Clipper Fan: a True Test of Loyalty

Maybe the time has come for more of us to be as true-blue to the Clippers as is Kay Grall, who has followed them through thin and thin.

If hoop lovers everywhere would give the same sort of unconditional support to the NBA’s most down-and-out organization that Kay Grall gives the Clippers, who knows how many games they might win?

(Put down your hand. That was a rhetorical question.)

Another NBA season begins Friday night for the banged-up gang bossed by Don Sterling and coached by Don Casey that probably could use some godfatherly assistance from Don Corleone.

And when the Clipper opener against the Houston Rockets gets started at the Sports Arena, you can expect Kay Grall to be right there at courtside, rooting for them as avidly as if they were the Lakers or Detroit Pistons or, you know, somebody good.

She is ready to take her position for the opening tip. Even the answering machine at Kay Grall’s home pronounces her to be “winding down from baseball and gearing up for basketball,” with no mention of any feelings about football.

Kay Grall is the best fan of pro basketball’s worst team--Europe and NBA expansion excluded.

A promotional contest recently sought out and selected, with help from the teams themselves, the most faithful followers of every sports franchise in the immediate area, unearthing such characters as the British guy who flies all the way to California to watch the Raiders play football, and the Orange County dude who loved the Rams so much that he shaved his hair into the design of a Ram helmet, horns and all.

The Lakers went for a well-off executive from a Hollywood record company who has stuck by their side, even when their side went from $12 a pop to $350 a pop.

But the clear-cut choice as queen of Clipperdom was Kay Grall of Reseda, an executive secretary for a bank and a mother of two children, who has been following the team ever since it set foot in Los Angeles.

She wanted a team she could get close to, and not some team that would stick her somewhere up in the second balcony with nothing but nosebleeds and binoculars.

And close to the Clippers is exactly where Kay Grall got, baking cookies or her special pumpkin bread for the players, and even knitting a blue sweater for former North Carolina star Joe Wolf.

“I only miss one or two games, a season,” Grall said, “I get kidded about it at work but I’ll have the last laugh someday. You have to stand by your team. You have to have some guts.”

“She’s like a fraternity mother,” Casey said. “The guys get a kick out of seeing her and talking to her. She’s their new house mother.”

Casey, of course, can use all the help he can get. The poor man had the makings of a pretty fair basketball team until 1989 first-round draft choice Danny Ferry defected to Italy, 1988 first-round choice Danny Manning got injured and 1985 first-round draft choice Benoit Benjamin decided to steer clear of the Clippers until he got his money’s worth.

Things like this can make a Clipper coach the loneliest man since the Maytag repairman.

Casey, though, seems to be holding up pretty well.

“I had to give up drinking beers and shooters a long time ago,” Casey said Tuesday, laughing. “Now my wife is kidding me that I can chase other women three times a season if I absolutely have to.”

Coaching the Clippers can sometimes drive a guy to drink, or whatever. On the other hand, as a coach, there is a certain kick out of taking young clay and molding it, which very few NBA coaches get to do. Usually their players already are fully developed and unwilling to listen.

“It’s been interesting so far,” Casey said. “You can do a lot of things, but you can’t fight Father Time. Most of these guys are just so young. They just don’t have the experience yet. We’ve had some very explosive, exciting moments during the preseason, and some downright sluggish, terrible moments.

“But it’s their resiliency that keeps me buoyant. See, I’m a seasoned coach, but I’m not a seasoned, NBA, long-time, late-in-the-game predicament coach. I’m still learning on the job a little myself. So, I’m not going to put all the onus on the players whenever things go wrong.”

About losing Ferry, Manning, et al, Casey recalls the excellent job done by Pat Riley and the Lakers during last season’s NBA finals, when the entire starting backcourt was lost. Take away one key guy, you still have a chance. Take away two, it becomes next to impossible. Take away more, forget it.

“We’re still not sure when Benjamin’s going to get straightened out, so it’s possible, with Manning still hurt and Ferry not around, that we theoretically could be missing our entire front line,” Casey said.

He is counting on a few new things, to go along with returnees such as Charles Smith and Ken Norman who are eager and able. The Clippers are heavily into conditioning these days. They have hired their own strength people, their own exercise people, their own diet people.

“There are no quick fixes,” Casey said. “But coaching the Clippers, every day is another challenge.”

A little fan support would help. So, come on. Make sure there’s more than one.