Why do sports franchises move or fold? Why don’t the Cleveland Barons exist anymore? Why did the Houston Oilers become the Tennessee Titans? Why did the San Diego Clippers move to Los Angeles in 1984 after just six seasons spent in Southern California? Bill Walton has an answer for that last one. He blames himself entirely.
Walton is basketball royalty, and also a San Diego native. He was also, unfortunately, incredibly injury prone, and that was a repeated issue during his time with the Clippers. Walton signed with his hometown team in 1979, one year after the Buffalo Braves moved out west and re-branded to identify with white-sailed ships of the 19th century. He had missed the entire prior season with a foot injury, and things didn’t get better for him in San Diego. Walton’s still pretty torn up about it, too.
“When you fail in your hometown, that’s as bad as it gets, and I love my hometown,” he told ESPN’s Arash Markazi, adding, “I wish we had NBA basketball here, and we don’t because of me.”
Walton only played in 14 games his first season, didn’t play at all in his second and third seasons with the team, and then only managed to play 88 games over the next two seasons before the Clippers moved from San Diego to Los Angeles. Walton played one season after the relocation before moving to signing with the Boston Celtics, with whom he won a title and a Sixth Man of the Year Award.
While Walton managed to turn his career around, he still carries the scars of, in his mind, failing his hometown.
“It’s my greatest failure as a professional in my entire life. I could not get the job done in my hometown. It is a stain and stigma on my soul that is indelible. I’ll never be able to wash that off, and I carry it with me forever.”
Can’t we get a team in San Diego if only so that Walton can stop beating himself up about the Clippers moving to LA?
(Via ESPN.com)
