Skip to main content

Clippers Won Too Many

Support Provided By
clippershalftimebody

Everybody's favorite sports franchise did a masterful job losing this season, particularly down the home stretch.

The organization didn't quite lose enough, though, to catch the Philadelphia 76ers and the Detroit Basketball Pistons and conclude the 2009-2010 campaign as the NBA's sixth-worst team.

Finishing in that spot would have given Donald Sterling et. al. a 6.3% chance of winning the league's lottery and receiving the first pick in June's draft.

That would mean adding heralded guard John Wall to the club. Barring injury or other catastrophe. (Never happens.)

Instead, by finishing as the eighth-worst team, the Clippers have only a 2.8% chance to secure that coveted #1 selection.

These percentages come via ESPN.com. The site operates a 2010 NBA Lottery Mock Draft game. TTLA faithfully pressed the "play lottery" button six times and in each instance the fates left the Clips the #8 pick, and each time, the projected selected player was Kansas University Jayhawk center, Cole Aldrich.

Since the club already has DeAndre Jordan and NBA All-Star and German Olympian Chris Kaman under contract for next season, clearly the machine is on to something.


And, from the TTLA archives: Basketball's Think Tanks.

Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post, of Clippers halftime entertainment, was taken by Flickr user donielle. It was used under Creative Commons license.

Support Provided By
Read More
Gray industrial towers and stacks rise up from behind the pitched roofs of warehouse buildings against a gray-blue sky, with a row of yellow-gold barrels with black lids lined up in the foreground to the right of a portable toilet.

California Isn't on Track To Meet Its Climate Change Mandates. It's Not Even Close.

According to the annual California Green Innovation Index released by Next 10 last week, California is off track from meeting its climate goals for the year 2030, as well as reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.
A row of cows stands in individual cages along a line of light-colored enclosures, placed along a dirt path under a blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds.

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

California is considering changes to a program that has incentivized dairy biogas, to transform methane emissions into a source of natural gas. Neighbors are pushing for an end to the subsidies because of its impact on air quality and possible water pollution.
A Black woman with long, black brains wears a black Chicago Bulls windbreaker jacket with red and white stripes as she stands at the top of a short staircase in a housing complex and rests her left hand on the metal railing. She smiles slightly while looking directly at the camera.

Los Angeles County Is Testing AI's Ability To Prevent Homelessness

In order to prevent people from becoming homeless before it happens, Los Angeles County officials are using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to predict who in the county is most likely to lose their housing. They would then step in to help those people with their rent, utility bills, car payments and more so they don't become unhoused.