and 4 team moves since -- the Kansas City Kings to Sacramento in 1985 and nearly to Seattle in 2013, the Vancouver Grizzlies to Memphis in 2001, the Charlotte Hornets to New Orleans in 2002, and the Seattle SuperSonics to the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008 -- San Diego has never again been seriously considered as the home of a moved or expansion NBA team.

But that's less because San Diego has a reputation for losing its teams, including the 2017 loss of the Chargers to Los Angeles, and more because the San Diego Sports Arena, which opened in 1966, and still stands, as the Pechanga Arena, has only 14,000 seats, and hardly any luxury boxes. As of April 14, 2022, it is the home of the San Diego Gulls of the American Hockey League. It has also hosted minor-league basketball, arena football, indoor soccer, professional lacrosse, roller hockey and team tennis.

UPDATE: The Clippers do not have a team Hall of Fame. Nor have they retired any numbers. The only banner they hang that honors any individual is for Ralph Lawler, who broadcast for them from 1978 to 2019, in San Diego and Los Angeles.

Through the 2025-26 season, there have been 9 players for the franchise who have been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. But only 2 of those played more than 2 years for the team: Forward Bob McAdoo played 4 seasons in Buffalo, and center Bill Walton was with them over a period of 6 years in San Diego and the 1st season in Los Angeles, even though injuries meant that he only played 169 games for the franchise -- just over 2 full seasons' worth of games.

McAdoo and guard Randy Smith were elected to the Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. Walton was elected to the San Diego Hall of Champions.

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April 14, 1984 was a Saturday. There were 5 other games in the NBA that day:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 103-100 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Washington Bullets, 117-109 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons, 115-107 at The Omni in Atlanta. Dominique Wilkins, "The Human Highlight Film," scored 35 points.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Indiana Pacers, 104-92 at the Milwaukee Exposition and Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA (now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena).

* And the Kansas City Kings beat the Houston Rockets, 108-96 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs were underway, but no games were scheduled. The NFL was out of season, but there were 4 games played in the United States Football League (USFL):

* The Oklahoma Outlaws beat the Washington Federals, 20-16 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington.

* The San Antonio Gunslingers beat the Jacksonville Bulls, 20-0 at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville.

* The Denver Gold beat the Pittsburgh Maulers, 31-21 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* And the Los Angeles Express beat the Memphis Showboats, 23-17 in overtime at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 6-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Dick Ruthven outpitched Tim Leary. Leon Durham hit a home run.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Montreal Expos, 4-3 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Steve Carlton started for the Phils, but Larry Andersen turned out to be the winning pitcher. Mike Schmidt hit his 392nd career home run.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Baltimore Colts, 8-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Eddie Murray went 1-for-3 with a walk. Cal Ripken went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Seattle Mariners, 4-3 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Ron Washington, later to manage the Texas Rangers to 2 American League Pennants, hit a home run to win the game in the bottom of the 11th inning.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-5 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Kansas City Royals, 8-4 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Robin Yount went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Paul Molitor went 2-for-5 with an RBI. George Brett did not play.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Houston Astros beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-1 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Diego Padres, 5-1 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 8-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Terry Whitfield and Greg Brock hit home runs.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the California Angels, 4-3 at the Oakland Coliseum. Jim Essian hit a home run in the bottom of the 9th inning. It was 1 of only 33 home runs he would hit in his career as mostly a backup catcher. Rickey Henderson went 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-4. Rod Carew did not play.

* The New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox were rained out at Yankee Stadium. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on August 7. The ChiSox won the opener, 6-3. LaMarr Hoyt outpitched Jim Deshaies. Harold Baines and Greg Luzinski hit home runs. The Yanks won the nightcap, 7-0. Ron Guidry pitched a 4-hit shutout, striking out 13 and walking none. Dave Winfield and Bryan Dayett hit home runs. Don Mattingly did not play in either game.

* And the Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers were also rained out, at Fenway Park in Boston. Lucky for the BoSox, because the Tigers ended up winning their 1st 9 games that season, and 35 of their 1st 40. This game was also made up as part of a doubleheader on August 7. The Red Sox won the 1st game, 12-7. The Tigers won the 2nd game, 7-5. Lance Parrish won it with a home run in the top of the 11th inning.