I read Kevin O’Connor’s piece The Clippers Collapse is Only the Beginning of Their Problems, one of the most hot-blooded pieces I’ve ever read from him or his outlet, The Ringer.
The column breaks down the disappointing playoff exodus of the 2nd-seeded, championship-favorite LA Clippers at the hands of the Denver Nuggets despite previously leading 3-1 in the best-of-seven series.
It discusses head coach Doc Rivers’ many losses in playoff series in which his teams led 3-2 or 3-1. O’Connor notes his poor decisions that led to his team’s struggles in this series, like double-teaming Denver’s All-Star center, Nikola Jokic, which allowed the big man to pick apart LA’s defense with ease.
The article criticizes the poor performances of star forwards Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. The two newcomers to LA, who were supposed to transform the Clippers into a true title contender, failed to step up when they were needed the most.
The outlook on the Western Conference next season is that it’ll be tougher than this year. Leonard left the reigning champion to come to LA and requested the team trade for George. They each have just two years remaining on their contracts and multiple key Clippers are free agents this offseason. LA’s front office personnel has their work cut out for them to improve the team.
I’m a somewhat avid reader of O’Connor’s writing. The stance he took in this article is perhaps the most openly predisposed I’ve ever seen in any of his work.
Now, in just about every sports column, it’s obvious what the writer thinks about their subject, but they illustrate their opinions using the games, stats, and quotes.
Most articles are meant to offer a viewpoint in a mostly objective manner. This article is certainly, obviously not one of them. O’Connor blatantly publicizes his frustration and disappointment with LA, as evidenced by his one-word sentence he begins the column with: “Frauds.”.
The piece reads as a very personal account of how O’Connor judges the team and doesn’t hide that he believes what he has to say. He uses first-person point of view to say he doesn’t ever want to hear that Leonard is a superior player to LeBron James, a frequent point of debate amongst basketball fans.
Throughout the article, O’Connor uses choppy sentences (and in some instance, sentence fragments) to make his point. His snappy response to a quote from guard Lou Williams in the excerpt below portrays the urgency the Clippers need to operate with and O’Connors impatience with the slow speed LA’s chemistry is building at.
“A lot of the issues that we ran into, talent bailed us out. Chemistry didn’t,” Williams said after the game. “We’re a highly talented group and we just came up short. Chemistry is something you have to build.” Better start soon.
Despite O’Connor throwing objectivity out the window, it works very well for this article. In all honesty, being objective about the Clippers’ season should include agonizing over its disastrous end.
The emotion O’Connor conveys about the team would serve as unwanted bias in most other columns. In this one, it’s very fitting.
One of the best columnists The Ringer has to offer submitted a blog for his piece about the LA Clippers – one that was vicious, unapologetically authentic and well done.
Photo by wyliepoon on Flickr
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