How the world looked when Lakers-Clippers first faced off as shared tenants
The Clippers will move to the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California at the start of the 2024-25 season, marking the end of a 25-year run at the stadium first known as the Staples Center and now Crypto.com Arena. It will also mean the conclusion of the “Hallway Series” with the Lakers.
The series began one-sided — the Lakers held a 38-13 record against the Clippers from 1999-2011. But the past decade has been in the Clippers’ favor. Heading into Wednesday, the Clippers have won 37 of the last 46 games dating back to the 2012-13 season.
Here’s what the world looked like the first time the Lakers and Clippers played at the venue as shared tenants — Dec. 14, 1999.
Released on Nov. 24, 1999, Pixar’s “Toy Story 2” became the top film of December, grossing $114 million domestically.
At the time, it became the third-highest grossing animated film in history. It was also 1999’s top animated film worldwide with $487 million.
Randy Newman’s “When She Loved Me,” was featured in the movie and won a Grammy Award in 2001 for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. The film also won a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy.
Remember when everything was supposed to crash the second the clock struck midnight to ring in the new millennium?
The potential bug — known as Y2K — started with computer programs. To save memory space, abbreviations designated as four-digit numbers were viewed as two. For example, 98 would be read as 1998. Therefore, the concern was that once the year turned to 2000, — abbreviated as 00 — computers would read it as 1900, leading to software failures in areas such as banking and government records.
Prevention measures were taken around the world, and problems turned out to be fairly minor.
Carlos Santana’s self-titled rock band collaborated with singer Rob Thomas for the hit song “Smooth,” released in June 1999 off the Santana album “Supernatural.” The album also included “Maria Maria.”
“Smooth” lived on the Billboard Hot 100, spending a whopping 58 weeks on the chart. It was the No. 1 song at the end of 1999 and the beginning of 2000. It spent 12 weeks at No. 1 before being overtaken by Christina Aguilera’s “What a Girl Wants.”
Santana’s track won three Grammys: Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. It is one of 44 songs to maintain No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for at least 10 weeks.
One of the most influential video games of all time, “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater” came out on Sept. 29, 1999.
It ranked as the No. 3 game for PlayStation in November 1999 and sold 350,000 units from its release date to mid-December. By 2001, it had sold 3.5 million units.
The original pro skater game is often credited for ushering in a new era of skateboarding fans.
“They don’t know me for being an X Games gold medalist or for being a professional skateboarder for 30-plus years or being a rally car driver,” skateboarder Rodney Mullen told The Verge in 2020. “They know me as a video game character. I’m still blown away by it.”
The game also marked the beginning of a franchise and first of six different Pro Skater games that came out from 1999 to 2015. A remake of Pro Skater 1 and 2 was released in 2020 and became the fastest game to reach 1 million units sold in franchise history.
While the Lakers and Clippers were facing off for the first time at what was then known as the Staples Center, their present-day coaches were fighting for a spot in the NBA.
Lakers coach Darvin Ham was part of the Milwaukee Bucks, appearing in 35 games. Clippers coach Tyronn Lue was with the Lakers, though he did not play in the inaugural meeting at the then-Staples Center.
Both players were in the early stages of their careers. Lue just finished his rookie year, while Ham returned to the league after a year in Spain.