"It's just wonderful that the Clippers got the first draft pick. Hopefully it'll turn them around. The team just kind of went down [last season]. But hopefully they'll come back up."
Wesley Nakamura, an engineer from Cerritos, and a Clippers season-ticket holder since 2002 because Lakers tickets are too expensive. On how Griffin will do:
"Right now I think it's just a curiosity factor. See how he's going to look and play. . . . I just hope that he stays out of the bad luck. They've just had bad luck throughout their whole history."
Jamial Clark, a Lakers fan:
"I don't like the management for the Clippers. You've got a lot of talent. They have one person [Mike Dunleavy] trying to do too much. He should just be a general manager, not a coach. [The Clippers] are always second fiddle in L.A. to the Lakers. They have the opportunity to make the playoffs but not with the coach that they have."
Evan Rosen, 12-year old from Santa Monica, a Clippers fan since he was seven when he went to his first game:
"I like the underdogs. It's so annoying at school. I make sure everyone knows I'm a Clippers fan so that like, when they win the championship next year, I can get all in their faces. So I get made fun of a lot. But it's fun. And now that we have Blake Griffin . . . he's so athletic and, like, he can dunk over anybody . . . But the problem is that we already have a lot of forwards and centers so we're going to have to trade some people. Most everybody is a Lakers fan. It's like a Lakers city. I actually didn't know there were this many Clippers fans."
-- Compiled by Lauren Goldman
