Let’s have a sports conversation without sports

It has been less than two days since the NBA season was suspended, and I can’t say that I have been able to fully wrap my head around it yet.

The overriding emotion right now is some level of confusion. I keep instinctively turning to ESPN to see what’s on SportsCenter, and my body clock was expecting basketball at 4 p.m. PT on a Thursday. The Clippers would have had practice yesterday, shootaround today, and a game tonight. The lack of defining tentpoles in my daily schedule has thrown me off.

Then there’s just overwhelming sadness. Sadness for the people whose lives have been disrupted in a meaningful way, not just that they can’t watch games, but that their health is in peril, or their work has been put on hold and they can no longer pay their bills.

Sadness also as a fan. There are only so many seasons where you really believe a team has a chance to win a title and to be something special. This was one of those years for the Clippers. It was only a week ago that they were laying to waste other contenders around the league, establishing themselves as a team to beat. I feel a real sense of loss for the players who are missing an opportunity to be champions. These types of teams don’t just come around every year — the Clippers have waited a long time for one.

I was really excited to rejoin this community at a time when we could rally around a potentially great Clippers team. Now, forget greatness, there’s nothing. And that means that there are some questions about we do going forward.

First things first, the NBA — and nearly every other major sports body — made the powerful and necessary decision to suspend the season to protect the league, and everyone involved with it. That means our primary responsibility is to take care of ourselves. Wash your hands, practice proper social distancing, and remember that these measures don’t just ensure our own health — they also protect the people around us.

That leaves the question of what do with our time. I have started catching up on the last few weeks of Jeopardy! (that Mackenzie Jones was pretty impressive). Lou Williams appears to be a fan of board games, and Landry Shamet is celebrating a birthday today. But as much as I’d love to do a play-by-play of Lou Will’s gambling exploits, and that might still happen, I think we can do better at Clips Nation.

What do you want to see? Our staff is welcome to any suggestions here: rankings, retrospectives, offseason previews, and really anything silly to help lighten the mood. If you have more serious questions about the coronavirus, we’re happy to direct you to useful information, even if this might not be the place to find it.

It may take us a minute to get our bearings within this new sports-less existence, but Clips Nation will continue forward. Even during this hiatus, we’re still a community for Clippers fans.