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Clipped’ on Hulu/FX a compelling look into NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, Donald Sterling

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Clipped’ on Hulu/FX a compelling look into NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, Donald Sterling

Authors and filmmakers love Los Angeles basketball teams.

The upshot to that is sports fans tend to benefit.

“Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” ended far too soon for my liking, just when it was getting into the heart of the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird rivalry.

But now we’re given a look at the other L.A. hoops team, the Clippers in the Hulu/FX limited series “Clipped,” which debuts Tuesday night with two of its six episodes.

Make no mistake, after a slow start, it’s a show that is imminently watchable and incredibly bingeable if that’s the route a viewer wants to take.

But no one should expect the playfulness that was the hallmark of the Lakers series. “Clipped” deals with what is likely the darkest moments of that NBA franchise’s existence – and that includes its relocation from San Diego.

Its owner Donald Sterling (in a masterful performance by Youngstown native Ed O’Neill) lit a firestorm when his assistant Viv (Cleopatra Coleman), allegedly released a recording with him making racist remarks regarding African-American athletes in general and Lakers legend Magic Johnson in particular.

Based on podcasts from veteran ESPN NBA beat writer Ramona Shelbourne and created by Gina Welch, it details the behind-the-scenes machinations in dealing with the aftermath of Sterling’s asinine, ignorant remarks and how the organization and league wrangled from under the weight of them. FYI: Sterling is now the former Clippers owner.

More: Ex-owner Donald Sterling, NBA reach legal settlement over sale of Clippers

Laurence Fishburne a standout as Clippers coach Doc Rivers

And if there is anything to enjoy in a series with such a heavy topic, Welch and her collaborators manage to successfully balance the serious and the ridiculous, doing so courtesy of a cast led by Laurence Fishburne as Clippers coach Doc Rivers.

Imagine Rivers’ dismay as he comes to the Clippers which has what appears to be a stacked roster with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin and watch as it all disintegrates around him courtesy of people who do not operate according to the rules of basic human decency.

That would be Sterling in all his leering, slimy, oblivious glory as portrayed with Emmy-level aplomb by O’Neill (“Married with Children,” “Modern Family”), his wife Shelly (Jacki Weaver), who may be just as oblivious, yet more dangerous and the woman, Viv (Coleman), who makes it all possible with her less-than selfless motives.

The filmmakers deftly take the audience through a significant portion of what happened while not skirting on the racism so inherent that dictates the narrative. Nothing is really held back as the Sterlings are collectively stripped of an outer shiny veneer that hides the ugliness that inhabits their souls. You have to admire O’Neill and Weaver’s turns during the entire process.

The most compelling scenarios that play out are related to the team, however.

They seethe. They’re wounded. But they aren’t victims. The situation from that season (2013-14) represents a unique, but frankly, unsurprising moment in sports history.

There has been a grand debate spanning decades about the “master-slave” mentality that can come with sports team ownership. If there were ever the embodiment of it, the Sterlings may have represented it fully and the portrayal here is stark.

What “Clipped” showed is navigating that moment in time required someone that possessed the character that seems so evident in Rivers. For the record: in two years of covering the NBA full time, I always heard that Rivers was “authentic” and the real deal. In brief interactions with him during those years, I learned this to be true along with the fact that he’s a “Star Trek” fan.

Fishburne brings the necessary gravitas for the role – someone with the strength and moral compass to deal with the issue.

Those elements play to the strengths of “Clipped,” a show well worth the watch.

George M. Thomas dabbles in film and television for the Beacon Journal.

Review

Show: “Clipped”

Cast: Laurence Fishburne, Ed O’Neill, Jacki Weaver, Cleopatra Coleman

Directed by: Various

Rated: TV-MA

Grade: B

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