User Reviews

I want to preface my review by saying that I am a long time Clipper fan, as well as a professional in the tv/film industry. To this day, and even when all of this was unfolding, I pay attention and I read/listen to Clipper news. I also listened to Ramona Shelbourne's podcast on the matter, and re-listened to it when this show came out to refresh my memory. I mention all of this to say that I feel that I have a deep knowledge of the event that unfolded from the scandal.

All and all, I think Clipped did a really good job on getting the overall facts of the Donald Sterling scandal. However, I have a few critiques. In the podcast, Ramona never really touched heavily on player discussions, team meetings, etc. She did interview some players on her podcast and got their overall thoughts, but it never dived too deeply on what was said behind closed doors between players. The writers of Clipped, obviously took liberties in writing dialogue for this, and I felt that some of said interactions were pretty cliche and cheesy. The biggest offender was when the team had a meeting to discuss whether or not to play that night, and Chris Paul went into a monologue about how much he wanted to win. We all know Chris Paul is obsessed with getting a ring, but I truly don't think he would have acted that. Chris, despite his intensity on winning, I think has a good moral/ethical compass, and he is of course an intelligent human being. I think he understood that the scandal went beyond basketball and the NBA.

My second chief complaint was the casting. I have no issue with who they cast as Donald Sterling (Ed O'Neil), Shelly Sterling (Jacki Weaver), V Stiviano (Cleopatra Coleman), and Doc Rivers (Laurence Fishburne). My complaint is mainly with the players. Most of the players looked nothing like their real life counterparts. Nor did they do a really good job in portraying said counterparts. I think the only person that did somewhat OK, was the actor who played Chris Paul. The biggest offender, however, was Blake Griffin. I thought it was so stupid to dye his hair that red-ish color. Not to mention, Blake Griffin himself acts!! He wasn't really playing to begin with, why didn't you cast him to play himself? Or, if he was busy, find a better actor that looked more like Blake, and DON'T dye his hair that awful color. Despite that, I felt that Ed O'Neil and Jacki Weaver in particular did an amazing job in portraying the Sterlings. Laurence Fishburne as Doc also grew on me. I think he did a fine job as well.

Lastly, I know there are lots of comparisons between Winning Time and Clipped, but I don't think they should be compared to each other. Winning Time was about the start of the Laker's dynasty, showtime, and how Jerry Buss changed the league forever. It was always about the Lakers, how they won, and how they created a successful franchise. Clipped, however, was about one moment in time for an NBA franchise, that rocked the league and changed the league moving forward. If you watched the show, you would even see that the focus was mainly on the Sterlings, V Stiviano, and Doc Rivers. Yes, they did have scenes with the players, but the crux of the story revolved around those characters. All this to say, we shouldn't view Clipped as a series about the NBA and basketball, it's a series about the scandal, that just happens to involve the NBA and basketball. I think if the viewer sees it from that perspective, they would then appreciate the series at large. Does it have its' problems? Of course it does, but no series is perfect. Did it, for the most part, accurately portray the events that happened during that period of time? Yes, it did.

The reviews for this series were good but not stellar, but I decided to give it a try, as I am a sports fan, and knew this story. I had low expectations going in, but I thought the first three episodes were trashy and fun, and I mean that in a positive way! But episode #4 seemed to me to just be a way to milk another episode to this series, and in episodes #5 and #6, it just ran out of gas, and became too self-important and preachy.

Yes, the acting performances from all the main characters (Laurence Fishburne, Jacki Weaver, Ed O'Neill and Cleopatra Coleman) were solid. We don't see much of Cleopatra Coleman on American television, and she was a pleasant surprise. But I wouldn't go out of my way to see this one.

The only thing that rings true from the characters in this story is "It works for me." From his wife (who says it at the end) to Doc Rivers to Elgin Baylor to the NBA as a whole, that's the story.

This is a thin story stretched way out. Characters are not fleshed out, they just do the same things repeatedly (it works for them). Doc Rivers is kind of a likeable narrator, but he really does nothing other than "block it out". Sterling is a caricature - definitely a jerk, but he's loaded and believes that's enough. His wife is channeling the late Patti Deutsch, down to "oh Donald". And "V", I don't need to know more, who cares. Justine - just no.

As a lifelong bball fan I was flabbergasted when these cases hit the newspapers and the initial lawsuits were filed. All of it saddened me, especially the cast of bizarre characters. What did any of this have to do with what I naively perceived as the beauty of basketball?

I wanted to cling to my dreams. Oh well.

Because for years I knew people who had jobs w Clippers & Lakers orgs who told me unsurprising stories about young men of extraordinary athletic talent who were bribed & paid massive amounts off cash to assure they got thru college to make teams. I was told about the hotel lobbies filled w wall-to-wall groupies who made a sport of collecting shoes of the players they'd "had" & competed with pride to have the biggest collection as the most prolific NBA "fun girl". On the business side there was obvious blatant nepotism. No surprises on any level. It's a megabucks business & more fun than a day job, right?

When the Sterling saga came to light I was surprised because I figured w his wealth he would simply pay everyone off & get away w his "isms" because he had income streams from hundreds of slum apartment all over Los Angeles. Many wealthy people owed him favors. Again, no surprises at that point.

What was surprising however, was that despite all his wealth he was punished and removed from the NBA

This series in interesting in that personalities of some players are illuminated. It's interesting (and true) that CP3 wanted to win so badly it was tragic to watch him lose over and over again when he could have been on the Lakers and gotten a ring, but Donald Silver (NBA chairman) would not allow him to sign w Lakers (too many stars in one pot), which is the excuse that the hoi polloi aka "the public" were led to believe. Sad to watch the spoiled Blake Edwards hang with the "blue chip" gals (tip of the hat to the "Wolf of Wall Street"). Just foolish. Doc River's complex job of trying to find some way to balance all these discordant personalities with a shred of integrity but who suffered mightily because in his heart of hearts he always seemed to seriously care about the sport itself, as well as the individuals in his "flocks". What a mess.

I was always appalled that Sterling was allowed to be so disrespectful in courtrooms, say nasty comments directly to the faces of judges, and defile females as a group who "everybody" knew were low on the food chain so why be surprised when any and all of females on the planet could be bought w trinkets & wampum. Sad.

Magic Johnson was truly worshipped in LA (and around the world) so when the Sterling Magic-bashing story came out Angelenos knew the is8t was going to hit the fan big time. Sidebar: I know some stories about some of Magic's extracurricular activities that were hidden from the public for years. Nonetheless he had been provided excellent PR pros who built a wall around the Magic gold mine, so nobody was the wiser until the AIDS bombshell exploded the myth & his stellar reputation was exposed as a fairytale.

This series (what I've seen) is entertaining in many ways but chose to leave out some of the rmore shocking details. For instance, the scores of anonymous women on the Sterling payroll who did menial tasks, were provided cheap apartments and were basically indentured servants. Surprise surprise, right?

I still choose not to believe all teams are like this. All this happened years ago. Good acting & interesting TV series.