Here's a tough basketball trivia question, at least for the good people in Buffalo:

Who succeeded Van Miller as the Voice of the Buffalo Braves?

Yes, it's a trick question. When the Braves moved to San Diego in 1978, Van stayed in Buffalo. Ralph Lawler picked up the microphone for the brand-new Clippers, and spent most of the next 40 years or so describing that team's play in San Diego and Los Angeles.

Lawler lasted until the age of 80 or so before finally retiring. It took him a few years, but eventually he came out with his life story in the form of "Bingo!" Yes, that was one of his catch phrases as a broadcaster. The book is another pleasant enough entry in the category of autobiographies from sports broadcasters.

"The Voice of the Clippers" grew up in central Illinois, attending Bradley University. While he says he would have been quite content to be the broadcaster for the Braves for his entire lifetime, fate had other plans for him. He moved to Southern California, and except for a small detour to Philadelphia early in his career, stayed in the San Diego/Los Angeles area for the rest of his career. When the Clippers moved to Los Angeles, Lawler had the chance to follow them.

Now it's time to discuss the elephant in the room when it comes to the book and the Clippers. If you've followed the NBA for a few decades, you know that for most of that time, the Clippers have been mediocre at best and terrible at worst. They have never even reached the NBA Finals, let alone won a championship. It's almost as if someone in Buffalo put a curse on the team when they moved out of town; well, it wasn't me - although I might have thought of it at the time.

That fact dictates where the book goes for the most part. Usually such publications contain details of what championships are like, which offer good memories to the readers. But there's nothing like that here, thanks to decades of poor play. So Lawler, with the assist going to coauthor Chris Epting, has to go to other places to fill up the pages in the book.

As you'd expect, the topics range from funny things that happened on the air to in-person encounters with NBA personalities. It's all handled well enough. Some of the best ones concern Bill Walton, a Hall of Fame player and Lawler's partner on broadcasts for quite a while. It's fair to say that it's never boring to have Bill Walton as a friend. Walton even contributes an article for the book, as does Chris Paul and Doc Rivers.

Lawler has some honest moments along the way, particularly when talking about the team. That certainly applies to "controversial" owner Donald Sterling. If you need more evidence that Sterling didn't have the slightest idea how to build a basketball team, there's some provided here. Sterling, as you might remember, was forced out of the league for some racist remarks that were recorded. The Clippers seem to be headed in the right direction now. They are getting their own arena (they've been sharing the Staples Center with the Lakers and Kings) in the near future, and have strong ownership.

There are a few typos that were contained in my Kindle version that probably should have been cleaned up. The Clippers were rarely good enough to gain national attention, and that probably hurt Lawler's chances at receiving a national profile in broadcasting. But he's received all sorts of honors in California, and he comes off here as a nice man who seems worthy of the praise.

In other words, you don't have to be a Clippers' fan to enjoy "Bingo!" - but it probably helps. It's a nice trip down Memory Lane for all concerned, and will work well for those who remember (and who are trying to forget) names like Michael Olowakandi.

I kept seeing this book in the Amazon library and was interested in reading it, but I always had another book I was reading until now. And, when I finished, I was glad because so far, it has been the best book I have read this year.

First, let me tell you that I am a fan of the NBA in general, so the majority of the players and coaches he mentioned, I was familiar with.

I enjoyed reading about how he got started as a broadcaster and, this book tells a lot of stories from his life in the NBA – from current and former players and coaches. Not just the Los Angeles Clippers.

I even liked how in each chapter, he called a time out and discussed something related to basketball.

Overall, it was an easy and quick read for me.

When a team’s long-time broadcaster writes a book, there are plenty of interesting stories that can be shared and fans of that team will enjoy them immensely. That is true no matter the sport or how successful the franchise has been. For the Los Angeles Clippers, a basketball team with no championships and a history of mostly losing, that broadcaster is Ralph Lawler. From the team’s days in San Diego to its move to Los Angeles and then some, Lawler has been there for many Clippers games and his stories of his time broadcasting the team (and a few with the Philadelphia 76ers) are told in this interesting memoir.
While I love many of the stories Lawler tells about the Clippers and his adventures in radio, especially early in his career, what struck me the most about his memoir was the name dropping. I suppose that in Los Angeles it shouldn’t be surprising to read that Lawler knew and befriended so many celebrities, sports and otherwise, but it was something that I didn’t expect to see. This is primarily because the other professional basketball team in the city, the Lakers, are the ones who seem to attract all the attention.
Speaking of the Lakers, Lawler devoted one of his many side stories to the first Laker to become a superstar, George Mikan. I mention this because throughout the book, Lawler shows how passionate he is for not only the Clippers, but for the entire history of pro basketball. He talks up Mikan as one of the greatest players in the history of the game because he was the first big man to succeed in the NBA and it was because of him that some rule changes took effect, such as widening the lane. As one who enjoys learning about the history of all sports and appreciates kind words about players from different eras, it was refreshing to read about a player from several decades ago be described as an all-time great.
Of course, as expected, the best writing is about the Clippers. While the team has had more losing than winning, when that winning came, he wrote about it with a lot of knowledge, a lot of love and even some great interviews with some of those players. From Chris Paul to Quentin Richardson to Blake Griffin, many former players for the team are mentioned as great people for Lawler to have been around. But he saves the most love for Bill Walton. While Walton’s time with the Clippers may have been very short due to all the injuries he suffered, he and Lawler became very good friends. Walton wrote a letter to the voters for the Basketball Hall of Fame to campaign for Lawler’s induction as a broadcaster. It was successful as Lawler was named for his broadcasting and is always grateful to Walton for this.
It should be noted that the title is only one of two catchphrases that is attached to Lawler. “Bingo!” came about when the Clippers acquired Bingo Smith, a noted three-point shooter. Whenever he made a three, Lawler would exclaim “Bingo!” and that just stuck with him long after Smith retired. The other catchphrase for Lawler was “Oh Me! Oh My!” and the best story about that is not how it started but how it was used to play a prank on Lawler by three members of the Clippers during their best years, the “Lob City” teams with Blake Griffin and Chris Paul as the main stars.
One doesn’t have to be a Clippers fan to enjoy this book. Any reader who enjoys the game of basketball will want to read Ralph Lawler’s story. It is one filled with a lot of great memories, great basketball and great relationships.
I wish to thank Santa Monica Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.