Well, Citizens, the drought of Clippers news is over. The season is still four weeks away, but today is media day at Staples Center, training camp opens tomorrow, and the first pre-season game is only six days away, Sunday, against the Warriors. In other words, there will be plenty to talk about regarding the Clippers for the next seven months (and hopefully beyond that).
Is this season going to be different than the last three? Well, with Blake Griffin around, almost certainly different, but we'll have to wait and see about 'better' (or how much better). The Clippers have never responded particularly well to expectations, the handful of times that they've had them. But surely, after 19 wins last season, the expectations for this team remain more of the 'trendy sleeper pick' variety, as opposed to those of 2006 or 2002 when the other LA team was considered a virtual lock for the playoffs but failed to deliver.
From a Clips Nation perspective, this season will surely be different as well. I'll be heading up to Staples Center today for Media Day, and more momentously hopefully picking up my press credential for the season. I don't have it yet, and until I do I'll be a little worried. But with the growing popularity and acceptance of blogs, combined with the stature of the SBNation network, it seems as if new media is reaching critical mass. A few camps opened early because those teams are playing pre-season games in Europe (a la the Clippers in Russia in 2006), and SBNation blogs have been all over the Media Days so far. In fact, I can't keep up with all of them, but fortunately the new SBNation.com 'story stream' is doing it for me.
I'm not sure if I'll decide to blog, or Tweet, or simply be at Media Day (and post later). But it's scheduled for noon to 2:00, so I would highly recommend checking in at Clips Nation multiple times in the afternoon.