FX dropped a trailer for their new series about former Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s scandalous ouster from the NBA and good God Almighty I can’t wait to see this.
The series will center around the 2014 incident where Sterling was caught on tape making racist remarks. The star-studded cast includes the legendary Ed O’Neill as Sterling.
Laurence Fishburne also delivers a compelling performance in the short time he’s featured in the trailer as then-Clippers head coach Doc Rivers.
Whoever decided to make a series about this somewhat-forgotten chapter of NBA history 10 years after it happened is a genius. I’m a Clippers fan and I still remember the shockwaves it sent through the league like it was yesterday.
For those who don’t remember, Sterling’s side piece, a woman who went by the name V. Stiviano, got pissed at him and recorded him saying some pretty off-color stuff about black people.
“It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?“ Sterling asked her in the recording.
At the time, the Clippers were relevant for essentially the first time in franchise history. After drafting high-flying dunktacular spectacle star Blake Griffin, they also brought in point god Chris Paul after the NBA nixed a trade in the 11th hour that would’ve sent him to their crosstown rival Lakers. Adding in another dunk champ in center DeAndre Jordan and the Clippers “Lob City” era was born.
They brought in Doc Rivers to lead the squad in 2013 after he had finished a Boston run that saw him being a championship to that city. With a star-studded roster in LA, expectations were that he’d do the same there.
But Sterling’s bombshell comments completely overshadowed the on-court spectacle and swept the entire league into a weeks-long discourse on race relations and the dynamics of a rich white lawyer owning a team composed of majority-black players. The show’s trailer alludes to that dynamic in a fiery scene where Fishburne’s Rivers argues with O’Neill’s Sterling on the phone.
“I’m your owner!” O’Neill yells. “You’re not my owner!” Fishburne replies.
The NBA suspended Sterling from the league for life in 2014 and forced him to sell the team, which he eventually did, pawning the franchise off to Microsoft exec Steve Balmer for a whopping $2 billion. (RELATED: Steve Ballmer Is Reportedly Open To Changing Clippers Name And Logo Moving Forward)
It can’t be overstated how insane this saga was as it unfolded at the time. I can only hope the show does it justice.
“Clipped” from FX drops on the network and Hulu on June 6. Can’t friggin’ wait.