Imagine an NBA without the Los Angeles Lakers. Elgin Baylor (right, with Clippers owner Donald Sterling) can laugh today, but the plane crash wasn't funny. A pretty damn dull league, if you ask me.

For three decades, the Los Angeles Clippers were the NBA’s laughingstock, a poorly run team with a woeful record. But the team’s owner, Donald Sterling, was more than inept — it was a barely ...