Why Are The Clippers Still Whining About The Warriors?
By Eric He
You know that kid back in grade school who made unsubstantiated claims you were playing unfair in a game of tag and never stopped complaining to you about it?
Not that I want to compare the Los Angeles Clippers, a professional basketball team, to grade schoolers — no, I actually am going to because that’s the appearance they give off anytime they whine either on or off the court.
It is October 10, 17 days before the regular season starts for the Golden State Warriors, 18 days for the Clippers. And yet, here are the Clippers, still complaining that the Warriors had it easy on their road to the championship that ended four months ago.
Doc Rivers and J.J. Redick both spoke to Grantland for a story this week, and they both dismissed the Warriors as legitimate champions.
Rivers:
"“You need luck in the West. Look at Golden State. They didn’t have to play us or the Spurs. But that’s also a lesson for us: When you have a chance to close, you have to do it.”"
Redick:
"“The championship window in the West is so narrow. Ours might only be open another couple of years. But you need some breaks. Golden State was the best team in the league, but they also had everything go right for them. They didn’t have one bad break. I don’t have any doubt about the DNA of our team.”"
This is relevant now because Klay Thompson unleashed some flames on the Clippers after practice on Friday.
Keep in mind that Warriors’ critics have essentially been making the same points since June, and apparently the Clippers are still salty the Warriors were so “lucky” to have won a championship.
To use the Warriors as a scapegoat for your own team’s struggles is cheap. That’s like saying you missed your job interview because you overslept, but you still deserve the job because if you had made your interview in time, you would have been better than the other candidates.
It is entirely the Clippers’ fault that they choked away a 3-1 lead to the Rockets in the semi-finals. They didn’t even deserve an opportunity to play the Warriors because they didn’t earn it — plain and simple. If you don’t make your job interview in time, you don’t get the job, no matter how qualified you may be.
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Bay Area Sports Guy has a handy compilation of quotes from various sources — Kyrie Irving, James Harden, etc. — harping on the Warriors for being lucky. Seems to me the hidden premise is this: the Warriors are so good, so dominant and breezed through the playoffs so effortlessly that they needed to face more “worthy” opponents to prove their true championship quality. In that case, you might as well critique every championship the Bulls won in the ’90s or Celtics in the ’50s and ’60s because those teams were leaps and bounds above the rest of the league as well.
It’s true that key players on the Grizzlies and Cavaliers were injured. And it’s true the Warriors avoided the Spurs. But to nit-pick like that is unfair; how many teams in the past have won championships because they had just the right match-ups and took advantage of the opportunities presented to them? And how many other teams — dynasties — have won because they were simply the best team in the league by a long-shot?
Actual games that count begin in less than three weeks. What the Clippers need to do is worry about getting past the second round before acting like school children and whining about the Warriors deservedly winning a championship, a word the Clippers are very unfamiliar with.