Just three weeks away from the 2008 NBA regular season, fans of the Los Angeles Clippers were treated to the devastating wonderful news that Elgin Baylor is out as vice president of basketball operations. So in the midst of all this Dodgers excitement, the city of L.A. has even more reason to celebrate and go fake can climbing.

Now we’re all aware that Baylor has been a fixture in the Clippers organization for years, and a lovable one at that, but what’s not entirely clear is how he’s managed to hang on to his post for twenty-two predominantly horrific seasons. After taking a close look at his vomitous record, it makes even less sense. Here are some of the highlights:

- Two seasons with a record over .500
- Twelve seasons with less than 30 wins
- Eleven seasons finishing in last place
- Five seasons with 17 wins or less (That means once every 4 years or so during Baylor’s march to glory, the Clippers got crazy and won at the very most, 17 games.)

Killer stuff. And it doesn’t matter how shortsighted or cheap owner Donald Sterling has historically been known to be, this just plain sucks regardless of circumstance, it’s not even sniffing respectability. There’s no doubt the great Matt Millen gets misty-eyed when he reads stats like these and dreams of what could have been while bathing in wing sauce.

Equally confusing to Baylor’s record was the friendly quote released by Sterling to the AP, as if he reflectively leaned back in his chair and said this in an office filled with zero trophys:

“We greatly appreciate Elgin’s efforts during his time with the Clippers, and we wish him the very best.€

Classy, I guess, but his ‘efforts’ appear to have lacked effort. A “Wow, that was really, really atrocious, Elgin” would’ve been much better.

**Make sure you check out the Clippers humorous timeline at the Sports Encyclopedia, it’s worth the read.**