By Matt "Money" Smith
FOX Sports West and PRIME TICKET
MONEY ARCHIVE
I've wrote about it before, I've talked about it on the radio Ad nauseam, and anytime a conversation about territory is warranted, I generalize which Los Angeles territory supports what team.
From the uber rich of Malibu to the young families of Woodland Hills, the wacky hippies in Venice or the Fairfax district of West Hollywood, and of course the northernmost tip of Orange County, I haven't just seen it, but I've lived it. I spent at least two years in each spot, and have been here in the Seal Beach area for over seven years now. South Orange County has a different set of allegiances form the North, meaning more Ducks, Trojans, and Angels fans than what's pretty much a 50/50 split with Kings, Bruins, Dodgers in spots like Westminster, Garden Grove, Cypress and those areas.
It's always been something that's peaked my interest likely because like any major metropolis, each neighborhood I lived in was so unique and independent of the others. From the restaurants that were most frequented, to the people's own perceptions of their area, to the teams they chose to cheer for, no two are alike. There is one caveat however, and that's the world of professional basketball. This is without question a Lakers town, there is no getting around that. You can dress it up however you like and try to paint a picture where the Clippers are the preferred team in one part of the city, but it's simply inaccurate.
Think about it, if you had to say which part of the city the Clippers would call their "hot zip code" what would it be? East LA? Not a chance. The 818? The Westside?
No, no and no.
The Clippers are the alternative, plain and simple.
There's no other possible explanation why a team that has exactly one playoff series win in their entire Los Angeles existence would be the team of choice over another that plays in the exact same part of town, even in the same building and has won 10 titles over the last 30 years. It's a group built by sporting souls that were or are turned off by the Lakers as a whole or a specific Lakers player. It's a contingency that fancies themselves contrarians or forward-thinking individuals that refuse to be told how they're supposed to feel at any given moment.
Or it's simply economics.
The tickets are affordable, and you have a chance to see a few games a year without having to take out a personal loan, or sit 5,000 feet from the court. Point is, rarely do you hear someone say they cheer for the Clippers because "I just do, that's the way it's always been."
There's a chance that could change with Blake Griffin sporting the red, white and blue. He's as unique a player we've seen in Los Angeles since Magic Johnson. While Kobe Bryant is a superstar, he's more the second coming of Michael Jordan, than the first Bryant. There has never been a Griffin, which is why a team with the 13th- best record in the conference is worth marveling over.
Orange Country desperately wanted to call the Clippers their own. When the team was playing a few contests at Honda Center, you could see it was a natural fit. The games would sell out, the corporate money was there to fill the seats, the venue is terrific for basketball, and it made perfect sense. But Donald Sterling, ever the shrewd businessman, said to hell with public sentiment, I'll stick with the Lakers and instead play at STAPLES Center. You can't argue with his thinking financially. He's one of just a few teams that manages to turn a profit every year, and that's with a team you'd call the league's poster child for losing.
By Los Angeles standards it's a near impossibility.
With Griffin, there's now a reason for the team to sell out home games. There is a reason to watch them on TV, and there's a reason to drop the $20 or so for a T-shirt declaring you prefer the alternative. If they didn't play smack in the middle of downtown, at the same venue where the current two-time World Champions reside, there's no question this could be a galvanizing player for the part of town they called "home."
With all the talk about the Kings being ready to call it quits in Sacramento and perhaps moving to Orange Country, I can't help but think how there's a much more viable alternative already in town.
With Griffin and with an extremely limited, but still a bit of history here in Los Angeles, the Clippers wouldn't necessarily be able to reduce the purple and gold merchandise that's so prevalent in these parts, but you sure as heck might start seeing some good old red, white and blue.
