Clippers’ Identity Irony

Anna Glenn Grove
Introsports NBA
Published in
2 min readMar 5, 2018

By Myan Patel

Who are the Clippers?

This article, by ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz is a feature piece that talks about how the Clippers found their identity as a team by molding together instead of breaking apart. The article was released just a few days after the Clippers’ chippy win over the Rockets in January.

The opening paragraph details an emotional point during the game from ex-Clipper Blake Griffin. Arnovitz describes the Clips as “[Griffin’s] team.” He did a solid job explaining what this meant for the Clippers and showed that this team had the capability to make a run by using its role players to the highest of their abilities.

Looking back, the article is now coincidentally comedic.

Arnovitz specifically pinpointed the play of Lou Williams and DeAndre Jordan and said that everyone on the team, including Griffin, was available to be moved for future assets. I liked that he explained how Griffin’s emotion and passion fueled a win, by emphatically yelling to the crowd and throwing his arms in the air as if he were conducting “an orchestra to climax.” I also thought he did a good job of tying in that the team was on a win streak and that the future was uncertain.

However, I feel like Arnovitz somewhat buried the best quote in the article.

Per Arnovitz, Blake Griffin said, “We’re growing together as a team, instead of starting out the season close and growing apart, which is kind of the opposite of how we did it in past years.”

To me, that’s the best piece of information he had from inside the locker room. That tells you how the culture had shifted and that the team could be poised for a postseason run. So, I wish that information was somehow in the lead of the piece.

Though Arnovitz mentioned in the bottom that the Clippers were ready to rebuild, there was no feeling that Griffin would be dealt.

Griffin isn’t there anymore. Since his departure, the new-look Clips have won seven of their nine games showing that they have potential without the superstar forward.

So, whose team is it now and what’s the identity? We can only wait and see as the Clippers, ironically, play the Rockets again tonight in the Staples Center.

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Anna Glenn Grove
Introsports NBA
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Sports journalist at the University of Georgia.