The Clippers Got In Trouble For Continuously Skipping Post Game Interviews To Dance In The Locker Room

Daily News- The L.A. Clippers are having fun these days. They will take a six-game winning streak into Wednesday night’s game at Portland, which means that after each one of those victories the last player in the clubhouse has had to dance in front of the rest of the team.

“Man, I’ve had a lot of like weird teammates in my career and some guys just do the most random stuff. And Paul Pierce is a random guy and he just randomly ... I think the thought just kind of came into his head one day, ‘We should do the Soul Train line,’ and he just started clapping. There you have it. That’s why we do the dance," guard J.J. Redick said Tuesday at practice.

Coach Doc Rivers likes the camaraderie the dancing provides his Clippers (22-13).

“It’s nice when guys do all kinds of quirky things like that,” he said. “They have fun with it. I mean, we had to legislate it a little bit because nobody wanted to do the post-game interviews.”

In Detroit on Dec. 14, first Redick and then Crawford left on-court post-game interviews early so as not to be the last one in the locker room.

“So we kind of got reprimanded,” Rivers said. “Finally, we do something fun and we still get in trouble. It’s just who we are. The league calls and says they’re going to fine guys if they don’t stop (leaving interviews early).

“J.J. was the culprit in the Detroit game when he abruptly ran off the floor. And I don’t blame him because from what everybody says with his dancing, he probably shouldn’t complete the interview."




I feel like this is something Adam Silver needs to hear. I understand the inherent value of postgame interviews. However, if the entire purpose is to entertain the fans then then I can comfortably say the most intrigued I have been while watching one was when J.J. Redick was frantically looking around for his teammates before cutting his answer short and bolting to the locker room. I'm not saying we need to get rid of meaningless postgame interviews where players rarely, if ever, say anything of note. Quite the opposite, in fact. I think that if the NBA wants to make sure the Clippers don't dodge reporters then they have to make sure they have enough reporters to occupy the whole roster. Clearly disrupting the newly formed dancing tradition - that has been working flawlessly- is out of the question. The only answer is to even the playing field. We can't have players getting "penalized" for having a great game and thus being in high demand once the final whistle blows. Interview everyone and that way the player that ends up having to dance in the locker room is actually being punished for something he did wrong; Failing to be politely succinct with the media. The NBA gets more mindless cliches than they ever knew existed, and the average fan - that doesn't give a shit about those cliches - still gets to watch the players race off to the locker room like a bunch of school children trying desperately not to be the rotten egg. It's the best of both worlds!

In all seriousness, it's good to see that the Clippers are having fun again. Not just because it makes for more compelling television or because it's corresponded with a six game winning streak, but because that amusement was missing to start the season. This team looked disjointed and frustrated and it caused many to wonder whether or not Doc Rivers had brought in the right pieces over the offseason. Even in victorious efforts it looked like the Clippers were struggling to find themselves. I don't know if Blake Griffin being out forced this team to come together, instead of getting by largely on his efforts, but they are finally starting to look like the team that won 56 games last year. The team that didn't just win, but enjoyed themselves doing it. It makes sense that a savvy veteran like Paul Pierce is responsible for something as silly as a postgame soul train. That's just the kind of thing cohesive teams - that playing with and for one another - do, and I'll be damned if it's not working on and off the court.