LA Clippers best shooting guards in franchise history: 3) World B. Free
The man born Lloyd Bernard Free would spend two seasons of 13 year NBA career as a member of the San Diego Clippers. In those years he was named to his only All-Star appearance, and his sole All-NBA Team while putting up scoring numbers that still have him at the top of the franchise leader board in points-per-game.
World B. Free would come to the Clippers in a trade from the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for a 1984 first round draft pick. The Sixers would later land Hall-of-Famer Charles Barkley with the pick they received in return.
Free lit up the league in his two seasons with the Clippers, scoring 29.4 points per game, adding 4.3 assists and 3.7 rebounds per contest over the course of his 146 games with the team. He would finish second in the NBA in scoring behind George Gervin in both of his seasons in San Diego.
The team would trade the smooth-shooting guard to the Golden State Warriors for Phil Smith and a 1984 first round draft pick on August 28, 1980. The Clippers didn’t quite get the best of the 1984 picks exchanged for Free, as they ended up drafting Lancaster Gordon eighth overall, three selections after Philadelphia chose Barkley out of Auburn.
Free would spend two-plus seasons with the Warriors before he was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he would spends three-plus productive seasons before returning to Philadelphia and then Houston for the final two seasons of his career. He would never again put up the type of numbers he was able to reach with the Clippers.