For The Clippers, the dark Donald Sterling days are in the past

Saturday, the day of game 4 against San Antonio in the Clips' current playoff series signified the one year anniversary of the audio tapes featuring former Clippers owner Donald Sterling's racist rants.  This was a highly controversial moment in Clippers history, one that led to Sterling's lifetime NBA ban and the selling of the team to Steve Balmer.

If one things has become clear in the year since the rant, it's that the Clippers have completely moved on and have no interest in rehashing Sterling's final days.

"I have no clue what you were talking about when you said one year anniversary" said Chris Paul. "I think that shows how far behind us this is".

Although the Clips don't want to look back, head coach Doc Rivers will happily take the time to mention how far the organisation has come since the incident.

"We have a new ownership, a new president, we have a new everything" said Doc. "It takes time. Organizations don't grow overnight". 

The biggest difference from now and a year ago is that Steve Balmer is now the new owner of the team. He has been an enthusiastic, controversial free owner who gives fans the occasional viral video of him dancing over-excitedly at games.

Although the Clippers are moving on from there past it doesn't mean they are not prepared to embrace some tradition. The organization has been reaching out to former players and staff. They honoured their legendary play-by-play Ralph Lawler as well as welcoming back many former coaches including Norm Nixon and Gene Shue. Doc knows they don't have a rich history like their Staples Centre brother the Lakers but they are "building it". 

Indeed, the Clips have plans to rebrand this summer to embrace their future yet they are also planning to connect with their Buffalo Braves past by introducing classic throwback jerseys and retire the jerseys of a couple team legends in Bob McAdoo and Randy Smith. The Clippers have no reired jerseys hanging up at the staples and this would be a great step in building history.

It's worth mentioning that Doc thinks the 1st jersey the team retire may not even be the one of a player. 

“When I first took this job, I said I was trying to find a way of building some tradition,” Rivers said. “I was like, ‘Let’s hang some jerseys up of retired players.’ And then I started looking at the rosters and the only guy that came up was Ralph Lawler. So he will be the first whenever we get around to retiring someone’s jersey. The first one will be a microphone or a moustache for Ralph.”