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The Hallway Rivalry between the Lakers and Clippers is dead. It’s a relic of the past. It’s a cemetery of unrealized fun.
It was never a real rivalry.
Not when the Lakers have won 17 championships while the Clippers have never reached the championship round in their 56-year franchise history.
But there were brief pockets when the Clippers were more fun than the Lakers. When they had more buzz around them. When their meetings were worth circling on the calendar.
Those days are gone.
The Hallway Rivalry has devolved into the Freeway Snore.
It’s literally dead after Clippers owner Steve Ballmer spent $2 billion to move his team to Intuit Dome, putting 11 miles between his team and an arena filled with purple and gold title banners.
But it’s also figuratively dead.
Kawhi Leonard, James Harden and Ivica Zubac are gone. And the Clippers will be circling the drain for the near future following an investigation into salary cap circumvention involving Kawhi Leonard, which led to them being stripped of five first-round draft picks (2029 through 2033), a $30 million fine and Ballmer being issued a one-year suspension, among other punishments.
The Clippers are in rebuild mode.
The Lakers are a threat in the West with Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and Walker Kessler.
The Clippers had opportunities to make some noise in Los Angeles.
There was Lob City with Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, a high-flying, fun trio that was together from 2011-2017, but never got past the second round of the playoffs.
It’s too bad, really.
That period overlapped with the tailend of Kobe Bryant’s career, followed by a portion of the worst period in Lakers’ history when they missed the playoffs six straight years from 2014-2019.
But the Clippers failed to take advantage of the window.
They had another sliver of opportunity to become the story in Los Angeles when Leonard and Paul George teamed up on the Clippers.
Together, they reached the Western Conference Finals in 2021, the farthest the Clippers had ever advanced. But a string of injuries to both stars prevented them from ever making noise again. George left for the 76ers in free agency in 2024 and Leonard was traded to the Raptors over the summer.
The Clippers’ window to stand in the spotlight has passed.
And it won’t reopen for a long time after they were stripped of so much draft capital.
The Clippers are expected to be near the bottom of the league this season. The duo of Darius Garland and Brandon Ingram could eventually be interesting, but Ingram doesn’t have a timetable to return following undergoing a surgery in May for his right heel and a partially torn Achilles tendon.
Meanwhile, the Lakers could become legitimate threats in the West once they jell.
So the days of the Hallway Rivalry are gone.
And all that’s left behind is a boneyard of missed opportunities for LA’s other team.