At the end of April, the official trailer for the sports drama series about the NBA team “Los Angeles Clippers” was released, which immediately received more than 6 million views (now it is already 7.6 million). The trailer has not yet been translated into Russian, as has the name of the project itself. In English it turned out to be extremely laconic: clipped. The series will not tell in detail all the ins and outs of the club, which never became league champions, but will focus mainly on the most notable event in its history, an event that shocked not only the entire National Basketball Association. , but the entire basketball world.
As the creators of the project highlight, its main theme will be the scandal, at the center of which was the then owner of the Clippers, Donald Sterling (played by Ed O’Neill). An enterprising businessman acquired the club in 1981, but during this time he did not earn anything from it. To rectify the situation, in 2013, the team invited perhaps the most charismatic coach of the North American league, Doc Rivers (he was entrusted with the role of Laurence Fishburne, who became famous for his role as Morpheus in the Matrix film series) . . Rivers moved to Los Angeles thanks to an agreement with the Boston Celtics, where he worked since 2004 and with whom he won the championship in 2008.
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In the first year, the Clippers under Doc’s leadership took third place in the Western Conference regular season, and in the first round of the playoffs they overcame the formidable and increasingly stronger Golden State Warriors. The series between the two Californian teams was more than intense. But not only because of what happened at the site. The clubs entered the fourth game at a time of an escalating scandal, in which Sterling became an unwitting participant. The Clippers owner has been involved in high-profile stories before. But the one where he found himself at the epicenter in April 2014 surpassed them all combined.
It all started with an audio recording published by the online tabloid TMZ. What became known to the general public instantly filled almost the entire country’s information agenda. There were two voices in the recording: male and female.
“What really bothers me is that you want to show that you date black people. You have to do this?
“You can sleep with them. You can invite them, you can do whatever you want. The only thing I ask of you is that you do not believe their advertising. And don’t bring them to my team games.”
“I’m just saying that on your bad social media, you don’t have to be with black people all the time.”
Media Head
Photo: View from the trailer
There was no point denying it: the male voice belonged to Sterling and the female voice to Vivian Stiviano. Donald Trump later called her “the friend from hell.” In fact, Stiviano was the girlfriend and part-time lover of the Clippers boss. Sterling condemned her passion for her friendly contacts with African Americans. The owner of the Clippers did not like the fact that the girl regularly posted photos with black people on her social networks. In particular, Sterling was outraged by Stiviano showing a photo with Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson. Donald asked him not to take Johnson to Clippers home games. It is interesting that Vivian herself has directly stated that she also has African roots.
Warriors guard Stephen Curry later admitted that he considered the decision not to boycott the high-profile fifth game of the playoffs a mistake. The Clippers players also thought about a boycott, but in the end they limited themselves to the action, which was talked about almost more than the game itself. During pregame warmups, Los Angeles basketball players turned their practice uniforms inside out to hide the team logo in protest. Even the president of the United States, who at that time was Barack Obama, made a statement: “When ignorant people want to demonstrate their ignorance, there is nothing to do, just let them speak.”
The video can be seen on the FX Networks YouTube channel. Video rights belong to FX Productions, LLC.
It soon became quite obvious that Sterling’s chances of getting his way were slim to none. NBA players called, one after another, for Donald to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. League legends who had already completed their careers demanded the same. Other club owners also did not support Donald. Very quickly, the NBA made a difficult decision. A decision that Sterling did not seem to expect… The series premiere is scheduled for June 4.
