Blake Griffin Injury Clipper Curse: Top 5 Signs of Clipper Curse

Los Angeles Clippers rookie Blake Griffin will miss a large chunk of the season due to a knee injury. Yesterday it was announced that Blake Griffin suffered a broken left kneecap. Griffin is expected to miss up to six weeks. Griffin likely broke his kneecap during the Clippers' final exhibition game against the New Orleans Hornets.

The Blake Griffin injury is another example of the so-called Clipper Curse. An idea popularized by ESPN columnist Bill Simmons, who wrote an open letter to Blake Griffin in June stating warning the rookie that the Clippers appear to be the most cursed franchise in the NBA. Simmons presented a pretty compelling case that there is some kind of Clipper Curse.

Here are the Top 5 Examples of the Clipper Curse:

Danny Manning In a case eerily similar to Blake Griffin injury, Danny Manning, the Clippers #1 overall pick in 1988, blew out his knee in his rookie season. Manning went on to a decent NBA career, but many feel he failed to reach his star potential.

Terry Cummings The team's #2 overall pick in 1982, was diagnosed with heart arrhythmia, a potentially fatal disease. Cummings fortunately survived his tenure with the Clippers, although he failed to become a major NBA star. 

Norm Nixon After getting traded to the Clips in 1983, former Lakers star Norm Nixon had a couple of productive years with the Clippers. Then he blew out his knee during a softball game, then ruptured his Achilles tendon a little more than a year later. He missed more than two entire seasons for the Clips.

Nate 'Tiny' Archibald In 1977, the Clippers traded two 1st round draft picks for All-Star Nate 'Tiny' Archibald. One month later, Archibald tears his Achilles tendon and misses the entire season.

Daniel Ewing and Raja Bell According to Simmons, another sign of the Clipper curse was the team's cursed 2005 playoff run. In his open letter to Blake Griffin, Simmons told Griffin to "google 'Daniel Ewing' and 'Raja Bell.'" Here's what he would have found.

So are the Clippers really cursed? Probably not. All sorts of injuries happen to athletes all the time. If you were to comb the history of any team over a 30-year stretch you'd likely find plenty of awful injuries to key players. The real curse of the Clippers has been ownership. Many feel that Donald Sterling has consistently proven to be one of the worst owner in sports and, according to this ESPN story, one of the sketchiest.