“We learned some things when we traded Blake,” Frank
adds solemnly, reflecting on the 2018 deal in which feelings
were hurt unnecessarily, “things we could get better at.”
Beverley was in Las Vegas, at Carbone restaurant with
Williams. “My ex-teammate, Chandler Parsons, gave me the
news like I was part of the deal,” Beverley says. “ ‘You guys
got Kawhi and Paul George; I’m pretty sure you got traded.’ ”
Meanwhile, back in that tight office in El Segundo, some-
one found half a bottle of Chopin potato vodka and some
red Solo cups for a toast that went click instead of clink.
Within four hours, they were back at it, working on a new
contract for JaMychal Green.
Beverley and Williams were up early, too, working out and
getting shots up at UNLV with assistant coach Sam Cassell.
“We already had a burning fire in us,” says Beverley, “but
when you get news like that
you wanna prepare, get your
swords sharpened, make sure
s--- is intact.” Then Trez showed
up at Thomas & Mack Arena
wearing a 1990s-era Clippers
jersey, its loopy white cursive
having been synonymous for
decades with doormat.
The new city edition uni-
forms that Harrell and the Clip-
pers will debut this season were
designed in collaboration with
Mr. Cartoon, the renowned L.A. tattoo artist and cultural
touchstone, as yet another nod to the franchise’s connection
to that side of the city that isn’t the Malibu-Hollywood cliché
the media foists upon the world. They will be worn by a team
that now boasts the most intriguing two-way wings in the
game, a team that will enter 2020 with a defense-creates-
offense identity constructed around Leonard and George,
SoCal natives both. But what the franchise truly aspires to
extends beyond the roster.
“This is the happiest I’ve ever been,” says the 49-year-old
Frank, “because it’s so damn stimulating. In coaching, you
have the opportunity to impact 15 players and their families.
Here, we can impact 80 people and their families.” With the
opportunity to influence millions more.
“We went to Kawhi after someone approached us about
donating backpacks to foster and homeless kids,” says Zucker.
“We learned there were 140,000 kids who needed backpacks
for the start of the school year. Then we realized that if we
gave backpacks to those kids, they’d be walking around with
something that branded them as needing help. So we decided,
Let’s just give backpacks to everybody.”
When she mentioned it to Leonard, he suggested they start
by handing them out in Moreno Valley, where he grew up.
“About a month ago, we started our morning in Moreno
Valley and made an announcement that we’d be giving a
backpack to every child in the Riverside County school sys-tem,” Zucker recalls. She whispered to Leonard that she had
brought the Clippers’ mascot, Chuck the Condor, along so the
team’s new star wouldn’t have to hand out 350 backpacks.
Leonard insisted on doing it himself. Then they drove to 107th
Street Elementary in South L.A., and announced that they’d
be giving a backpack to each child in LAUSD. By Christmas,
a million backpacks will be distributed all over the region.
“This whole thing feels like a movement,” says Rivers.
“Us and the fans. That’s how I feel. A movement gathers
supporters, it gathers steam. My God, I never thought we
could get that going. We had a really good team with Blake
and Chris and DJ [DeAndre Jordan], but we couldn’t get the
movement going. And now it has really taken hold. We’re
moving, we’re grabbing people [to go] along with us. And
we’re just getting started.” ±45SPORT S ILLUS TR ATED- OC T OBER 21–28, 2019
JORDAN NAHOLOWA’A MURPH (2)
ALOHA
Rivers (right), who
gave up his front-
office duties three
years ago, now
oversees a team that
Beverley (21) calls
“survivors” who “at
one point had to bet
on themselves.”