The prior season would have been even better but for an undercurrent of conflict between Coach Larry Brown and all-star forward Danny Manning. It was almost palpable at times. Something had to give and it did. Not surprisingly, it was the nomadic coach who moved on.

Manning stayed and welcomed the arrival of Bob Weiss as his new coach. Danny’s quote was: “I’ve checked him out and I’ve heard good things.” Weiss had coached previously at San Antonio and Atlanta. He’d reached the playoffs in three of his five seasons at the helm.

The starting line-up was virtually unchanged from the prior year except that Loy Vaught replaced Ken Norman. The coaching staff and the front office felt confident that this was another play-off team.

The season opened with a thrilling 97-95 home win over the Portland Trailblazers. Mark Aguirre’s last second basket was the game-winner. The Clippers were 6-6 through November, but seemingly better than that. Included in those six losses were a 2-point defeat in Denver, a 2-point double overtime loss to the Lakers and a game in which they were 2-points short against Houston.

Things were looking good going into December. It turned out to not be a good month. Center Stanley Roberts ripped an Achilles on December 4th vs. the Lakers and the season went down with him. The Clippers went 5 and 10 and never got in position to make a serious play-off run.

While the team was in Miami on January 18th, the Northridge Earthquake rocked Southern California. Members of our traveling party desperately tried to reach family and friends for assurances that their loved ones were okay.

We returned home on the 20th and quickly learned that the horrifying images we’d seen on television were as real as could be. The Clippers were scheduled to play Cleveland at the L.A. Memorial Sports Arena on January 21st, but the aging building was ruled unsafe because of the quake.

It seemed odd, but the Clippers played that “home” game on the Lakers’ court at the Forum in Inglewood. Six nights later, with the Sports Arena still under repair, the team faced the New York Knicks at the Pond in Anaheim. They were able to return to the Sports Arena for a 103-93 win over Minnesota on January 29th.

By then though, the season was lost. Rumors began to fly as the February trading deadline came into focus. The end result? The Clippers sent Manning to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for aging super-star Dominique Wilkins and a conditional first round draft pick. Wilkins, then 33, still managed to average over 29-points a game in 25-games for the Clippers.

The season ended in an air of uncertainty. Wilkins and Harper were free agents and there were calls for a coaching change.