10 Players the Clippers held onto for way too long
By Oliver Fox
What does it mean to hold onto someone for too long? In a basketball sense, that is. I’m probably not your guy if you’re asking that question about some other type of relationship.
Anyone who has ever drafted a fantasy basketball team knows exactly what this means. For the last few years, you’ve probably been sitting in the 2nd round, staring LeBron James in the face and wondering to yourself: will this be the year he falls off? Should I just pick Donovan Mitchell, even with no rebounding upside?
It’s impossible to know when a guy will hit a wall, and in James’ case, he has proven to be an Iron Man of historic proportions. But everyone—no matter what—will fall off. Save for Bill Russell, who hung up his sneakers at the pinnacle of achievement, every great athlete has had a somewhat awkward farewell tour.
Everyone falls off eventually, no matter how great.
Even Michael Jordan couldn’t stomach retiring on top, so he went to the Wizards to make things weird enough to retire for good. I’m anxiously waiting on how LeBron’s swan song will sound, though it seems like a 1:1 recreation of the iconic Wade-to-LeBron alley-oop photo with his son Bronny is leading the betting markets.
Everyone falls off, sure, but some people don’t have to fall very far. Some guys never reach the heights people expected them to fall from, merely hopping off a small soapbox but somehow still failing to stick the landing.
We’ll start with one of those guys, but everyone on this list overstayed their welcome on the Los Angeles Clippers (or San Diego Clippers… or Buffalo Braves, actually) in one way or another.