Released in 2016, Mick Minas’ “The Curse” comprehensively explores the tortured history of the Los Angeles Clippers (MMinas8/Twitter).


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Mick Minas, author of “The Curse: The Colorful & Chaotic History of the LA Clippers,” is here to discuss his comprehensive book that chronicles the wild history of the Clippers. Plagued by penny-pinching ownership, questionable management, terrible luck, and a well earned abysmal reputation, the franchise experiences so many low lows, but optimism is somehow rarely too far away. Even with a new era of Clippers basketball beginning, there is reason for hope. For those interested, Mick’s book can be purchased on Amazon. For more information, visit the book’s website or follow Mick on Twitter.   

Enjoy some clips (The time stamps are approximate, given the presence of dynamic advertising; pun intended with “clips/Clips,” by the way):

7:51-8:20: “So when the players are in that type of environment, it’s easy to see how the effort level would drop off, and I don’t think it takes a lot in a super-competitive environment like the NBA. If you’ve got players operating at 85, 80 percent effort level, that’s obviously gonna lead to terrible results and then the terrible results lead to a further drop in morale, and I think it’s just that sort of downward spiral.”

35:57-36:33: “In terms of the writing, the putting together the story, one of the things that made it hard was that there was this sort of perpetual failure. But I guess the thing that made that work was that every time around it would be something different that caused the wheels to fall off, so you could always have some fun with building suspense around what was gonna happen and then all of a sudden it would be something that was completely different from the previous five calamities…and that sort of, I think, kept it fresh and exciting.”

45:34-46:00: “I don’t think anybody was super-keen to take him on and force him out, especially whilst he was kind of in the background, which is what he was for most of the time. Until Blake Griffin arrived, no one really cared about the Clippers besides Clippers fans, so Donald Sterling was kind of an embarrassing sideshow in the background rather than being front and center. So the damage he did to the NBA brand was somewhat limited.”

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Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod.